South African Wines

South African wines are beginning to earn a reputation worldwide as delivering a new, bolder flavor than many wines from common wine making countries like France and Italy, but at a much lower price. South Africa has been improving its wine offerings for years, providing the world a glimpse of how a nation can slowly improve its wine offerings through good harvests and great minds in wine making. For wine connoisseurs, these wines have been moving up in reputation as the wineries provide more appeasing flavors to the pallet. South Africa has approximately 15 "wine making" regions, mainly concentrated along the coast around Cape Town. Nine of these regions in particular have large concentrations of wineries bottling their wine for the world market. The region provides a fairly consistent climate and ample precipitation that allows quality grapes to grow. In addition, a number of vineyards have been cropping up in the mountains outside of the region providing a bold alternative to the wines produced around the Cape.

© copyright 2008 The Pour by Duane Lokitis

Of these wine making regions, the regions most well known is the Stellenbosch region, home to soils that can grow both quality white and red wine grapes. From this region come some of the most celebrated red wines in the world, due to the legacy of small wineries that have existed in the region for centuries and have survived the apartheid era of the nation relatively unscathed. Within this region, the premier wines are of the Chenin Blanc variety, and the South African wineries that specialize in this wine are renowned at the same level as the Chenin Blanc producers in France and, to a lesser extent, California. Boschendal is probably the most well known worldwide of the producers in this region, with award winning reds being touted worldwide. Other wine making regions in South Africa include the Tulbagh region, famous for white and sparkling wines; Swartland, which grows grapes for reds without any irrigation systems in place, leaving the land nearly unaltered; Paarl, another famous region producing very French styled Sauvingnons and Chardonnays; and Calitzdorp, which is the optimal area in South Africa for the growing of Port wine grapes.



Sout African Wines


South African wines wine differs from its world counterparts in that the wineries in place are still relatively young, and are willing to take more chances with their wines than many established wineries in other countries. The nation is slowly moving away from industrial wine production to a more organic system, and the quality of the wine shows this. Because of the ocean's influence on the growing in vineyards, South African grapes have a great maturation on the vine, and are able to retain the richness of their flavor, which translates into bold wines. Flavors in most good South African wines are very fruity, and many feel that South Africa may produce the best dessert wines in the world. For anyone who is looking for a bold, quality wine for a small investment, wines of South African are a great purchase.



South African Wine

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