The Kaapzicht (Cape View) Wine Estate covers 174 hectares in the Bottelary Ward in the world-famous Stellenbosch district of South Africa. The vineyards stretch over predominantly north-facing slopes on fertile granite soils with a climate that favours the cultivation of quality wine grapes.

This wine is made using fruit from old bush vines planted in weathered granite topsoil and crumbly clay sub-soil, with a yield of up to 4 tons per hectare. Some of the fruit coming from a vineyard planted in 1947 (second oldest Chenin in the country).

Made reductively. Grapes were harvested during early morning hours in cool temperatures and were given ± 8-10 hours skin contact. Enzymes were used to help extract flavours while on the skins. Wine lay on the lees for 3 months before being racked, cleaned & bottled.

Tasting Notes
Ripe quince, pineapple and stone fruit with some interesting savoury undertones. Lightly textured palate, with a hint of sweetness and balancing crunchy acid, results in a brisk finish.

A fresh white made from a blend of grapes produced in Portugal's Lisboa region. Fresh and aromatic with notes of tropical fruits and citrus on the nose. The palate is light with lively acidity balanced by delicately sweet accents of ripe oranges and mango.

Spain's great offering to the world of sparkling wine is called Cava and it is made in the same way as champagne and this exceptional bubbly spends the same amount of time ageing in the bottle on yeast lees as most champagne. That long ageing process is 15 months and it results in a wine with fresh baked bread and yeasty aromas, which are tempered by citrusy freshness and depth of flavour from the complex combination of both. This makes it stunningly good value for money. 

The producer is Gonzales Byass, the largest sherry producer and owners of the great classic, Tio Pepe Fino. 

This bubbly comes from grapes grown on a vineyard planted in 1991 in Espiells, the highest, windiest area of the municipality of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. 250 metres above sea level. Bordered to the south by the Coastal Serralda and to the north by the Montserrat mountains, the vineyard benefits from an exceptional microclimate. The soil is alluvial and comprises three layers;; of clay and silt, pebbles and loose stones and fine sand that compacts down and is called “sauló”. Together, they produce a cava with very warm climate characters which are balanced by a touch of saltiness. The Parellada vineyard is located at 700 metres above sea level in the municipality of La Llacuna, considered to be one of the highest in Penedés.

A classic expression of Gewürztraminer, this wine opens with fragrant notes of lychee, tangerine, maple, spruce tip, and rose petal, lifting effortlessly from the glass. The warm 2024 season imparted a soft, polished texture to its savoury phenolic structure, lending grace and lightness to this opulent variety. Hints of chamomile and cookie dough weave through the palate, enriched by a touch of residual sugar. With pristine fruit and no botrytis influence, this is a pure and elegant example of the style.

Fruit forward but dry and fresh with a light body, intense flavours and far too much drinkability for its own good. 

Organic certification

The organic story at Seresin

One of the greatest things about Seresin Estate is the organic certification. This came relatively early on for Seresin, who was dismayed by the amount used and the impacts of man made chemicals, which were routinely and frequently sprayed on vines. His early adopting philosophy of organic certification paved a positive path for the integrity of the wines as well as leading others to follow suit.

An exceptional dry, full bodied, smooth and complex red from a great vintage, 2020, in Hawke's Bay. This blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and  Cabernet Franc is made from hand picked grapes and it massively over delivers on taste, complexity and its incredible depth of flavour from spending 18 months ageing in French oak. The flavours are outrageously good in this lovely red. 

Good-value Pinot Noir from Central Otago where Pinot rules over 80 per cent of the vineyard area and makes gorgeous fruit driven reds with medium body and fresh, cool climate notes of bright acidity and earthy tones. Lovely new addition to our shelves.
The wine brand is owned by two families who grow the grapes and employ experienced winemakers in the region to produce their wines. The philosophy of the owners is to produce high quality wines made from hand picked grapes from vineyard sites with low yields, using wild yeast fermentations, minimal sulphur additions and using sustainable practices as much as possible. This is their quest and the wines are elegant renditions of Otago's edgy climate with its hot summer days and cool seasons on both sides of ripening. 

Smooth earthy flavours intermingle with dark cherry flavours in this new Pinot Noir which is made with grapes grown on a well established, older vineyard site which has a new lease of life, in the centre of Martinborough. The 3.5 hectare vineyard was established by the Brodies who sold it to Eva and Ross Mackay in 2018. The new name is Dublin Street Wines, the first vintage being from the high quality 2019 vintage followed by the great 2020 one. Both years were beautifully high quality ones for wine with dry settled weather, which produced great quality grapes that translated into very good wines. 

The vineyard is entirely devoted to Pinot Noir and planted with five different clonal variations (114, 115, 667, 777 and 5). 

The aim of the game now is to reduce oak use in the wines, replacing it with whole bunch and wild yeast fermentations; two winemaking tools that can accentuate structure and savoury flavour aspects, without dominating. 

One of the great dry Rieslings of North Canterbury, a region with a long dry autumn that typically results in concentrated citrus flavours of ripe lemon zest and notes of green apple, which stretch out to a lingering vibrant finish in this memorably delicious wine. It typically contains 4 grams residual sugar per litre (firmly in the dry camp) each year, including in this new release from the 2019 vintage. The wine is made from grapes harvested at 20.5 brix from low cropping land (2.2 tonnes per hectare). This Riesling is made from a vineyard planted on the Glasnevin Gravels. All grapes are hand picked, whole bunch pressed to stainless steel and fermented with a neutral yeast strain then aged on lees until bottled in late summer following harvest. 

This wine drinks beautifully now as a youthful, refreshing dry white and also ages superbly for five to six years, potentially longer in good cellar conditions.

Te Kano is a Central Otago based winery making stylish, high quality wines. Their Pinot Noir is a supple, fruity wine with raspberry, plum and cherry flavours. Subtle savoury herbal notes bring complexity and elegance. This wine is unfined and unfiltered to preserve its finesse and purity.

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery. Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

The name Koparepare is Maori for gift. 

Whitehaven Wines was founded by Greg and Sue White in 1994 after they sailed into the Marlborough Sounds to shelter from a storm in the early 1990s and fell for the natural beauty of the region and the haven it provided. So they decided to take the next natural step - set up a winery back on dry land, naming it, naturally enough, Whitehaven.

VINEYARD - The fruit from this wine was sourced from a single Waipara Valley vineyard.  The fruit is left on the vine to ripen until the berries start to lose moisture and shrivel, concentrating the flavours and producing a rich style of Pinot Gris. 

SOIL TYPE - Alluvial gravels

WINEMAKING - The fruit was hand-picked and meticulously hand sorted. The juice was fermented warm by indigenous yeasts in aged French oak barriques.

TASTING NOTES - Wonderfully fruited and fragrant, the bouquet shows mango, golden peach, poached pear and rich floral aromas, leading to a splendidly flavoursome palate offering opulent fruit flavours with spicy nuances, finishing long and delicious. Gorgeously styled with rich tones of ripe fruit intensity backed by juicy acidity. Sam Kim - Wine Orbit.