What Is The Best Wine Region In South Africa
The most significant wine district of the Coastal Region is Stellenbosch, which is a major player in the international wine industry and is home to South Africa’s best-known wine estates.
This famous wine town is internationally recognized as the birthplace of Pinotage grapes.
Stellenbosch’s cool, wet winters and dry, hot summers are characteristic of a Mediterranean climate, and the district is heavily influenced by its mountainous surroundings, which include the Simonsberg, Stellenbosch, Helderberg and Jonkershoek mountains.
Elevations range from roughly 490 to1,312 feet above sea level, and geographic contributions from these formations and geographic contributions from these formations as well as deposits from millions of years ago have resulted in a wide range of soils throughout the district — as many as 50 different types — including decomposed granite, sandstone or alluvial soils on clay bases.
These vast terroir differences can result in wines of varying expression depending on from where they were sourced; wines made using grapes from vines planted in more clay-heavy soils can exhibit greater concentration and structure than those planted in granite.
It is with this in mind that subappellation-like wards, such as Banghoek, Bottelary, Jonkershoek Valley and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch, may offer a bit more consistency and typicity from one bottle to another, providing a deeper understanding of the unique characteristics to a subregion.
What wine is best from South Africa?
The country grows a range of grapes but is best known for Chenin blanc, cabernet sauvignon and the popular pinotage, which is South Africa’s national grape and a cross between pinot noir and cinsault.