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South African Red Wines

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South African Red Wines

South African wines have become very popular since the removal of trade sanctions, and for many years now South Africa has been producing some top quality award winning wines.

Wine making in South Africa dates back to 1659, and once upon a time Constantia was considered one of the greatest wines in the world.

Most of South African wines are produced in the Western Cape near the coast. There are four main wine producing regions, districts and wards. These are Breede River Valley, Coastal, Little Karoo and Olifants River.

South Africa produced 3.6% of the worlds wine in 2006 and ranked number 7 in overall volume. It is estimated that it produced7807 million litres of wine in 2009.

History of South African Wine

South African LandscapeSouth African wine roots dates back to 1652, when a Dutch surgeon named Jan van Riebeeck who was part of the 'Dutch East India Company' established a supply station in a place that is now known as Cape Town. Jan van Riebeeck was in charge of the supply station and he had orders to plant vineyards for wine and grapes to ward off scurvy ( a disease which results from a deficiency of vitamin C) for sailors continuing on their voyage.

The governor of the Cape Peninsula (Capeof Good Hope) Simon van del Stel wanted to improve the production of wine in the Cape in 1685, so purchased large 1850 acres estate just outside of Cape Town establishing the Constantia wine estate, unfortunately after his death the estate fell poor condition. In 1778 Hendik Cloete purchased the vineyard and revived it, and Constantia soon earned itself a valuable reputation across Europe for its Muscat based dessert wines. Following years saw the wine industry in South Africa both Flourish and fail with various issues in South Africa.

During the 1900s more that 80 million vines were replanted, but there was an excess of wine and a lot of this was not of the best quality. The 20th century was also quite disappointing for the South African wine industry and it wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s when the Apartheid ended and world's export market opened that South Africa's wine industry began to experience a new beginning.

South Africas very own Red Wine - Pinotage

Pinotage is South Africa's own. A hybrid of Pinot Noir and Hermitage from the Cape and created by Professor Perold in 1925 at Stellenbosch University.

Pinotage South African Red Wine

Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch VineyardEast of Cape Town, this is South Africa's leading wine area. Stellenbosch produces some of the finest South African red wine. It is the centre of South Africa's wine industry with many of the leading estates having their headquarters here. The climate in Stellenbosch consists of a Mediterranean climate with both warm and dry growing seasons, with a variety of dark allvaial soils in the valleys through to decomposed granites on the hillsides; these are perfect for the production of high quality red wines.

The wine producing wards within Stellenbosch district WO are: Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Banghoek, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch.

Buy Top Quality South African Red Wine

Constantia

Constantia is to the east of Stellenbosch on the Atlantic coast, and where the first vineyards were planted in South Africa. The vineyards here are located in an ideal position on the slopes of the Constantia Mountains where they are cooled by the sea breezes.

Constantia is the source of the dessert wine drunk by Napoleon when he was exiled on St Helena. Constantia is now the main source for some excellent table wines. Although Constantia is better known for its white wines, it does also produce some top quality red wines such as; Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Constantia Sebastiaan a cab franc based blend of malbec and petit verdot.

Paarl

Paarl meaning Pearl in Dutch is located North West of Cape Town. Paarl produces a diverse range of wines including dessert wines; it is home to numerous top estates. With its Mediterranean climate it produces and focuses more on red wines such as Shiraz, Pinotage and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The premium wine producing wards within paarl region are; Franschoek Valley and Wellington, other wards are Simonsberg-Paarl, and Voor Paardeberg

Walker Bay

The cooler climate of Walker bay is located on the whale coast to the south of Cape Town. Walker Bay has only recently started to attract attention and has started producing some lovely pinot noir along with some popular white wines. Several estates has shown considerable success in this region.

Some consistent quality Red Wines from this region includes Pinotage and Merlot and white wine include Sauvignon Blanc.

Good Wine Online is one of the UKs top wine sellers, they sell a variety of internatioanl wines and south african red wine

Zevenwact

Zevenwacht Primitivo Stellenbosch South African Red WineThe wines of Zevenwacht are distinguished by their classic style and finely crafted elegance. The wine makers jacques Viljoen honours the century old wine making traditions and combines modern technology producing some top quality premier wines.

The Zevenwacht estate covers 200 hectares and the vineyards are ideally situated for growing top quality grapes. The vineyard has quality, varied soils and the vineyards have been selectively planted with red and white varieties.

A superb wine to come from this region is the Zevenwacht Primitivo Stellenbosch. It is a flagship wine of the estate only made in tiny quantities. The grape variety is Primitivo and it has been described as 'Like drinking Black Forest Gateaux'.

This wine also has very low sulphites which is good for those with sulphite intolerance.

Breede River Valley

The Breede River Valley is located of the Drakenstein Mountains, which a warm climate and is very dry in areas. The main source of water in the region is the river itself.

The region is know for large scale wine production, the Worcester district produces more wine that any other region in the country, with almost a quarter of South African annual production.

Worcester has a large fertile plain that relies on the river due to its dry climate, the area produces sizable amounts of fortified wine as well as Muscadel and Hanepoot based dessert wines. The district is home to almost half of all the Semillion and a third of Ruby Cabernet planted in South Africa and has sizable planting of Colombard and Chenin blanc.

Other regions include Slanghoek and Breedekloof, which have seen success growing botryized and dry Sauvignon blanc wines.

The temperatures in and around the Breede River Valley are normally around 22 degrees Celsius in the summer.

Which of these is your favourite South African red wine?

South African Red Wine

There's a huge variety of South African red wines, we've chosen some of our favourites for you to choose from!

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