La Petite Colombe certainly ranks among the best meals of 2024, and it lives up to the billing. It showcases the dazzling array of ingredients around South Africa and neighboring countries, and the execution in the kitchen is quite brilliant.

As every surfer knows, at some point, the wave breaks. So, what do you do then? After years of almost breakneck progress and dynamism, South Africa’s wine industry has matured. The young guns are now grown-ups. While the future is unwritten, what is assured is a country producing world-class wine.

In South Africa, there is a debate about whether the 2015 Paul Sauer is better than the 2017 or vice versa. They are both great vintages of one of the Cape’s icons.

The 2001 Peter Barlow from Rustenberg was poured blind at a comparative tasting of South African Cabernets against Bordeaux during this year’s visit. The Peter Barlow acquitted itself admirably, even here, pitted against an impressive 2001 Léoville Las-Cases. The Peter Barlow is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the estate’s oldest vines, named after the man who bought the property back in 1941. This vintage was made by his son, Simon Barlow, while his grandson, Murray, has been the winemaker since 2012.

Century of Fours examines vintages ending in four and adds historical context via a parallel timeline of the FA Cup Finals from 1904 to 2014. It is two journeys through time for the price of one.

Ancient South African ports have a cult following, and though they are not cheap due to demand, they represent outstanding value compared to other wines.

Among South Africa’s clutch of world-class Syrah, Porseleinberg is regarded as the best. So what better than a vertical of every vintage to date tutored by winemaker Callie Louw?

Who knew that South Africa is a polymath: a dab hand at whites, reds, dry, sweet, Pinot, Cabernet (and Rugby World Cup champions)… My annual report gathers new releases from the country’s finest producers, discussing current issues covering everything from A to Z.

I thoroughly enjoyed FYN. I appreciated the buzz about the place. There were a couple of dishes where, with background knowledge of Japanese cuisine, I might tweak a couple of things. Still, overall, this kaiseki-Cape fusion is imaginative and, most importantly, delicious.

Rewind to the mid-nineties, South Africa is basking in the afterglow of the dissolution of apartheid dissolution and Nelson Mandela’s election as President. After decades of selling wine domestically, South Africa’s wine industry is suddenly exposed to a competitive, global market, often under governmental control. Among a vast ocean of turbo-charged Bordeaux blends, the 1997 Syrah from Boekenhoutskloof is sui generis and becomes one of the Cape’s most iconic, mythical wines.

Stellenbosch stalwart Kanonkop celebrated a half-century of bottling their own wines with a retrospective tasting in London that traveled all the way back to that historic inaugural vintage.

The inspiration for this Cellar Favorite was a sublime bottle of 2006 Semillon from Boekenhoutskloof, Franschhoek’s leading producer.

Eike lived up to expectations – the food was just delicious and exhibited just the right amount of flair whilst keeping it “real”.

Returning after lockdown, I sought to take the temperature of South Africa’s ever-changing vinous landscape: walking vineyards, meeting winemakers and marvelling at wines that quicken the pulse. What are the roots of its success? Where are the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead? It’s time to find out.

The secondary market for South Africa’s most desirable top cuvées continues to see increasing numbers of collectors chasing diminishing supply. Buoyant interest in the Cape’s blue chips is a relatively recent phenomenon that has grown organically, pulled by demand rather than forced by supply. One coveted label is Kanonkop’s Paul Sauer.

Porseleinberg leads an impressive and growing fleet of world-class Syrah/Rhône blends from South Africa.

A vertical of South African Pinotage might sound like torture to some. When the wine is the Cape’s greatest Pinotage, then you understand why the room was packed for the first ever complete tasting of Kanonkop’s Black Label and why its owners and winemaker flew over for the occasion.

Winemaker Matt Day, together with co-proprietor Hans Astrom, flew from South Africa recently to present a rare vertical tasting of their Vin de Constance that included the forthcoming 2019 vintage.

Whilst up to my neck in Bordeaux primeur samples, one sunny evening during a brief return home for Easter, I took a break from Cabernet and cracked open a South African wine that had been sent to my home, the 2018 Taaibosch Crescendo.

Proprietors Anthony and Olive Hamilton Russell recently tutored a special tasting of Hamilton Russell Vineyards’ flagship Pinot Noir to mark 40-years of vintages.

The Cape continues to provide wine-lovers with a bevy of high quality wines that, without wishing to sound like a broken record, represent astonishing value-for-money. If you have not woken up to the quality in South Africa, then now is the time.

On my bucket list of wine-related things to do, apart from tasting the 1947 Romanée-Conti and climbing K2 with Lalou Bize-Leroy in order to overcome my debilitating vertigo, is to conduct an unabridged vertical of Mvemve Raats MR de Compostella.

Postponed several times due to matters beyond my control, thankfully the intermittently showstopping wines of South Africa were worth the wait, proving that the pandemic has not slowed down the momentum of the Cape.

“It smells and tastes of the sea,” my wife remarks after handing her a glass of wine, completely blind. She had no clue that the Syrah vines that contributed fruit to the 2019 Stars In The Dark are rooted on the wild and windswept Agulhas coast at the very southern tip of the African continent. That’s translating terroir straight into a glass of wine in all its unfettered glory.

It was early March 2020, and I was meeting dear friends for our annual lunch at Limewood in the New Forest, where we put the world to rights and gossip like there’s no tomorrow. And in a sense, there was no tomorrow. This turned out to be the last time any of us enjoyed a day trip, mingling with others without fear of falling ill. But the normal world was slipping away, as evidenced by the manner in which the receptionist kept her distance, the novelty of widely spaced tables and, on the train journey home, news that my daughter’s exchange trip to Germany was canceled. I remember the wine that day, a delicious bottle of 2017 Chardonnay from Ataraxia, prompting thoughts of visiting the Cape in the late summer, when surely the pandemic would be in the rearview mirror.