South Africa

Rosé from Cabernet Franc rather than the usual Grenache or Syrah, which trades soft strawberry for a herbal, redcurrant edge and a spicy finish.

Barrel fermentation gives Sauvignon Blanc texture and weight instead of the sharp green character the grape is known for.

Botmaskop is the Bordeaux blend Delaire Graff builds its reds around — four varieties, four weeks of extended skin contact on the Caberne...

Lismore is a single estate in Greyton, high and cool, built from nothing by an American who arrived in 2003.

Viognier this concentrated usually loses its edges; eighteen months in Burgundian barrel here builds weight while dry-farmed shale vineya...

Kershaw's G.P.S.

Half Greyton, half Elgin — two of South Africa's coldest vineyard sites — and the result is a Syrah closer to the northern Rhône than to ...

Barrel-fermented Chenin usually trades tension for weight; this one keeps both, with eleven months on the lees adding grip rather than fat.

A serious Stellenbosch Chardonnay built for tension rather than weight: barrel-fermented for texture, then held back from malolactic ferm...

Pinot Noir rarely works far from Burgundy, and the cold Atlantic air funnelling into the Hemel-en-Aarde is one of the few places in the s...

The Hemel-en-Aarde sits close enough to the Atlantic that cold air slows the ripening, which is why South Africa's finest Chardonnay comes from here.

Elgin is the coolest wine region in South Africa, and Richard Kershaw is one of very few Masters of Wine anywhere who makes his own wine.

Viognier turns blowsy in warm places; Lismore's high, cold site at the southern tip of Africa gives it perfume without losing the acid line.

Cape Merlot usually means soft and simple; this comes off steep, cool, south-facing slopes and spends fifteen months in barrel, a third of them new.

Grenache Blanc is rare in South Africa, and rarer still handled this way — whole-bunch pressed, fermented with wild yeast in seasoned bar...

Groot Constantia has been making wine since 1685, and the cool, Atlantic-brushed slopes below Table Mountain suit Sauvignon Blanc better ...

Chenin Blanc is South Africa's signature white, and the old blocks are the ones worth chasing — here vines planted in 1985 and 1993, salv...

Rhône-style blends from South Africa offer some of the best value in juicy, food-friendly reds, and Brookdale is a young estate already turning heads.

Pinotage carries a difficult reputation, largely earned in the 1990s by wines that were rustic and overworked.

Cool-site Chardonnay with the oak used sparingly, letting the acidity carry the wine.

A Rhone blend in a maritime climate, which keeps the alcohol in check and the pepper intact.

Richard Kershaw is one of very few Masters of Wine making wine in South Africa, and the G.P.S.