On December 6th I attended a tasting sponsored by Wines of South Africa. It was in conjunction with the Raw Wine virtual wine fair. Raw Wine was a yearly wine event held in New York City as well as in Berlin and London that featured low intervention wines from around the world. Over a hundred wines were poured and was a great opportunity to sample numerous of those styles of wine in one event. They cancelled the New York event last year and unfortunately this year as well.
This event was held at Sommtime wine bar located at 254 Bromme Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It’s a wine bar that specializes in natural wines. It’s a tiny restaurant and made for an intimate tasting experience and I mean intimate with most of us standing cheek to cheek while sampling the wines.
This was a great opportunity for me to try wines that I admit, I usually pass over when I’m at one of those mega tastings. In South Africa their iconic white wines are made from Chenin Blanc while their iconic reds are made from Pinotage which is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault. It was a very enjoyable tasting with most of the whites poured Chenin Blanc while the reds were more diverse with some Pinotage, many Cinsault blends and French varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Syrah.
Some of what I sampled:
| White | |
| 2019 David & Nadia “Plat’bos” Chenin Blanc | 2020 Intellego “Story of Harry” Skin Contact White |
| 2020 Joostenberg “Die Agteros” Chenin Blanc | 2016 Sadie Family “Palladius” |
| 2019 Mulleneux “Granite” Chenin Blanc | 2018 Bosman “Optenhorst” Old Vine Chenin Blanc |
| 2017 Alheit “Cartology” | 2019 Blackwater “Pleasure Gardens” Palomino |
| Red | |
| 2018 Anybos Grenache Noir | 2019 Bostman “Twyfelling” Cinsault |
| 2019 Carven Cabernet Sauvignon | 2020 Van Loggerenberg “Break a Leg” Syrah |
| 2020 Intellego “Halagasha” Pinotage | 2020 JH Meyer “Cuvee NoS” Pinot Noir |
| 2019 Natie Valleij Cinsault | 2020 Trizanne Signature Wines “TSW” Cinsault |
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