By Claire Hu
21 May 2012

Can South African wine ever compete in the prestige stakes against European labels? Claire Hu finds out which local wines are creating a buzz in the country’s biggest export market during a glutinous visit to London.

I’m in London for what I shall call a detailed field research trip. In other words, I’m spending a lot of time eating and drinking out in what is arguably the most diverse culinary capital of the world. That it hasn’t stopped raining since I arrived hasn’t put me off, although I’ve had to buy a raincoat and a sturdy pair of walking shoes.

London is the centre of the international wine trade and I’m like a kid in a sweetie shop visiting the growing breed of exciting new independent shops. There’s a real buzz around South African wine at the moment, particularly at the boutique premium level. The credit crunch continues to bite, and the wines are increasingly seen as great value for the quality they offer when compared to their more famous European counterparts.

I popped into a Cape Wine launch tasting at the South African High Commission in Trafalgar Square, organised by Wines of South Africa, in which the wines were divided regionally and the emphasis was on the tourism experience of visiting the country and farms rather than formal tasting notes.

I was really impressed to meet Deborah Hoggart, the young and passionate co-owner (with her husband) of Cape Klein, which sells only artisinal South African wines, mainly between £15 to £30, directly to private customers. I was curious why they had taken the risk of selling wines from a single country, especially one which is still overcoming a cheap and cheerful image in the UK.

“We’ve been to South Africa many times and found it really hard to get handcrafted wines from the smaller farms over here”, explains Deborah. “We understood that if we were going to get into the wine industry it had to be passion-led, as we weren’t going to get rich doing it.” To continue reading this article, click here

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