Shiraz – Incogvino https://incogvino.co.za Mon, 28 Nov 2016 07:46:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1 {Giveaway} – KWV The Mentors New Releases https://incogvino.co.za/giveaway-kwv-the-mentors-new-releases/ https://incogvino.co.za/giveaway-kwv-the-mentors-new-releases/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2015 07:44:23 +0000 https://incogvino.co.za/?p=562 Established in 1918 as a winemaking co-operative, KWV is a famous and inextricable part of the local wine industry. The company today encompasses a multitude of award-winning wines and brandies. While the iconic Roodeberg may have been the first ‘flagship’ wine, in recent years The Mentors range has taken over that role. These wines strive to be a… Read More

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]]> Mentors_RangeEstablished in 1918 as a winemaking co-operative, KWV is a famous and inextricable part of the local wine industry. The company today encompasses a multitude of award-winning wines and brandies. While the iconic Roodeberg may have been the first ‘flagship’ wine, in recent years The Mentors range has taken over that role. These wines strive to be a true expression of terroir, experimenting with different cultivars from different areas and creating a new standard of excellence and consistency.

According to those in the know, premiumisation is not only a thing but a global trend. Brands and services aim to offer a range of products at different price points, often aimed at different consumers. The ever-present lookout for new ways to add more value is everywhere. It’s particularly prevalent in the wine industry, with both large-scale producers and small to medium wineries setting out their offerings with labels like entry-level, premium, reserve etc. Some seem to get it quite wrong at times, asking premium (and above) prices for wines that are mediocre at best. Whether or not premiumisation was a goal in mind during creation of The Mentors range, they’ve very much gotten it right.

In 2006, The Mentors range was created by KWV with the purpose of allowing the winemakers free reign in terms of creativity, experimentation and sourcing the best grapes from the best vineyards. It’s no small task to create wines that are earmarked to be the flagship products for a company such as KWV but the team behind The Mentors have come out swinging and the results are nothing less than spectacular.

If it’s quality you’re concerned with, the production of The Mentors ticks all the boxes one would expect: stringent selection of vineyards and grapes, only the ‘best of the best’ wines get bottled and even then, quantities are limited. If the wines don’t reach the high quality standards, it simply doesn’t get released. For example, The Mentors Grenache Blanc was last released in 2011  and was only given the green light again this year with release of the 2014 vintage. They simply don’t mess about: if it’s not good enough, it’s not going out.

Putting aside the economics of cost, production and any other factors that influence the decision to release a wine or not, I respect the philosophy behind this range immensely and (in my opinion, at least) it pays dividends. I have not yet encountered a wine from the range that I have not enjoyed or adored. A brand offering such consistent quality and innovation is not to be sniffed at. You should rather be sniffing their wines.

I’m not going to say much about the wines because they very much speak for themselves. Also, if I started, this post would become very long, very quickly. I will mention that I was enamoured by the new release Grenache Blanc 2014, citrus and apple notes greet your nose and the wine itself is fresh with a clean but creamy lingering palate. I would not recommend sharing this with anyone – it’s just too good.

So because I love The Mentors and because the good people at KWV love sharing their very best with wine lovers everywhere, I have a mixed case (valued at R1290) of brand new release The Mentors wines to give away. The case consists of the following wines:

Grenache Blanc 2014
Sauvignon Blanc – Elim 2014
Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2014
Orchestra 2013
Canvas 2013
Shiraz 2013

To enter, simply comment below and tell me which great individual (historic figure, musician, artist – either still with us or someone who has already shuffled off this mortal coil) you would want to share a bottle of The Mentors with and why? Be creative, describe how you see it happening in your mind’s eye. Interesting answers may or may not count more than shorter ones. *ahem*

For additional entries, retweet the link to the competition with the #MeetGreatness or use the tweet below:

Tell how you would like to with The Mentors and you could win. https://incogvino.co.za/?p=562

Winners will be drawn and announced on Monday 13 July.

*** Competition is now closed. Congratulations to Lize Hartley for the winning comment!***

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]]> https://incogvino.co.za/giveaway-kwv-the-mentors-new-releases/feed/ 15 Ditch Secret Santa. Time for #SecretStellies https://incogvino.co.za/ditch-secret-santa-time-for-secretstellies/ https://incogvino.co.za/ditch-secret-santa-time-for-secretstellies/#respond Sat, 13 Dec 2014 10:48:00 +0000 https://incogvino.co.za/?p=443 ‘Tis the season and all that, but if you’re like me and you’re struggling to get into the Christmas spirit (but you also desperately don’t want to be a grinch) then I may have just the solution for you. You see, while I love and have always loved the Festive season, I must admit that… Read More

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]]> #SecretStellies - The Setting

#SecretStellies – The Setting

‘Tis the season and all that, but if you’re like me and you’re struggling to get into the Christmas spirit (but you also desperately don’t want to be a grinch) then I may have just the solution for you. You see, while I love and have always loved the Festive season, I must admit that this being a grown-up gig has taken some of the magic out of the whole thing. Work, deadlines, last minute crises. And let’s not talk about the anxiety of figuring out leave and holiday arrangements. Bah! Humbug! Hardly things that make me want to wrap myself in tinsel and sing Fa-la-la-la-laaaa. So how do we combat The Grinch at this truly lovely time of year? What could we do to dust off the anxiety and “meh-ness” of 2014 and get ready to have some summer fun in the gorgeous winelands? Lucky for you all, I have a secret. It’s called #SecretStellies and it might just put you in the summer festive season mood.

#SecretStellies is a little project dreamt up by Lydia from Beau Joubert. I could write endless posts about the endless talents of this remarkable wine-lover but for now, just take note of her marvellous idea: Secret Stellenbosch. The idea is to showcase the real hidden gems of the area. With nearly 150 wine farms on the official Stellenbosch Wine Route, there is more than enough to see and do to keep any wandering wino busy for months. Visitors are often drawn to the bigger, more well-known farms simply because they’re hard to miss. Of course they also offer quality wines, activities and are well worth a visit. But smaller wineries that may not have the word-of-mouth presence of the more popular ones are often skipped. #SecretStellies aims to uncover these secret treasures of the winelands and give the public a little insight on what they may be missing.

Strolling down the road at Beau Joubert.

The first #SecretStellies day out was organised with military precision and focused on the Polkadraai Hills area of Stellenbosch. We simply had to make our way to Beau Joubert – the first of three stops – and the rest would be taken care of by The Amazing Lydia.  At BJ we were treated not only to a tasting of their wines and a nice gab about the whole #SecretStellies concept, but we were among the first people ever to taste the very first MCC from Beau Joubert. And let me tell you, it certainly was worth the wait. If you’d like to know more, keep an eye on the Beau Joubert Twitter feed. After sampling their mind-bogglingly fantastic value for money wines (seriously, most of them are R100 or less at cellar door. I highly recommend the Chenin Blanc, the Shiraz and the “Free-run” Merlot Rosé.) we took a leisurely stroll down the road to the neighbouring Bein wines, where they had a special experience waiting for us.

Prepping for The Donkey Walk

Bein Private Cellar is exactly the type of winery that sits at the heart of the #SecretStellies idea; a small operation run by Luca and Ingrid Bein – Swiss veterinarians who fell in love with South Africa and moved here to study and make wine. Their focus is Merlot and they produce a fantastic selection. Bein also offers an unusual winelands experience: a donkey walk. The donkey walk takes visitors on a walk through the vineyards, up to a lookout point and picnic spot. The donkeys carry delicious picnic fare and when you reach the top, Ingrid and Luca unpack the spread and the wine and a little feast is had, overlooking the magnificent surroundings. A good time was had by all, relaxing under the trees and digesting not only the nibbles but the view. You only have to chat with the Beins for 5 minutes to uncover their love for South Africa and their enthusiasm for wine. A visit to Bein Private cellar and a donkey walk should be on everyone’s summer to-do list.

Once we rolled ourselves back down the hill (after being fed beyond elegant sufficiency with the lovely picnic) we were loaded into and onto a bakkie and whisked off to Saxenburg for a Safari Wine tasting. And no, this is not some metaphoric comparison of the Saxenburg wines with The Big Five. Oh no. The tastings are held in a game camp with zebra, antelope and other wild game trotting about around you. No rhinos, elephants or wild cats of course, but if you sit back and stare into the veld, it’s difficult to imagine you’re in the winelands and not at a luxury game lodge.

We indulged in a tasting of Saxenburg’s finest, including their truly fantastic MCC (at R180 a bottle it really is a brilliant buy – unfortunately the label design does let it down immensely as it does not visually present itself as a near-R200 bottle of bubbles, but DO give it a try if you encounter it at your local. It gives the other bubbles in that price class a real run for their money!). Saxenburg has a great selection of wines, from a creamy Chardonnay to a supremely elegant Cabernet Sauvignon which on their own make the estate worth a visit.

And with the view of zebras in the distance (and the kerfuffle of finding of an ostrich egg next to the camp), our #SecretStellies day ended. I’ve always known that Stellenbosch – in fact, all the winelands areas – are a heady mix of the historic, the well-known, the crowd-pleasers, the small and obscure. The #SecretStellies adventure reminded me that the hidden gems must be discovered and talked about. A little exposure will hardly turn them into commercial punters but rather serve to share the secrets they hold with the world. And when that happens, everybody wins.

So if you’re short on some summer Christmas cheer, I recommend a visit to one of these secret spots. It might be just what the doctor Santa ordered . Ho, ho, ho!

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]]> https://incogvino.co.za/ditch-secret-santa-time-for-secretstellies/feed/ 0 #TasteHautEspoir – A Tremendous Twitter Wine Tasting https://incogvino.co.za/tastehautespoir-tremendous-twitter-tasting/ https://incogvino.co.za/tastehautespoir-tremendous-twitter-tasting/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2014 06:47:28 +0000 https://incogvino.co.za/?p=260 Haut Espoir. Literally translated, it means “high hopes”. And I certainly had high hopes for our Haut Espoir Twitter tasting. Not only has Haute Espoir been one of our longest standing SuperFAN Wine Farms, they are also amazing to work with. We don’t play favourites here at Incogvino, but if we had to, Rob and his team… Read More

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]]> Haut Espoir. Literally translated, it means “high hopes”. And I certainly had high hopes for our Haut Espoir Twitter tasting. Not only has Haute Espoir been one of our longest standing SuperFAN Wine Farms, they are also amazing to work with. We don’t play favourites here at Incogvino, but if we had to, Rob and his team would definitely be contenders. But I digress. I could go on and on about the farm all day, but that will have to wait for another post. Right now, I want to tell you about what went down in Twitter town on Thursday evening.

Haut Espoir

Haut Espoir

This past Thursday, wine lovers from all over SA joined up virtually – via the Twittersphere (a twitter wine tasting!) – to swirl, sniff, sip, gurgle, gulp and imbibe in a handful of Haut Espoir offerings. The Incogvino SuperFANS were offered their pick of Haut Espoir wines a few weeks ago. Rob and his team put together two fantastic “Fan Boxes” for the SuperFANS to choose from. One was a Shiraz vertical box, with vintages from ’05-’09 (of which ’08 and ’09 are unlabelled and unreleased) and a bottle of Gentle Giant 2009 to round it off. The other box was more a mixed bag: Shiraz 2007, Gentle Giant 2009 (two bottles), Chardonnay 2010, Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 and a very special, not-released-commercially, botrytis Semillon Solera white port. Orders were put in and records were broken. Our SuperFANS have always been partial to buying a few bottles of wine when the Fan Boxes come around, but this time they outdid themselves. 73 Fan Boxes were sold. Most of those in the first two days of the offer.

Orders rolled in, invoices were sent off, EFT’s went flying and deliveries were dispatched all over the country. The date was set and the SuperFANS were prepping in all earnestness for #TasteHautEspoir. The Twitter tastings have come a long way and they have become events where wine drinkers gather, prepare special dinners to pair with the wines being tasted and invite friends to join the experience. #TasteHautEspoir was no exception. Here’s what went down, in tweets and images:

Haut Espoir is a boutique wine farm in Franschhoek, entirely family run, with the focus on making the best wine possible (and a spot of buchu brandy on the side). They’re also known for their conservation efforts, restoring fynbos on the farm, their BWI accreditation and simply for crafting truly fantastic wines. Even in an industry that is built on passion, you will be hard pressed to find a more passionate team than Rob and his family. For more information, visit their website or follow Rob (@rambowine) or the farm (@hautespoir) on Twitter.

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]]> https://incogvino.co.za/tastehautespoir-tremendous-twitter-tasting/feed/ 1 #TasteHautEspoir https://incogvino.co.za/tastehauteespoir/ https://incogvino.co.za/tastehauteespoir/#respond Wed, 03 Sep 2014 13:38:48 +0000 https://incogvino.co.za/?p=256 Yes, you guessed it. The time has come for another #SuperFANS Twitter tasting. We’ll be hashtagging it tomorrow night (Thursday 4 September) with SuperFANS from around SA, digging into their Haut Espoir stash and sharing thoughts, opinions, tasting notes and sprinklings of white people.. err… pepper… (you had to be there). For those not in the… Read More

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]]> HE Shiraz 07

Haut Espoir Shiraz 2007

Yes, you guessed it. The time has come for another #SuperFANS Twitter tasting. We’ll be hashtagging it tomorrow night (Thursday 4 September) with SuperFANS from around SA, digging into their Haut Espoir stash and sharing thoughts, opinions, tasting notes and sprinklings of white people.. err… pepper… (you had to be there).

For those not in the know, SuperFAN Twitter tastings are a fun li’l thing we do every two months or so. Our gobsmackingly fantastic member farms treat us to a special fan pack, filled with liquid treasure. We then pick two or three wines from the packs and set them aside for tasting on the night. A date and time is agreed upon by all the SuperFANS and on the night, we take to Twitter from all over the country. We sniff, swirl, squint, tweet, type, drink, hiccup and gulp our way through the wines and the whole thing plays out real-time, online.

Our lineup for tomorrow night’s tasting is as follows:

2009 Gentle Giant
2007 Shiraz
Bonus round: 2008 Shiraz (to do a mini “vertical” tasting and compare years)

Last time around, we did #TasteLithos, possibly our most interactive tasting yet. 15,236 saw #TasteLithos and the potential reach was 26,958. That’s not half bad. And I think that #TasteHautEspoir will be topping those numbers.

If you’re NOT a SuperFAN, but you want to see what all the fuss is about, follow the hashtag #TasteHautEspoir from 19:00 on Thursday 4 September. If you have some of the Haut Espoir up for tasting lying around, feel free to join in! We’re not exclusive or snobby, we think we’re pretty cool. And if you want to become a SuperFAN and be in on the action with special fan packs, events and tastings, roll on over to our contact page and give us a shout, and we’ll add you to the list. No spam, nary a newsletter or unwanted content. Just super content.

 

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]]> https://incogvino.co.za/tastehauteespoir/feed/ 0 Wine Review: Eagle’s Nest Shiraz 2010 https://incogvino.co.za/eagles-nest-shiraz-2010/ https://incogvino.co.za/eagles-nest-shiraz-2010/#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2014 20:21:44 +0000 https://incogvino.co.za/?p=32 *This post was originally published on Wine-SA.com – 15 July 2013* Nestled in the historical Constantia wine valley is the Eagle’s Nest estate. Purchased by the Mylrea family in 1984, the farm was nearly destroyed by the devastating fires that tore through the Cape in 2000. The historical buildings were spared from the destruction and in rebuilding… Read More

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]]> *This post was originally published on Wine-SA.com – 15 July 2013*

The previous vintage, the Eagles Nest Shiraz 2009

The previous vintage, the Eagles Nest Shiraz 2009

Nestled in the historical Constantia wine valley is the Eagle’s Nest estate. Purchased by the Mylrea family in 1984, the farm was nearly destroyed by the devastating fires that tore through the Cape in 2000. The historical buildings were spared from the destruction and in rebuilding the farm it was decided to plant varietals that are best suited to the terroir and climate of the valley.

This decision, combined with the non-traditional styles used by the winemaker, has proven successful. Of the 38 ha farm, only 14 ha is planted with vineyards. The main varieties are Shiraz, Viognier and Merlot. The varied soil types on the estate offer the ideal conditions for each varietal and the cool breezes that blow in from False Bay ensure enough cooling on hot afternoons.

As a rule, awards and accolades rarely influence my choice of wine. The awards and accolades bestowed upon the Eagle’s Nest Shiraz are, however, all justified. 5-star Platter ratings, gold medals and trophies everywhere, each and every one well-deserved.

The Shiraz has a very cool climate character, white pepper tones structured with red berries and dark fruits, rounded off with mocha and violets. Soft, gentle tannins impart the wine with a smoothness second to none.

Despite it’s relatively young age, this Shiraz is very drinkable right now but has great aging potential given it’s solid profile and fine tannin structure.

The estate also offers a Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Merlot and a red blend, the Verreaux. Eagle’s Nest estate also supports the Western Cape Raptor Research Programme, promoting the awareness and conservation of the Verreaux’s Eagle.

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