Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win
No Result
View All Result
Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win
No Result
View All Result
Food24
No Result
View All Result

What is South Africa’s most iconic wine?

Food24
Dan Nicholl by Dan Nicholl
August 21, 2019
in Food News
0
What is South Africa’s most iconic wine?
0
SHARES
1.6k
VIEWS
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsapp

As trite and new-age as it might sound, there is something fundamentally restorative about time spent in the bush. It’s a full service for the soul, allowing perspective on life from a welcome distance. Which in turn leads to questions at the heart of our very existence, such as this: what is South Africa’s most iconic wine?

I was at the Mabula Game Lodge last weekend when this particular question arose. I was enjoying several glasses of chardonnay as the sun set on another memorable game drive. Different suggestions were thrown about as the debate on icons gathered steam, and when no one could settle on a winner, I sent out a few messages to the wine industry in search of consensus. Of which there was none, unsurprisingly.

Join the Food24 Wine Club before the end of August and get a free magnum of Uitkyk Carlonet! Here’s how to sign up. 

Cape Wine Auction founder Mike Ratcliffe raised the most relevant question: what defines the iconic wine? Is it South Africa’s best known? Most produced? The one with most awards, greatest story, highest price? There are arguments to be made for assorted criteria, and I’d suggest it’s a combination of many of those – but exactly what, and how you weigh up those criteria, is as subjective as the myriad of awards that set out to define a wine’s quality. Not that that shouldn’t stop the debate – diversity of opinion sits at the heart of the wine industry, which would be a very boring place if we all had identical palates. And so I’ll continue it here, and invite you to join in.

The initial question had arisen in part from Mabula’s wine list, which had included a genuine contender for icon status: the Meerlust Rubicon, for so long the high mark in both quality and price for red blends. There are now considerably more expensive wines to be found, and contenders aplenty for South Africa’s marquee red blend – Waterford’s Jem, the Anthonij Rupert blend, De Toren Book 17, Rust en Vrede 1694, the Vilafonte M and C, amongst a hefty list – but there’s still a prestige and history to the Rubicon that sets it apart, and the 2015 vintage is quite superb. There’s also a case to be made for the 2015 Paul Sauer, the triumphant Kanonkop release that achieved the miraculous full house of a hundred points, and has turned into the unicorn of local wine as a result. It’s exceptional wine, certainly, but South Africa’s definitive icon? Not just yet.

There was support for some older wine, with a couple of votes for the near-mythical GS 66, a wine with a story shrouded in mystery and intrigue. I won’t attempt to summarise it here; when you have a moment, read this piece on Wine Cellar from a few years ago for a fascinating slice of South African wine history.

drinking red wine

There was support for some more blue-collar pillars of the local industry, and Tassenberg in particular, but while there’s no question of its enduring presence in the university student’s staple diet, I’m not sure it’s the definitive icon either. I’ll opt for the same wine several industry heavyweights did, a wine that found its way into the writing of Jane Austen, made its way to Napoleon’s island exile on St. Helena (in sufficient volumes to suggest he bathed in the stuff), and first put the South African wine industry on the world map. And, centuries later, Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance is still dazzling palates everywhere, the headline act in South Africa’s underrated sweet wine market. I’ll pick it as our iconic wine, then, although there’s sure to be disagreement – but, then, that’s the real beauty of wine.

What I’m drinking this week: You’ve probably not heard of Litigo, and you’re most unlikely to get your hands on any, given the miniscule production scale. But you may well have tried some associated wine: Crystallum’s Peter-Allan Finlayson makes this most boutique of pinot noirs in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. And given the combination of terroir and winemaker, the results are unsurprisingly good: a soft, rich, slightly earthy creation that adds to the valley’s extraordinary pinot noir story. I’ve got no idea how to get hold of it (chef David Higgs shared his sole bottle with me), but don’t turn it down if you do somehow come across the Litigo.

Want to see what else Dan Nicholl has been drinking? Watch his latest episode of Dan Really Likes Wine! 

Tags: DrinksSouth African Winewine


Related Posts

teas for digestion
Drinks

5 teas that are great for digestion

May 20, 2022
We compared different cooking methods for lamb chops and found the best ways to cook them
Cooking Guides and Tips

We compared different cooking methods for lamb chops and found the best ways to cook them

May 19, 2022
rusks
Featured

We tasted store-bought buttermilk rusks and found the best one – just in time for winter

May 18, 2022
Next Post
SA Craft Gin Awards 2019 – 5 of the quirkiest winners you have to try

SA Craft Gin Awards 2019 – 5 of the quirkiest winners you have to try

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Food24 Team Loves

mielie rice

Whatever happened to mielie rice?

March 18, 2022
Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines goes global

Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines goes global

March 17, 2022
banana-peel-uses

3 fruit peels you’ll love for their waste-reducing appeal

March 10, 2022
sushi

Eat Out has announced its panel of judges for the first time ever

March 7, 2022
8 ingredients South Africans will be eating more of this year

8 ingredients South Africans will be eating more of this year

March 1, 2022

Recent favourites

  • rusks

    We tasted store-bought buttermilk rusks and found the best one – just in time for winter

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • This is officially the best beer in Africa

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 5 mistakes you may be making when buying olive oil

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 5 horrifying cooking mistakes to avoid in the kitchen

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • WATCH: Chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen shares his go-to braai salad

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get weekly access to our best recipes, tips and tricks

Sign Up
Footer

Quick links

  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Win

Collections

  • New Recipes
  • Festive
  • Baking
  • Dessert Recipes
  • Braai Recipes
  • Lunchbox
  • South African Recipes
  • Pasta Recipes

Other links

  • Advertise with Food24
  • Editorial Policy
  • How to Pitch
  • Contact us

Not in the mood to cook?

Visit eatout.co.za to find the perfect restaurant near you.

eatout.co.za

© 2020 Food24.com. All rights reserved.

  • About us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • New Media
IAB
No Result
View All Result
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win

© 2019 Food24.com. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms below to register

Subscribe to Newsletter

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Close
Food24
Recipe Disclaimer

All recipe content is the responsibility of the party from whom such content originated. You agree that you use the content on Food24 at your own risk. Please read our editorial policy.
Close
Food24
Get the latest recipes delivered to your inbox weekly
Promotional Newsletter

Be the first to receive information about competitions and special offers from Food24 and it's partners.

You have successfully been subscribed!
Something went wrong. Please try again.
Make sure you have completed all required fields.
I don't want to see this again