44 white wine entries and 43 red wine entries were received and these were tasted blind (labels out of sight) by the three-person Winemag panel: Christian Eedes, Roland Peens and James Pietersen; scoring done according to the 100-point quality scale.
Top white wine overall was the Babylonstoren Wine Club Semillon 2017 with a rating of 95 points while top red was the Raats Family Cabernet Franc 2016 with 94.
Semillon and Cabernet Franc enjoyed particularly strong showings in general - there were nine examples of the former and seven examples of the latter to rate 90-plus altogether. Semillon was South Africa’s 13th most planted variety making up 1.2% of the national vineyard at the end of 2017 while Cabernet Franc was 14th making up 0.9%.
To read the report in full, go to Winemag.co.za