ANTHONY ROSE's recommendations include 2004 Cono Sur Viognier (4.24 each when two are bought; Majestic); 2003 Vergelegen Chardonnay (7.99; Oddbins, Majestic); and 2003 The Chocolate Block (14.99; Waitrose)
Read more...The make-up of the new Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation (AWBC) Board has been announced by Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, The Hon Tony Burke.
Read more...IWSC awards the country with 44 Best in Class and six Golds.
Nyetimber Vineyards, the English sparkling wine company, is considering building a new winery to cope with its heavy planting programme.
Penfolds Yattarna - dubbed white Grange' - will be bottled under screwcap for the 2004 vintage, released in May.
Outspoken Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan is to open a restaurant on the site of the former Sugar Club in Warwick Street.
Read more...South African wine producer Boschendal has introduced a new range of premium wines for the off-trade made up of three single varietals and two dual varietals.
A Vergelegen Chardonnay from South Africa (9.49, Majestic) and a French Old Vines Grenache Noir from Marks & Spencer (5.49) are the top scorers and among the best buys in the Consumers' Association's Which? magazine On Test: Wines for Barbecues'.
Read more...A few weeks ago, Sophie Waggett of Wines of South Africa (WOSA) was more than a little worried. She was in Cape
Town and awaiting the arrival of a group of 20 on-trade buyers from the UK, most of whom she'd never met. The origins of this scenario began last year, when WOSA was forced to recognise that South African wines, while generally in growth, were seriously underperforming in the UK on-trade: only 5% market share, compared to 10% in the off-trade.
Picture something quintessentially Canadian. For many people, that prompt either draws a complete blank or it connotes polar bears, the Inuit (formerly known as Eskimos) and perhaps ice hockey. But vineyards and barrel-lined cellars don't fit among those frosty symbols. Wine is not really a Canadian emblem. At least not in the public mind. Informed oenophiles and members of the drinks trade, however, recognise Canada as the world's largest source of, appropriately enough, Icewine.
Read more...Western Wines will no longer handle the distribution of the Bellingham and Douglas Green South African brands, following DGB's decision to open a UK office to handle distribution and marketing for these brands.
Read more...The first vintages of Tokara wines - owned by South African merchant banker GT Ferreira - will be launched in the UK, with an on-trade focus, at Wines of South Africa's Mega Tasting on 11 & 12 October.
Read more...Wines of South Africa (WOSA) is holding its Mega Tasting, aimed at the pan-European market, on Tuesday 11 October and Wednesday 12 October at Old Billingsgate Market, which looks on to the River Thames. More than 200 producers will be taking part, representing boutique vintners, corporates, cooperatives, garagistes and ngociants. Focusing on the Cape's biodiversity and the effect this has on the country's wines, and including a range of themed tastings, this event is set to be one of the biggest generic national tastings ever presented by a wine-producing country. For more information, call Sophie Waggett on 020 8947 7171 or e-mail her at sophie@winesofsa.com
For on-trade buyers, South Africa is only good for cheap entry-point wines, predominately Chenin Blanc and Pinotage, according to Andy Bayley and John Graves, sales and marketing director and national accounts director respectively for Atlantic Wine Agencies.
Read more...German entrepreneur Achim Niederberger has purchased the historic Pfalz wine estate of Reichsrat von Buhl for an undisclosed sum.
Douglas Green Bellingham (DGB) has confirmed the acquisition of the Boschendal Wine business, with the deal going last week (see Harpers, 22 July), and pledged to increase its sales of premium wines in the UK by turning the company into South Africa's answer to Penfolds.
Read more...Tim Johnston was educated
at a very second-rate public school, from which I escaped aged 17'. He worked for Findlaters for a few months, before eight months in slavery' at Chteau Cantenac-Brown.
He apprenticed with Hedges & Butler, and in 1969 he moved to France, where he has been involved with several wine bars, including Willi's and Juveniles with Mark Williamson, The Blue Fox with Steven Spurrier, and Tournon in Bordeaux with Alex Herbage. He has written for Wine International, Wine Spectator and Saveur. He has vinified in France (Bordeaux, Hermitage and Provence), America (Chateau Montelena, Jordan Winery and Bill Wheeler's winery on Dry Creek Road) and Australia (Cullen). Juveniles sells wine for off- as well as on-premise consumption, and Johnston is available to source French wines.
Leading South African winemakers Gary Jordan (Jordan Winery) and Niels Verburg (Luddite) will be visiting London in September to present the wines on offer at this year's Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction.
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