South African wines have been on my mind lately, although this isn’t the first time. Last year I wrote about the subject while the World Cup was going on there. At the time I focused on the impact of French Huguenot immigrants to the young and immature Dutch Cape Colony wine industry. I didn’t really write that much about the wines, except to point out that, “I’ve always enjoyed them because I believe that they consistently offer an intriguing blend of new world fruit with just enough old world earthiness, structure (think acidity, tannin, etc…), and complexity.” I still stand by that statement. I also stand by another I read recently, “A sense of place is more important now…supermarkets are full of ‘factory’ wines with made-up names.” Thanks Gary Jordan, I agree with you. Continue reading Unappreciated South Africa
