Contributors
Chief Winemaker Bruce Jack
A Capetonian whose curiosity and palate has taken him the length and breadth of the globe. Bruce completed his undergrad in Political Science and Literature at UCT and then read his Masters in Literature at St Andrew’s in Scotland. His subsequent winemaking degree came from the Roseworthy Campus at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Bruce is a pioneer, and in many respects a maverick, and what he brings to winemaking is an articulate opinion about his greatest passion.
Food Alchemist & Kitchen Cowboy Peter Goffe-Wood
Peter is on the judging panel for the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants in the World, as well as the Diners Club Wine list of the year. Born in London, he trained in South Africa and returned to work with some of Britain's top chefs in several award-winning London restaurants.
Back in South Africa, he helped to open the La Couronne Hotel & Winery (now Mont Rochelle) in Franschhoek. Conde Nast Traveller named it as one of the fifty most exciting restaurants in the world.
Peter has worked to develop some of the Cape’s best and busiest restaurants, including Blues, 95 Keerom Str, Balducci’s & Salt. GQ magazine took him on as food editor for eight years and he is a regular contributor to Men’s Health. Peter is author of Kitchen Cowboys and Blues Restaurant – the essence of Cape Town.
He featured alongside Ainsley Harriot on BBC Food’s Off the Menu and now appears as a judge on MasterChef SA.
Editor Andrew Arnott
Andrew studied Literature and Sociology at UCT before setting off on a global trek that saw him working under the seas of the Caribbean, on the snow covered slopes of the Canadian Rockies and writing for a variety of financial and travel institutions. Now at home in Cape Town, Andrew’s passions for wine and writing are married on this blog.
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The South African Best Value Wine Guide 2013 Posted on August 29 2012 by
I can't count the amount of time I've spent staring at shelves of wine bottles trying to make up my mind which wine in that mid-price category to select. I'm often slightly timid to venture out of my comfort zone and try something new because as pleasant as surprises can be, there's nothing like a nasty one to beat you back into the realm conservative choices.
I often find myself, mid-panic on the way to a dinner party, frozen like a buck in headlights in front of the wine isle. Time isn't on my side and my go-to wine is unavailable. It then becomes an indecisive wrestle between label and price. Thankfully a solution, in some ways a tome, is at hand for people like me on fight or flight shopping sprees.
The Best Value Wine Guide 2013 promises to educate us on "quaffable, pocket friendly wines" found in abundance in this handy pocket book sponsored by Ultra Liquors and RamsayMedia and published by Jacqueline Lahoud.
The Best Value Wine Guide features 549 wines under the price cap of R80, 418 of these come in under R50 a bottle, and 285 feature in the under R40 category. 310 of the wines in the guide are rated 3 stars or better, a tidy 32 wines are rated 4 stars, even a few 4.5 star wines and one grand 5 star rated wine. The minimum requisite for the Best Value Wine Guide is a 2.5 star rating.
Flagstone, Kumala and Fish Hoek Wines have 9 entries in the 2013 South African Best Value Wine Guide:
- Flagstone Noon Gun 2012
- Flagstone Longitude 2011
- Flagstone Poetry Sauvignon Blanc 2011
- Flagstone Poetry Merlot 2010
- Fish Hoek Merlot 2011
- Fish Hoek Sauvignon Blanc 2011
- Fish Hoek Chenin Blanc 2011
- Kumala Shiraz 2011
- Kumala Medium Sweet Red NV
Best Value wines bear an iconic red 'Best Value' sticker. The 2013 Best Value Wine Guide retails for R32,95 and can be ordered from the Mags At Home website, this guide promises to be a well-thumbed booklet.
Visit the Best Value Wines website for an online catalogue of all the wines featured in the 2013 edition.
