Friday, May 27, 2022

Raath Promotions wine trade show at the Winchester

Kathy Raath and her son Dane presented the wines they represent to the trade at the Winchester in Sea Point
The winemakers, all producers of premium quality wines, were on hand to show their products
It was wonderful to be able to attend a function like this after such a long time

Kathy and Dane Raath and their team

John Loubser, owner/winemaker at Silverthorn, near Bonnievale

showed his award-winning Silverthorn Cap Classiques, including the unusual, excellent River Dragon, one of our favourites, made from Colombard

Lovely to see Jayne Beaumont in typically good form

showing her own Pinot noir, grown and made from her own vineyard on the family's Bot Rivier farm
which she sold to her son Sebastian in 2015

Very good canapés were circulating, from Harvey's restaurant in the Winchester - seared tuna

Beef sliders

Barbecued chicken legs

enjoyed in a break by Narina Cloete, Blaauwklippen winemaker

Sebastian Beaumont showed some of our favourites,

including his Hope Marguerite Chenin, New Baby white blend, Dangerfield Syrah and Far Side Mourvèdre

Winemaker Reynie Oosthuizen of Tamboerskloof/Kleinood in Stellenbosch
is also the viticulturist of this high altitude wine farm

Tamboerskloof has made its reputation with Rhône varietals Syrah and Viognier
Now, they have added Mourvèdre to their range

Cape Collective is an online shop started by Dane Raath,
with attractively packaged wines and a beer from selected producers



Illimis was a new name to us. Lucinda Heyns showed her Riesling and excellent Chenin blanc

Jonathan Grieve of Avondale with his range of organically grown wines
Avondale Wine Estate has recently joined PiWOSA as its 12th member
PiWOSA – Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa, is a collective of likeminded, independent wine producers
focused on promoting premium South African wines on the international stage.


The show was well-attended but not overcrowded

After too many years, it was great to see sommelier Eric Welile Botha
whom we last saw at The Oyster Box in Ballito in 2011
He is now back in Cape Town at a wine bar on Bree St

Narine Cloete pouring a glass of her Blush Rosé

Blaauwklippen was a pioneer producer of Zinfandel under Walter Finlayson in the 1970s and early 1980s
While they still produce good wines made from that grape,
Narina is concentrating on production of excellent wines made from the Bordeaux classics


Another person we were pleased to see was Brad Gold, who is now marketing the wines of Baleia,
made by Gunter Schultz, who was previously winemaker at Kleinood
We have been very impressed by their cool climate Chardonnays and Pinots from the Cape South Coast
since we first tasted them about 11 years ago


Lizette Kühn, Sales Manager of Bouchard Finlayson invited us to visit the farm on our Hemel en Aarde visit two days later. Our comments on these impressive wines are in our story in this week's MENU

Johann Fourie, cellarmaster at Benguela Cove, invited us to visit him after our visit to Bouchard Finlayson
Sadly, he had to cancel after being in contact with a Covid positive person
Our visit was deferred to our next visit to the Hermanus area

The first Benguela Cove wines were made by winemakers from the Hermanus area
Since Johann, previously cellarmaster at KWV, was appointed, he has been responsible for all the wines,
including wines from the company's properties in the UK, which we wrote about in 2019
and the first red wine from that vineyard will be launched later this year

Overgaauw was the first farm in South Africa to plant Merlot
David van Velden showed some of his oldest wines, including the 1987 Tria Cordia,
one of the first classic red blends to use small barrels for maturation
They were also pioneers in planting Portuguese varietals for their Cape Vintage
These wines were a great statement, showing how well wines from Stellenbosch can age

Eric Botha and John Loubser in a bubbly mood

Elaine Koelewijn in the Courtyard

All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

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