Slideshow

Top South African white blends

16 February 2015 By db staff writer

South Africa’s blended white wine is a flagship for the country’s overall offering. Here, Tim Atkin MW lists his favourite wines Mediterranean style white blends in this strengthening category.

South Africa’s best wines are its white blends. In fact, I’d go further than that, writes Tim Atkin.

They may be less well-known than varietal Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs and Chenin Blancs, but South African white blends are some of the most exciting and best value wines in the New World. They may only represent what Tim James in his book, Wines of the New South Africa, calls “a tiny proportion of South African production”, but they are vital for the industry’s image and sense of worth.

The category is remarkably recent, emerging, like so many positive trends in Cape wine, since the first democratic elections in 1994. In fact, you could argue that white blends really began in 2001, when André van Rensburg, the outspoken winemaker at Vergelegen, launched what he now calls his GVB White: a barrel-fermented Bordeaux style blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.

Click through for Atkin’s pick of the top 15 South African white ‘Mediterranean style’ blends…