South African Red Wines

South Africa has a history of wine dating back to 1659. Production of South African Red Wines & White Wines are centered around Cape Town and there are major vineyards and wine production centres in Paarl, Stellenbosch and Worcester.

The modern day Cape Town was established by the Dutch East Indian Company. Kan Van Riebeeck, a Dutch surgeon, planted vineyards to produce wines and grapes which were intended to prevent scurvy among the sailors.

South African red wine is generally made in very small quantities, but comes at excellent prices. There has been some controversy about the pricing of wine in South Africa as the locals fine them to be far too expensive. South African wines, when bought from UK supermarkets are unlikely to impress, but there is a large selection of wine created in South Africa that are more than worth a try and often surprise with their outstanding quality.

These good quality South African red wines can be very difficult to find in the UK, especially with our supermarkets and pubs filled up with masses of not-so-good stuff.

It iss easy to be put off buying certain types of wine if you have a bad experience, for example, Pinotage is a South African hybrid of Pinot Noir and Hermitage that can be very bad tasting if done wrong, but can make an amazing wine when done correctly.

Ordering South African Red Wines that have been properly sampled is a great way to avoid wasting money in supermarkets.