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Wednesday, 21 October, 2020

RUBY CABERNET: A Cinderella Variety Makes a Comeback

A wooded Ruby Cabernet from Badsberg Cellar won the coveted General Smuts Trophy as overall Champion SA Young Wine in 2020. Graham Howe revisits this underdog variety.
Graham Howe
Monday, 10 August, 2020

YEAR ZERO: A Lockdown Tasting Of Alcohol-Free Wine

Sales of light, low alcohol and alcohol-free beer and wines are booming worldwide. Graham Howe comments on the trend to zero alcohol in South Africa’s puritanical era of prohibition.
Graham Howe
Thursday, 25 June, 2020

Alternate Lockdown Diaries: A Tannat Tiger In Your Tank

Tannat, an intriguing red variety from the south-west of France, is as bold and tough as its Basque origins. Graham Howe explores its secret powers in single varietal and blended wines in South Africa.
Graham Howe
Wednesday, 20 May, 2020

CALLING ALL FLIGHTS: Next Level Lockdown Blues

A good bottle of wine a day keeps the lockdown blues away. Graham Howe takes a trip down memory lane on flights of alternative varieties which evoke virtual viticultural travels.
Graham Howe
Friday, 1 May, 2020

A DRY SEASON: Prohibition, The Plague & Lockdown Protocols

I wonder what the dry 2020 vintage will bring – not the dry season of drought but the drought of lockdown? The 2020 vintage might inspire a spate of new lockdown labels – Prohibition Pinotage, Bootlegger’s Chenin Blanc, Moonshine Merlot, Speakeasy Sauvignon or Smuggler’s Semillon come to mind.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 7 January, 2020

Old Wines in New Bottles: Tasting Trends in 2019

Graham Howe says benchmark tastings of older vintages of Cape wines was a highlight of wine trends in 2019 – in an era defined by the constant search for new styles and novelty.
Graham Howe
Wednesday, 27 November, 2019

The Year of Vegan-Friendly Wine

Vegan-friendly wines and vegan wine pairings were one of the major emerging trends at wine tastings in 2019.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 29 October, 2019

The Spirit of Papa Spatz: Every bow-tie tells a story

Top winemakers and old family friends celebrated the eightieth anniversary of Delheim Wines – to pay tribute to the enduring legacy of South African wine legend, the late Spatz Sperling.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 22 October, 2019

Classic Cape Roots: On Aristotle, Alto and Braais

Do you believe that everything has a purpose? The big philosophical question was posed at the celebration of the twentieth vintage of Tokara, one of the highlights of the year on the tasting circuit.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 10 September, 2019

Sauvignon-esque Chenin

Sauvignon-esque, a new descriptor has entered the wine lexicon to describe a new style of Chenin Blanc. Graham Howe investigates
Graham Howe
Monday, 26 August, 2019

Graham Howe - Interview with wine.co.za - Cape South Coast wine region

As a relatively new wine region the Cape South Coast has the freedom to experiment with pockets of terroir and to specialize in signature varieties. The region favours diversity and varies from area to area and farm to farm. Our interview with Graham Howe shows what sets this region apart and some of their best wines.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 20 August, 2019

A passion for Pinotage

Pinotage turns sixty this year since the first commercial release of the historic 1959 vintage under SFW’s Lanzerac label in 1961. Graham Howe tastes his way back to 1959.
Graham Howe
Friday, 5 July, 2019

The Big Chill in the Great Southern

Graham Howe heads south from Perth through seriously cool wine country – all the way to Denmark, Western Australia.
Graham Howe
Monday, 17 June, 2019

The Sustainable Mantra of Margaret River

Sustainable food and wine tourism is the mantra of Margaret River, an idyllic new-world wine region on the frontier renowned for signature varieties and cool-climate styles.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 28 May, 2019

Tasting terroir in Margaret River, Australia

While attending the Australian Tourism Exchange in Perth in April 2019, Graham Howe heads south to explore wine tourism initiatives in Margaret River.
Graham Howe
Monday, 22 April, 2019

All in the family: Fathers and Sons

The passing of the baton from father to son – and occasionally, father to daughter - has been one of the themes of recent tastings at family cellars in the winelands.
Graham Howe
Friday, 15 March, 2019

Flights of Memory: Graham Howe's Top Wine Tastings in 25 Years

In a nostalgic mood, I’ve been reminiscing over the top ten wine tastings I’ve attended in South Africa while covering and writing about wine trends since the mid-1990s. While sorting through a stack of a hundred of my (handwritten) notebooks and three decades of (pre-digital) press releases, I recalled the highlights of thousands of wine tastings and launches I’ve been privileged to attend.
Graham Howe
Wednesday, 20 February, 2019

THE TWENTY CLUB: Winemakers with staying power

In a world where the only constant is change, a handful of Cape winemakers have made twenty vintages at the same wine farm. Talk about staying power.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 22 January, 2019

What To Drink On A Pacific Island Paradise

What could you not live without, cast away on an island paradise - wine, cold beer, rum, good food, books, music or company? Graham Howe packs for his summer holidays in the South Pacific.
Graham Howe
Tuesday, 18 December, 2018

Top Tasting Trends in 2018

Single varietal tastings were one of the big trends on the wine circuit in 2018, from Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc to Chardonnay, highlighting the hero varieties of the Cape winelands.
Graham Howe