South Africa
Latest South Africa
Tasting articles
Wine discoveries – January 2026
From light, delicate Prosecco to cult wine from Bordeaux and red Zinfandel, there’s something for everyone in these 25 wines. Above, the 1,000-year-old chapel at St-Jacques d’Albas, source of one...
Team JR
Tuesday 3 February 2026
• 2 min read
Wine news in 5
Strengthening US wine labelling, new EU trade deals, market reports, more bottles lighten up
Samantha Cole-Johnson
Friday 30 January 2026
• 1 min read
Wine news in 5
Wildfires in Chile, New Zealand floods, South Africa starts harvest, Prosecco sales strong
Samantha Cole-Johnson
Friday 23 January 2026
• 1 min read
More South Africa
Inside information
Old age is complicated, for wines as for people. Should old wines that have weathered the chemical interactions of their...
Tasting articles
‘We all have the anti-establishment complex here’, explained Eben Sadie when I asked why none of the Swartland and Paardeberg...
Tasting articles
We continue our African Week with this report on what Julia tasted recently in South Africa. The most striking aspect...
Free for all
GS Cabernet 1966 has near-mythical status in South Africa. In this article, originally published in WINE magazine in South Africa...
Don't quote me
American investor Charles A Banks is on the prowl. He has now severed his links with cult Napa Valley winery...
Tasting articles
Vin de Constance’s reputation precedes it: it is the wine lauded by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Napoleon, the wine...
Inside information
Where I live (Sonoma), one must shop long and hard to find a representative sampling of serious South African wines...
Inside information
Is what I describe as a ‘burnt rubber’ aroma or flavour in some – mainly less expensive – South African...
Inside information
May-Eliane de Lencquesaing was not home when I visited her South African estate, Glenelly, in Stellenbosch last week, though her...
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Linda Murphy sends this report from Cape Town. Part of South Africa’s preparations for hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup...
Tasting articles
Here are notes on about 80 South African white wines tasted blind last May, in groups by vine variety, for...
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25 Nov 2008 - a first winner has just been announced, a young South African woman. See details here. Hard...
Free for all
After pressure from the country’s more fastidious and better educated wine commentators, the South African authorities have finally moved to...
Tasting articles
Below are my notes on 66 wines shown in London recently, supposedly because they were all given either 5 or...
Don't quote me
Tomorrow I will publish some enthusiastic tasting notes on a selection of top South African wines, some of which I...
Wines of the week
Find this wine Here's another, quite different South African wine this week – mainly because the country offers wine lovers...
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