Weather conditions in South Africa's Wine Lands

Reports from the Cape wine lands are saying that spring brought less rainfall than normal and the summer has been a lot hotter than normal. Water restrictions have even been put in place in some areas of the Cape! Putting these two factors together, the consensus among wine makers is that the harvest will be lower in volume but higher in quality. Grape vines thrive on harsh conditions, producing some of the best vintages when challenged by Nature. This will be no exception in South Africa for the 2005 vintage. Buyers can expect full-bodied, complex wines with concentrated aromas and flavours, but must be willing to pay a little more for a fine vintage with lower volumes.

Latest Irish Wine Guides Published!

Every year around Christmas, 2 important wine publications hit the book shelves across Ireland. These are The Wine Guide - The Best of Wine in Ireland and The Wine Republic. In their pursuit of finding "the best wine in Ireland for you, the consumer", wine importers and distributors are invited to submit a limited selection of their portfolios to the publications' tasting panels for evaluation and potential inclusion in the books.

The Wine Seller submitted wines to both panels and we are very pleased with our results. We have 8 wines recommended in The Wine Guide - The Best of Wine in Ireland 2005 and 13 wines recommended in The Wine Republic 2005. Refer to our web site wine list for the recommendations.

(Note: Our contact details in The Wine Guide are incorrect. Please see the "Contact" information on this web site for the correct details).

Irish Deputy Prime Minister visits SA wine lands

Our Tanaiste, Mary Harney, has quietly been holidaying with family and friends over the recent holidays in the Southern Cape. They were in the country for 18 days to celebrate her sister-in-law's 50th birthday. Harney told the media that the Western Cape simply blew them away. "The wine lands are breathtakingly beautiful and your wines are of such good quality. I cannot believe that South Africans would want to live anywhere else in the world," she said.

Which? Magazine Wine Guide 2005 warns wine consumers to avoid buying wines under £5 (or €7.20). The article quotes Which? saying "..buying wines at this price point can only mean inferior-quality wines". They go on to say that producers are forced to cut corners by the big-muscle buying of supermarkets and the resulting wines taste worse.