This year’s Sweet Wine & Fortifieds Report convened by Winemag.co.za and sponsored by multinational financial services company Prescient is now out. Entries were as follows: 1) Natural Sweet – two; 2) Noble Late Harvest – 15; 3) Straw – seven; 4) Hanepoot – four; 5) Muscadel – six; and 6) Port-style – nine.
“The Top 10 contains quite a few of the usual suspects such as Boplaas, De Krans and Delaire Graff, which suggests that making such wines is a specialist endeavour,” says Christian Eedes, chairman of the tasting panel and Winemag.co.za editor. “There were also more good ratings for the Villa Esposto straw wine as made by Klawer Wine Cellars – a big part of its magic surely being that grapes are sourced from a 1969 Muscat D'Alexandrievineyard on Skurfberg”.
There was thus a total of 42 wines with 23 rating 90 or more on the 100-point quality scale.
The top 10 emerged as follows:
96
Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2009
94
Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2015
Delaire Graff Cape Vintage 2018
93
De Krans Muscat Blanc 2020
92
Allesverloren Fine Old Vintage 2014
Boschendal Vin D'Or 2018
Meerhof Mooistrooi 2020
Simonsig Cape Vintage Reserve 2015
Villa Esposto Muscat D' Alexandrie Straw Wine 2018
Villa Esposto Muscat D'Alexandrie Straw Wine 2019
It was a good showing for Port-style wines with five examples in the Top 10 while straw wines grow ever more sophisticated with three of these among the top performers. Also in the mix was one Noble Late Harvest, namely Boschendal Vin D'Or 2018 and one Muscadel, the Muscat Blanc 2020 from De Krans.
To read the report in full, including key findings, tasting notes for the top wines and scores on the 100-point quality scale for all wines entered, visit Winemag.co.za.
Join the conversation on Twitter: @Winemag #SweetWineReport #SAFineWine #Top10
Wines are available for online purchase via boutique wine retailer Dry Dock Liquors alternatively a mixed six-pack of the Top 10 via Wine of The Month Club.