What to drink this week

South African wine

South African wine in the UK hasn’t enjoyed the kind of dramatic boom that occurred with Australian wine in the 1990s, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in the 2000s or Argentinian Malbec in the 2010s. What’s been happening is a slower and steadier rise in reputation and prominence. There are probably a number of reasons for this—including a less streamlined industry with fewer really big players and wine styles that are subtler and less obvious than those of the Antipodes—but a quiet, steady rise can be just as good as a gold rush.

A quiet rise in reputation is as good as a gold rush, assures Harry Eyres

Why you should be drinking them

I’ve always felt that South African wines had more of an ‘old-world feel’ than those from California, Australia, Chile, Argentina or New Zealand. The virtues of restraint seemed more in evidence. Nowadays, however, South Africa is striking out confidently in its own way.

What to buy

Rollo Gabb is an Englishman—son of a successful wine importer turned owner of vineyards in the Helderberg Basin—who has spotted a gap in the market between everyday, massmarket offerings and top-end, singleestate wines (although he has one or two of those). Journey’s End Haystack Chardonnay Stellenbosch 2018 (£11.80; www.tanners-wines.co.uk) is a lovely, pale greenish-gold, combines ripe tropical fruit with buttery oak on the nose, then turns quite lemony and linear on the palate. From a single vineyard block on the Gabb family estate, Journey’s End Destination Chardonnay 2017 (£21.99; www. allaboutwine.co.uk) is impressively rich, ripe and Burgundian, with high-quality new French oak in evidence, but not over emphatic. Turning to reds, Journey’s End The Cape Doctor Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 (right, £21.50; www.tannerswines.co.uk) has a fascinating minty and tarry nose, with complex berry fruit. This is a precise wine with lovely tension.