Wine Education6 October 20265 min read

South African grapes: what's actually in the glass

By South African Wines

From a rescued old-vine white almost nobody has poured to the Cape's own red grape, here is how South Africa's grapes taste when you put them side by side.

Most people who go looking for South African grapes come back with a list and not much else. A list won't tell you why one Cape white tastes creamy and savoury while another is all citrus, or why a red built around Pinotage behaves differently from a straight Cabernet. That only lands when you have a glass in front of you.

So this is a short tour through the grapes by way of three bottles that each make a point. If you want the fuller roll-call afterwards, our guide to the Cape's key grape varieties runs through them properly. Here, the aim is narrower: three wines, three very different jobs, and enough understanding that you could hold your own at a dinner table in October.

The white grape hardly anyone has poured

Start with Clairette Blanche, because it shows how much of South Africa's story is about grapes that nearly disappeared. It fell badly out of fashion with Cape growers, who replaced it with varieties that sold more easily, and the vines that survived did so mostly by accident, their fruit vanishing anonymously into co-operative blends.

The Daschbosch Avon Clairette Blanche comes from one of those survivors: old bush vines on Isak Visagie's Avon farm, on the lower slopes of the Olifantsberg in the Breedekloof. They are well into their fifth decade, grown low to the ground without trellising and worked by hand, and they give tiny crops. That is the whole point of old vines: less fruit per vine, more concentration in each bunch.

Breedekloof is a warm, dry inland valley tucked behind the mountains, but cool air rolls down at night, so hand-picking in the early morning locks in freshness. In the cellar, whole bunches are pressed, the juice settles for a full day, and fermentation happens slowly in fourth-fill French oak. Old barrels are deliberate: they give breath and texture rather than vanilla.

Six months on the lees with regular stirring is what builds the fleshy, creamy weight, while the acidity keeps it bright. Greengage and citrus up front, a quiet nutty depth underneath. Tim Atkin MW gave it 93 in his South Africa Special Report, and Christian Eedes at Winemag.co.za scored it 92. Serve it at 10 degrees with grilled sea bass and lemon, or dressed Cornish crab on sourdough, and you will understand why Daschbosch keeps hunting down forgotten vineyards.

Pinotage, and the blend that makes sense of it

If Clairette Blanche is the grape South Africa almost lost, Pinotage is the one it invented and then argued about for decades. On its own it divides people. In a Cape blend, where it leads but does not dominate, it tends to win the argument.

Three Cape Ladies from Warwick Estate is a Cape blend in the truest sense: Pinotage joined by Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, each variety doing something the others cannot. Pinotage brings the dark berry compote and a curious twist of rhubarb; the two Cabernets bring the fine-grained tannins that give the wine its shape.

Oak here is judged rather than imposed, so the warm spice and mocha sit inside the fruit instead of on top of it. It is medium-bodied, which matters in practice: this is a red you can drink through a whole evening. Open it at 17 degrees alongside a rosemary and garlic leg of lamb, or a slow-cooked oxtail stew on a wet Sunday.

It will also reward patience. Five to seven years in a cool cupboard and those tannins soften while the fruit turns more savoury, which is the quiet argument for buying more than one bottle of anything you like.

Grapes that never become table wine

The third thing worth knowing is that in the Cape, grapes have long had another destination entirely. Fortify the base wine with grape spirit, then age it oxidatively, deliberately letting air do its slow work, and you end up somewhere completely different.

Sedgwick's Old Brown Sherry is made in the Spanish oloroso style, and that deep nut-brown colour and mellow character come from time and air rather than from any grape trick. It is non-vintage by design: multiple years are blended together so the house style stays the same every time you open a bottle.

That makes it the least precious wine in this piece and possibly the most useful. There is nothing to cellar and nothing to decide. Recorked and kept somewhere cool and dark, it holds its character for four to six weeks after opening, which is more forgiving than any table wine.

It sits on the sweeter side without being heavy, so it earns its place after dinner with sticky toffee pudding and clotted cream, or mature Cheddar with quince paste and walnuts. For anyone who grew up with it in a Western Cape kitchen, it needs no introduction at all.

How to taste your way through them

The fastest way to learn South African grapes is not to read about them in order. It is to open contrasting bottles on the same evening and notice what your mouth does differently with each.

Temperature does more of the work than people expect. The Clairette wants 10 degrees, cold enough to sharpen the citrus but not so cold the lees texture disappears. The Cape blend wants 17, cool cellar rather than warm room, which keeps the spice lifted and stops the alcohol pushing forward.

And pay attention to texture, not just flavour. Creaminess from lees stirring, grip from tannin, the soft caramelised weight of an oxidative style: those are the things that tell you how a wine was made, and they are far easier to recognise again than a long list of fruit descriptors.

If you're curious about where to go next, the three bottles here cover most of the ground between them: an old-vine white, a Cape blend, and a fortified classic. The rest of the Cape's grapes are waiting in the full range, and there is no wrong place to start.

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South African grapes: what's actually in the glass

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