Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa (PIWOSA) 2024 (Toronto)

On June 10 we went to the famous Constantine restaurant in Toronto for the PIWOSA tasting event, grouping a select few South African wineries. 

We started at Glenelly, a Stellenbosch winery, with the Unoaked Chardonnay, not yet available on the Canadian market. It's fermented in stainless steel, with strong acidity, and with a very affordable suggested price at $19. Immediately after, we sampled the Chardonnay, with more subdued acidity and priced at $30.

From the same winery, we continued with the Lady May, the producer's flagship red, in its 2019 iteration. It's a wine with balanced tannins, a blend of Cab Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Cab Franc. We concluded our time with Glenelly by trying their 2021 Cab Sauvignon, a balanced wine that would go great with red meat and priced at only $18.99.

Our next target was The Drift Estate from the Overberg Highlands, where we started with the Sauvignon Blanc, floral, balanced, mid-sweet. We then tasted their Ghost In The Machine, a skin Chenin Blanc, cold fermented for 12 days and then in regular barrel fermentation for 10 months. It has a velvety texture, it's very aromatic and has a smoky taste.

Still, at The Drift, we tasted the 2023 Pinotage Malbec, a wine with balanced acidity and soft tannins, the Pinotage being a warm climate wine. 

We continued the tasting with the 2021 Shiraz, a wine with deep taste and aroma. We ended the tasting with another wine from their Ghost In The Machine series, this time a Shiraz with a hint of Grenache, that underwent carbonic maceration. A wine with more accentuated tannins than the previous Shiraz, that we believe would go well with meats.

Arriving at the Raats stand, we started by sampling their Cab Franc, with deep aroma and balanced acidity, derived from the minerality of the dolomite rocks present in the vineyard's soil.

Then, we tasted their Chenin Blanc, a slighly aromatic wine with balanced acidity.

Their next wine, a Cinsault, comes from a 70 year old, single-vineyard block. It has low tannins and is an easily sippable wine.

The fourth winery stand we visited belonged to Jardin, from which we first sampled the Cab Sauvignon, in Vintages for $25.95. It has balanced acidity and subtle tannins. We continued to the Red Blend, available on consignment, made of 60% Cab Suvignon with the remainder being a mix of Merlot, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot.

At Journey's End, a 30 year old winery from Stellenbosch, we began with their V1 Chardonnay, with natural acidity, whose grapes are hand-picked. It's a balanced wine, with deep aroma. Secondly, we tasted the Destination Chardonnay, a more opulent wine then the previous Chard. It is barrel-fermented, floral with nice acidity on the palate. Lastly, we sampled the Shiraz Mourvedre Grenache, retailing for $18; balanced, with low tannins.

At Springfield Estates, we started with the Miss Lucy: sweetish, floral, with low natural acidity, reminiscent of Vinho Verde.

We continued with the Chardonnay, having strong acidity and a clean, crisp taste.

Last, but certainly not least, we tried an exceptional wine, obtained through a a very laborious process. Their Cab Sauvignon, retailing for $64.99 has no tannins. It is a gravity-only wine, made via the methode ancienne, with only 10 parts / million preservatives. It is first placed in a very cold cellar so fermentation with no tannins will take place. Then the temperature is increased to have normal fermentation for 4 weeks in steel. It is then moved to barrels made of 100% new French oak for 2 years with cleaning/refiltering every 3 months. This is finally followed by 6 years in the bottle. This produces an exceptionally smooth wine. 

We then arrived at Paul Cluver, hailing from Elgin Valley, the smallest and coldest of South Africa's wine regions, situated on a plateau surrounded by mountains. Here, we first had their Sauvignon Blanc, a floral wine with light acidity. We tried the Chardonnay next, a wine with a pleasant dandellion-like after-taste.

We proceeded to Ken Forrester, where we began by sampling their 2022 Grenache, Misfits, retailing for $25 starting in June. It is a wine with lots of tannins and aroma. Their Chenin Blanc is an old-vine, semi-sweet, floral wine.

Klein Constantia from Stellenbosch had a very interesting Vin de Constance, a very sweet and aromatic desert wine, similar to Icewine.

We then got to the Radford Dale organic winery where we started by sampling the Pearce Predhomme, a very balance, low-tannin Cinsault / Syrah blend with cherry notes and a good nose. We followed with the Pinotage - again, a low-tannin wine, good with meats.

At Avondale, we started with the Samsara, a Syrah, retailing for $50, the result of 100% natural fermentation of 12-18 months in oak. This wine has lots of cherry notes. We concluded with La Luna, a Bordeaux blend (Cab Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec) an extraordinarily smooth wine, and in fact, our favorite red of the day.

We ended our tasting at De Grendel where we began by sampling their Pinot Noir, in fact the only Pinot Noir among all the wineries present in the testing. It is balanced with low acidity. Their Sauvignon Blanc (that includes 6% Semillon) has low tannins. Finally, the Koetshuis Sauvignon Blanc, a Pyrazine-based wine, is very light, with floral notes.