SA’s Top 3 Finest Luxury White Wines Revealed!
If you’re keen on splashing out on a more premium bottle of white wine for your next dinner party or a special occasion, then listen up because fine wine merchants, Wine Cellar hosted a white wine taste off and have finally announced the top 3 finest SA wines according to their panel of wine lovers.
Uncovering the crème de la crème of SA’s luxury white wines was no easy task. For the tasting, ten of the most expensive white wines were blind-tasted by wine lovers and ranked in order of preference, and priced at up to R2,000 a bottle. Yes indeed, these wines are no joke! In 2015, the calculated average price of the wines was R465 per bottle. This year, the average price of the wine line-up increased to R754 per bottle with new labels such as Leeu Passant, Delaire Graaff and Spier joining the tasting.
The two richest wines – those containing the largest components of new oak – in the line-up were the most favoured in 2018 with Ken Forrester FMC Single Barrel 2014 (R700) coming out in first place in Joburg, and Capensis, Chardonnay 2014 (R950) taking preference in Cape Town.
The final results of the tasting were as follows:
- Capensis, Chardonnay 2014 – R 950
- Ken Forrester, FMC Single Barrel 2014 – R 700
- Paul Cluver, Seven Flags Chardonnay 2016 – R 610
The annual tasting was hosted in both Cape Town and Joburg and while 30 – 40 percent of the Cape Town panel was made of wine lovers working in the wine trade, the Joburg, panel consisted of almost no wine trade professionals. This interestingly, however, didn’t impact the results of the taste-off.
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