South African wine

Alder from Vinography is wrapping up his trip, and it sounds like it was a major success. As I noted on his blog, it’s interesting that Pinotage makes a good rosé. I say that because a number of Pinotages can be very smoky–I describe it as drinking a campfire. I would be very interested to see how that characteristic would affect a rosé wine. Of course, not all Pinotages are this way, and some of them are downright excellent.

I urge you to read Alder’s articles about his trip to South Africa. He’s putting a wealth of information in there that will build your knowledge base.

Technorati Tags: wine, South African wine, pinotage

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Alder Yarrow over at Vinography writes about his explorations of South African wines–while visiting South Africa. This southern hemisphere nation is perhaps my favorite wine-producing country in the world. Hell, I even like Pinotage. The closest I get to a good visit to South Africa is dining at Jiko, a restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge that has a 100% South African wine list–and it’s a darn good list, too.

South Africa is one of the world’s most dynamic and up-and-coming wine regions. South African wines were largely unknown for decades because of the economic embargo against the former apartheid regime. Since the early 1990s, South African winemakers have quickly pushed their wines toward the top tier of quality, and they have achieved much success with their efforts. Sometimes the names can be tough to pronounce (I’m still working on Buitenverwachting), but the wines are very easy to enjoy. The only down side for those of us in the US is that we get very little South African wine in our markets.

Hats off to Alder. I’ll be following this series closely, and you should too.

Technorati Tags: wine, south african wine

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Celebrate Wine has a terrific video of Ken Forrester talking about South African wines. Go watch it and learn.

Technorati Tags: wine, learn about wine, wine education, south african wine

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