Posts Tagged ‘Walker Bay Chardonnay’

Transport yourself back in time and to a once quaint Valley, today a “winetastic” area with outstanding wines of quality like Pinot noir from what is now known as Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Bouchard Finlayson!

Dutch settlers planted the first vines in South Africa soon after their official landing and colonization of the Cape in 1655.  When Jan van Riebeeck released nine Dutch East India servants to become full-time farmers and a year later the first significant slaves arrived from the coast of Guinea and Angola, vines become a more proliferous crop and in 1658 the first wine was produced in the Cape!

When the French Hugenots arrived from 1688, the production of wine really took hold and consequently the character of the South African wine industry has remained largely French orientated.

Only fairly recently has the wine quality improved and only about thirty years ago, South African winemakers started producing high quality Pinot noir.  Read the rest of this entry »

Pinnacle Pinot from the point of Africa!

Our recent 92 points for the Galpin Peak Pinot noir 2009, has inspired us to once again move forward at a pace with a sharpened focus on the continuous improval of the wines, starting in the vineyards!

Not only is our Pinot the kind of wine that can be enjoyed at any time of the day, as mentioned in the previous blog, but it is according to one of our clients in Germany one of those rare wines that can be enjoyed anywhere in the world!

The comment was based on the fact that on numerous occasion he had discussed with his clients, that often wines lose their character when they are tasted in another country, in a different season or at a different time of the day.  The statement made, was that our Pinot noir was so certain in its structure and aromatic composure, that this wine tasted just as good in the middle of a snowstorm a few months after having tasted it in sunny South Africa!

Pinot noir grapes

Well, how could we object this – a truly great wine can only compete with itself… and with the 2011 vintage looking good we hope to once again stir emotions and the senses when this bottling is ready to be probed!

“If you appreciate opera you will appreciate the analogy to Pinot Noir. Like opera, it takes intense preparation to put on a performance. Like opera, so much depends on who and what you have to work with. And, like opera, if the result is indifferent the audience will walk away. But if you get it right, if you achieve that high, perfect note that turns your skin to gooseflesh, everyone stands up and applauds.”

(Peter Finlayson)