Decanter (98)

Complex nose already: beautifully exuberant nose of damsons and flowers – the Carignan really coming through at this early stage. A herbal, stemmy element is also quite noticeable but well balanced. Full-bodied on the palate but only just, with a lovely sense of fluidity, slightly granular tannins and fine acidity – everything is in its place, and is delicious now, but will improve and build further complexity. If possible, wait until 2026 to broach. Long, so expressive and unique. Various soils: granite, slate, clay, gravel. Three weeks' fermentation and three weeks maceration in 3,300L open-top concrete fermenters. Aged for 12 months on the lees in small barrels (5% new), then a further 12 months on fine lees in large wooden foudres. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Wine Advocate (98)

From the first sniff, the 2020 Columella is an instant champion that is pointing and swinging for the fence. With its fresh frame of fruit and expertly layered oaky essences, the wine is incredibly complex as it bursts from the glass with precision and finesse. Medium-bodied and with 13.5% alcohol, the Columella somersaults into a phantasmagoria of bright crunchy red fruit flavors and seductive floral essences that makes my head spin. Collectors will take note and add a couple of bottles of this to their cellar. It’s an absolutely stellar bottling that will age gracefully for decades.

Tim Atkin MW (99)

This is the lightest bodied Columella ever, according to Eben Sadie, but he's not lost any concentration or intensity at the lower alcohol level. Sourced from 12 different vineyards, seven of which are on the Paardeberg, this features components from slate, gravel, granite and sandstone soils and is a brilliant vintage of one of the world's greatest reds. Partnering Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault, Tinta Barocca and Pinotage, this is an almost indecently perfumed cuvée with lilac, fynbos and rose petal aromas, plum, red cherry and blackberry fruit, subtle 5% new wood and a focused, grippy, stony finish. Wonderful stuff.

Wine Advocate (94)

The Sadie Family's 2023 Swartland Old Vine Series Skerpioen is Chenin Blanc and Palomino planted together on white limestone soils with a sandy top layer. The Chenin Blanc is picked on the underripe side, and the Palomino is picked ripe and golden yellow in color. "I am site-driven, not variety-driven," says Winemaker Eben Sadie. "My goal is to make the most honest wine from a singular site." I love the intensity of the Skerpioen, which is delivered vertically in terms of the brightness of its aromas and horizontally in terms of the pretty richness of the mouthfeel. There are hints of waxy Meyer lemon, sea salt and a hint of rubber latex. It matures in old acacia and oak foudre for 12 months.

Vinous (97)

The 2021 Skurfberg is pure Chenin Blanc, whole bunch pressed and aged in three old foudres. This has a beautiful bouquet with white flowers, almond and melted candle wax aromas that blossoms in the glass. The palate is very neutral in style, more a textural wine than one with overt flavours; light spicy notes emerge towards a finish that fans out with confidence. It magically gains depth and swagger with aeration - a magnificent wine - Chenin at the peak of its power.

Vinous (96)

The 2021 Treinspoor is Sadie's Tinta Barocca that the man himself likens to Nebbiolo, also opining that it is a wine that needs considerable ageing. These vines were planted in 1974, and the blend includes 40% whole clusters. It has a complex, succinctly defined bouquet with melted tar and graphite infused dark berry fruit, a hint of Lapsang Souchong. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, perfectly-tuned acidity, almost Burgundian in texture yet with more pepperiness towards the finish. So elegant and harmonious - this is stunning from every angle you look at it.

Wine Enthusiast (100)

This is going to be a major, impressive wine. All the elements are there: ripe blackberry fruit, powerful acidity, dense tannins and spice. It has the structure to live on for decades.

Immerse yourself in the splendid taste of Schafer-Frohlich Felseneck Riesling Grosses Gewachs 2020. With its origin in Germany's revered Nahe region, this wine reaffirms its pedigree strength. Produced by the esteemed Schafer-Frohlich family, the wine delivers an aromatic symphony of greenhouse, stone fruit and exciting mineral notes. Their unique viniculture methods include meticulous hand-picking of grapes and minimal intervention in the cellar, fostering authentic, natural wines.

Offering a dry, full-bodied palate, the Schafer-Frohlich Felseneck Riesling Grosses Gewachs 2020 showcases expert balance between acidity and ripeness. Its texture, beautifully lean and taut, underpins the canvassing harmony it poses, creating a memorable taste experience. Rated among the world's great Rieslings, it epitomises the intrinsic quality of Grosses Gewachs (Great Growth), Germany's highest vineyard classification. Hold your glass up to the light, twirl and inhale, this Riesling displays luminous gold with a green tint, setting the stage for a palate pleasing experience. Pour and sip; invite discovery.

James Suckling (95)

The combination of cool, peachy aroma and flintiness makes the nose of this wine totally ravishing. Then, the brilliant minerality on the sleek and sharply focused palate adds another compelling argument for the greatness of this wine. Love the very long, crystalline finish. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (94)

What a wide spectrum of ripe-fruit aromas this serious and delightful dry Rheingau riesling has! They range from a diversity of citrus, through persimmon to fresh pineapple and apricot. Concentrated, very elegant and focused on the medium-bodied palate, with tons of wet-stone minerality at the long, very filigree finish. Drink or hold.

The ageing of Riesling in large, old oak casks for several years, was a style with a great tradition at Schloss Johannisberg hundreds of years ago. It was revived in 2017 and this now stands as the absolute pinnacle of Trocken wines produced. Made in tiny quantities and only in outstanding vintages, no scores or reviews yet available for the 2018 – what is sure is that these bottles will be long gone by the time the critics get to review them.

James Suckling (100)

Tasting this makes me feel like Goethe is just about to walk in the door! Self-confidently old-fashioned in the way that a 1920s Bentley car or an 1820s Breguet pocket watch is. Yes, you can analyze and note that there’s an oxidative side to it, but the combination of creaminess and silky bone-dryness is like nothing else I can think of. And below the waterline of direct perception is a gigantic structure that drives the mind-blowing finish! Matured for 30 months in neutral wooden casks. Drinkable now, but best from 2024.

James Suckling (100)

Prepare yourself to meet the spirit of great mineral dry riesling. Gigantic dried peach and dried pear notes, but even more flinty character. A wealth of dried herbs, too. Immense concentration of stony minerality that washes over you like a great wave. Matured for two and a half years in 1,200-liter used oak cases, the last year in the deepest and oldest section of the cellar. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (100)

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James Suckling (99)

Very cool and reserved at the front, but this is an enormously deep and complex wine that has staggering mineral intensity. The lime and oolong-tea freshness effortlessly swallows up the unfermented grape sweetness, as if it didn’t really exist. Some will criticize, saying that this is too radical, but that’s what creates the great excitement! The herbal freshness at the finish is really astounding. Drinkable now, but best from 2023.

James Suckling (96)

The complex nose of sliced pear, white peach and white currant with delicate floral notes pulls you into this very juicy and vibrant Spatlese that leaps and bounds over your palate, in spite of the frank natural grape sweetness. Then comes the radical minerality at the very focused, long and pristine finish. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (97)

This is like staring into a deep chasm, yet the discreet mirabelle fruit gives that austere, bone-dry style enough charm to make it really compelling. Enormous crushed-rock minerality, with delicate spice and just a hint of oak on the compact yet sleek palate. This is an uncompromising expression of the Rheingau’s “back to the roots” movement that reveals its greatness at the extremely long and precise finish. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.

Tim Atkin MW (95)

The last two hectares of dry-farmed Syrah on the Helderberg, planted by Bernhard Bredell's grandfather in 1995, were pulled out in 2017, so this Swanesang comes from a new source on the mountain. Rich, dense and Cornas-like, it's another remarkable Syrah from this talented young winemaker, with pepper spice and grip from 30% whole bunches and meaty, stony complexity.

Vinous (95)

The 2019 Swanesang comes from a 0.8-hectare parcel on decomposed granite soils planted in 1999. Here, vines are usually bush vines, but Bredell has trained them to grow upright. Blended with 60% stems, there is just a slight reduction on the nose, though with aeration it reveals enticing brambly red fruit, sous-bois, fennel and white pepper scents. The palate is medium-bodied with an almost pastille-like purity on the entry that belies the structure and backbone. Mainly red fruit here, white pepper and sage, it has impressive precision and freshness on the Rhône-inspired finish.

Wine Advocate (94-95)

Predominantly vinified in classic foudres, the 2021 Graacher Domprobst Spätlese is clear, deep, coolish and flinty on the nose, yet it's provided with a fully ripe and aromatic nose of yellow-fleshed stone fruits intertwined with notes of crushed, wet slate. Lush and elegant on the palate, this is a linear, saline and tensioned Spätlese with slate/tannin grip and the aromas of fully ripe and juicy red-skinned apples and lemons. 8.5% stated alcohol. Tasted as a sample in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (94-95)

From 80- to 100-year-old vines, the 2021 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese Rotlay is deep, pure and flinty on the aromatic and rather coolish, elegant nose that shows ripe white peach aromas intertwined with spicy notes of crushed blue slate. Full-bodied, pure and saline on the palate, this is a rich yet crystalline and piquant rather than textured Riesling with fine tannins and still some yeasty layers and a certain grapefruit bitterness on the finish. Tasted as a sample at the domaine in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (99+)

Fermented in glass balloon for 22 months and bottled at the end of August this year, the 2018 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese is highly concentrated yet pure and spicy/stony on the apricot-scented nose that is enormously detailed and refined for this class. Enormously rich and juicy-piquant on the palate, this is a fantastically precise and stimulating TBA that will become a legend years from now. This is a perfectly balanced noble sweet wine with unreal precision. Picked with 201° Oechsle and bottled with nearly 7% alcohol, 318 grams of residual sugar and 11.5 grams of total acidity. Tasted from AP 22 20 in September 2020.

Wine Advocate (90)

Showing its age with tarry spice and dark fruit tones, the Sijnn 2015 Malgas Red reflects an earlier chapter in the estate’s evolution. The blend of Syrah, Tinta Amarela, Touriga Nacional, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Mourvèdre does not include Grenache, and after a decade in bottle, the wine presents a more evolved and weightier profile with deeper, darker edges. There is richness and maturity here, with tertiary notes emerging and tannins softening into a broader frame. This vintage predates the stylistic refinement seen in more recent releases, marking a clear step forward in subsequent years.

Tim Atkin MW (96)

Sijnn is one of the most amazing new terroirs in the Cape, producing wines of remarkable individuality. This Rhône meets Bordeaux meets the Douro Valley blend, made with grapes grown just 15 kilometres from the sea, is stony, complex and intensely aromatic, showing lavender and wild thyme avours, grippy tannins and layered, mineral intense fruit. Superb stuff . 2021-35

Tim Atkin MW (96)

One of the most beautiful and complex terroirs in South Africa supplies the grapes for this unique red, produced from a medley of Shiraz with 33% Mourvèdre, Touriga Nacional and the very rare (in South Africa) Tinta Amarella. Inky, savoury and wild, it has freshness and concentration, notes of rosemary and lavender, meaty depths and fine oak. 2023-30

Wine Spectator (90)

Lovely almond and hazelnut notes lead the way, with lemon curd, verbena, heather and lightly toasted piecrust and ginger notes gliding through the finish. Slightly languid in feel, but shows good range. Chenin Blanc and Viognier.