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South Africa
Episode 16 – Charla Bosman Part 2 (Sijnn Wines)
Episode 16 is part 2 with Charla Bosman, the winemaker at Sijnn Wines. If you haven’t listened to part 1, go back and start there. It it has a lot of context about Charla and Sijnn that you’ll need before listening to this episode. Here, we talk about life in South Africa, and all of its highs – […]
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Podcast
South Africa
Episode 15 – Charla Bosman Part 1 (Sijnn Wines)
Episode 15 is with Charla Bosman, the winemaker at Sijnn Wines located in a tiny town called Malgas at the edge of South Africa’s Cape South Coast. Sijnn (pronounced ‘sane’) was named after the Khoisan word for riverbank, as it sits up on the hill overlooking the Breede River about 10 miles from the Indian ocean as the […]
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South Africa
Carbonics an ’emblem for the new wave of [Cape] winemakers’
Ever wondered about the science behind carbonic maceration? Malu Lambert gets into it in her article “The quantum mechanics of carbonics,” with a focus on wines from Eben Sadie and Lukas Van Loggerenberg. Lambert also highlights the impetus for the whole-cluster movement. “In South Africa whole-cluster winemaking takes on another shape outside of winery walls: […]
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Podcast
South Africa
Episode 10 – Mark Stephens (Deep Rooted Wines)
Episode 10 is with Mark Stephens of Deep Rooted Wines based in Walker Bay, South Africa. Mark is a regenerative viticulturist-turned-winemaker and is a prominent figure in the Cape South Coast’s new wave. The South Coasters – as they call themselves – are an exciting group of winemakers whose energy and enthusiasm resemble that of the Swartland […]
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South Africa
Reenen Borman of Boschkloof named Cape Winemakers Guild member
Reenen Borman of Boschkloof and Patatsfontein was recently announced as a new Cape Winemakers Guild member. Membership is by invitation only and many of South Africa’s leading winemakers are members of the Guild. The CWG meets regularly as a technical tasting group, providing its members with an opportunity to evaluate wines from around the world […]
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Podcast
South Africa
Episode 6 – John Seccombe (Thorne & Daughters)
In this episode, you'll hear how John came to be known for his textural whites, and how he learned to embrace a model for winemaking that fit his terroir (read: not trying to be a copy/paste version of Bordeaux or Burgundy). You'll also hear John's take on why getting South African wine to be mainstream in the US is still an uphill battle, as well as his adoration for Japan and, yes, McDonalds...
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South Africa
‘How does South African Chardonnay stack up? Pretty damn well’
Alder Yarrow recently published a piece for Vinography called “Putting South African Chardonnay in a Global Context,” in which he positioned South Africa against some of the world’s great Chardonnay regions (Chablis, Sonoma, etc.). Among those reviewed was the 2020 Van Loggerenberg “Break a Leg” Chardonnay, which Yarrow calls “bright and delicious.” Read more here.
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South Africa
‘You can’t really go wrong with Thorne & Daughters whites’
Tim James, one of South Africa’s most lauded wine writers, details a few older-vintage wines he recently opened. Thorne & Daughters was in the line-up; of the 2017 Rocking Horse Cape White Blend, he writes that it “didn’t seem “older” at all; it’s developing nicely, with a good few years to go. Always one of […]
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South Africa
‘Tim James: The new-wave South Coasters step forward’
Tim James, one of South Africa’s most prominent wine critics, recounts why “there’s clearly plenty going for the new-wave Cape South Coast.” We’re seeing an exciting movement here akin to the Swartland Revolution a few years back. Among the winemakers mentioned are Natasha Williams of Lelie van Saron and Mark Stephens of Deep Rooted Wines […]
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