The Don

Despite Cape Town being 6,000 miles from London (plus another 300 miles from Edinburgh!), and travel between the two cities clearly being a challenge for a little while yet, we were nevertheless graced by the presence of Donovan Rall in our living rooms just a few weeks ago.

Through the auspices of Zoom technology (once again) we were thrilled to host forty-five on and off-trade clients spanning the length and breadth of the UK, and encompassing all sorts of hotels, restaurants and retailers, not to mention a few of the world’s most famous fine dining establishments, for a Rall Wines masterclass in advance of the trade’s emergence from what has been a thoroughly miserable third lockdown since December. With things looking up, and spring supposedly just around the corner, we relished the opportunity to taste the lighter, fresher wines in the Rall portfolio, and bring together (virtually) a cohort of people who might enjoy them. So it was, that the fine-boned, vibrant Grenache Blanc and juicy, attractive Cinsault made many new friends, whilst the ever-impressive Rall White and Red strutted their confident stuff. Donovan’s dulcet Afrikaner tones provided invaluable insight into the origins and philosophy behind each wine.

Justerini & Brooks forms new partnership with South African producer Storm Wines

We are delighted to be the newly appointed agents for Storm Wines, from South Africa’s Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. For a number of years we have been buying and drinking these wines but it was not until we visited their small, family estate on home turf that we appreciated the attention to detail and passion that goes in to producing their seemingly effortless Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

2020 Vision: Harvest in the Swartland 

David Sadie, of the eponymous David & Nadia, was in London last week to present the upcoming 2018s to a group of enthusiasts in the dining room at St James’s Street. The question on everyone’s lips: would they actually live up to the benchmark 2017s?

It's well known by now that 2018 was no easy ride, for the trio of 2016, 2017 and 2018 vintages will likely be remembered primarily as those harvested under the cloud of severe drought. And although South Africans had endured two years of it already by then, it wasn't really until 2018 that the rest of the world finally took note of its severity, as the international media covered the countdown toward “Day Zero” – when the water would be cut off entirely. 

Fresh from a tour of the Cape winelands I feel animated as never before about the wines of South Africa. Not only is this the most exciting wine producing country in the “New World” in my view, it is a country with a rich cultural history and heritage unlike any other.

Despite a winemaking legacy that originated in Constantia in the late 1600s, what we consider now as the beginning of the modern era began in 1994 at the end of apartheid and the country’s re-emergence at an international level. Well-established wine estates such as Kanonkop, Meerlust, Vergelegen, Rustenberg, Boschendal, Hamilton Russell, Klein Constantia, Rust en Vrede and others were reinvigorated and set the tone for the new, outward looking wine industry, building more established, consistent brands that became reasonably successful. Unfortunately, that did little to stem the tide of the newly tradeable, poor-quality bulk wine from virus-ridden vineyards that was still to mark South Africa’s card for at least the next decade. The political and economic freedoms in the new South Africa would not herald the rebirth of a truly great wine industry for a few years yet. For in the post-apartheid decade, it’s fair to say that priorities, naturally, laid more in building improved legal and political infrastructures, curbing entrenched racial and economic inequality, and refining the country’s reputation on the world stage; issues that endure to this day and that no other serious wine producing country needs to face up to in quite the same way.