Just as Nedbank innovates in digital banking, so is wine appreciation being made more accessible
WineX now attracts a wine-savvy crowd of up to 10 000 attendees in Gauteng and hosts regional shows across the country
Visitors can enjoy three nights of wine tastings and interactions with award-winning winemakers
Head for northern Joburg and you may just discover an oenophilic experience reminiscent of a spell in Stellenbosch.
The Franschhoek Bastille Festival is back after a two-year hiatus. Celebrate all things French-inspired with great food and wine.
On World Chocolate Day on 7 July, experience chocolate like never before, paired with your favourite adult drink
Tucked away in the hills of the Helderberg, the new Idiom restaurant and wine tasting centre feels like an escape to another world.
The latest guide to South African wines might have some flaws, but it sets an international standard.
Shiraz-based blends that are not too complicated but fresh and delicious are my own "house red".
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/ 17 February 2012
Riesling: If you have never riesled, it is time to start.
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/ 20 January 2012
Cinderella and workhorse were favourite clichés to describe the role of chenin blanc in the local wine industry of olden days.
A is for anticipation, B is for bottoms up — and T is for tanked. <b>Tim James</b> guides you through the best of the season.
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/ 25 November 2011
Wine lovers in Jo’burg can choose between the Cape’s famous, fancy or fresh wines this weekend.
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/ 23 November 2011
<b>Claire Hu</b> rounds up some of the best organic local wines.
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/ 18 November 2011
There are an awful lot of South African wines out there — about 7?000. It’s tempting to abandon adventurism and reach for another bottle of the same.
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/ 11 November 2011
Too many producers regard wine journalists as badly paid PR people.
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/ 4 November 2011
It’s not every wine show that has a once-powerful politician pouring sips of wine for all and sundry.
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/ 28 October 2011
Wine sales generally are bad, exports less lucrative than they should be — the industry is bleeding. Is this the best time for experiments?
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/ 21 October 2011
Meerlust has just about everything going for it these days.
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/ 30 September 2011
Which are the most exciting wine areas of the Cape? I increasingly hear murmurs of discontent of too much focus on the Swartland and on its wineries.
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/ 19 September 2011
The "heartbreak grape" they call it — a cliché used by wine-growers who’ve tried and failed to get pinot noir to produce the wonders of Burgundy.
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/ 11 September 2011
The wine industry seems to be pandering to a conservative, rich market that likes flashy stuff.
Combining sport and winemaking is not new. But does it work?
In those famous good old days, it was accepted that serious red wines shouldn’t, be drunk for five or 10 or 20 years from vintage.
Homeland remains heartland for most grape varieties. Possibly the only important exception is malbec.
It’s perhaps dangerous to visit a wine farm such as Annandale — it’s all too easy to forget the urgent need for change in the SA wine industry.
Put fire in your wintry belly! If ever there’s a time to indulge in rich, alcoholic, delicious fortified wines it is now.
Out of the great revolution in South African wine we’ve seen in the past few decades, something of a contradiction is emerging.
<b>Tim James</b> writes about his role as a wine critic for <i>Platter’s</i>. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Foreigners still arrive to share in the Cape winelands — not in a deluge but in a reassuringly constant trickle.
Given the remarkable advances in South African wine in the past 15 years, it’s easy to assume that before then all was dross.
The prestige of wine competitions is somewhat tarnished by the subjectivity — and fallibility — of the judges.