Many of the producers reviewed are first-generation winemakers, united by a ‘vision, passion, and desire to build something with long term sustainability,’ to borrow the words of Gavin Bruwer of Raats Family Wines. Coverage of multi-generational Stellenbosch stalwarts such as Kanonkop and Meerlust will follow in a series of mini-reports dedicated to vertical tastings of their flagship wines.

Only red and white wines feature in The South Africa Report 2025, the majority from the 2024 vintage (91 wines) and the 2023 vintage (52 wines). The Swartland, Stellenbosch and the Hemel-en-Aarde dominate the coverage but important wines from Franschhoek, Greyton and the wild, remote Citrusdal Mountain (including Alheit Magnetic North, Sadie Family Skurfberg and Thorne & Daughters Snakes & Ladders) are also reviewed.

The 2024 vintage in South Africa

Based on the wines tasted from 2024, I would characterise it as a vintage of power and balance, for both reds and whites. Chris Alheit, who sources from different districts in the Cape, noted that it was a low-yielding harvest across the board due to a windy (and at times stormy) growing season, which impacted flowering and fruit set. Some grape varieties were more affected than others, with Lukas van Loggerenberg seeing his smallest vintage since starting in 2016; his Cinsault – a key variety for him – was down 60% overall.

Andrea and Chris Mullineux called 2024 in the Swartland ‘fantastic,’ with only a couple of heatwaves, neither of which saw temperatures above 34°C. Adi Badenhorst added that rainfall in mid-November in the Paardeberg (after flowering and fruit set) was ideally timed for the vines.

Similarly, the Stellenbosch contingent did not experience excessive heat but, in common with the Swartland, there weren’t the extended hang times enjoyed in 2025; as Eben Sadie observed, 2024 was a ‘very compressed vintage.’ I worked the 2024 harvest at Reyneke in the Polkadraai Hills – a ward in Stellenbosch that is on the ascent and has performed very strongly in this report – and I remember that everything seemed to transition abruptly, almost overnight, from unripe to ripe and ready for picking.

Down on the Cape South Coast, Gordy Newton Johnson summed up the season in the Hemel-en-Aarde as dry and ‘gentle warm,’ giving them wines like they haven’t seen since 2015 or 2017 (two stellar vintages): wines of ‘more amplified fruit’ but still with great acidity.

The 2023 vintage in South Africa

2023 was an altogether more challenging year in some areas – not for the Swartland, which enjoyed an ‘elegant’ vintage, according to Boekenhoutskloof’s Gottfried Mocke, but definitely for the later ripening varieties in Stellenbosch, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, and for the Cape South Coast. Craig Wessels of Restless River in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley said it was a vintage that separated the farmers from the winemakers.

In general, 2023 was cooler than 2024 but the defining feature from a make-or-break perspective for producers was the harvest rainfall in March. For many, the rains were not an issue as the picking was all but done; Nathalia Storm notes that only a few rows of their Ridge Pinot were still hanging when the rains came. For others, the wait for ripeness was agonising. Samantha O’Keefe described it as a wet and cold season in Greyton, affecting whites as well as reds, with a whopping 675mm of harvest rainfall. She lost a lot of fruit but the silver lining was the long hang time. Her Lismore Estate Reserve Chardonnay bears this out; it’s an astonishingly complex wine and one of the star whites of the report. In brief, the best reds of 2023 are fresh and fragrant, medium-bodied and agile, while the best whites are precise, driven and often scintillating.

The stars of The South Africa Report 2025

The standouts from my tastings include pioneering multi-varietal blends, gripping Grenaches and resonant old-vine Semillons (and Semillon Gris, a uniquely South African phenomenon). There are evocative Cinsaults that will – perhaps surprisingly – appeal to Barbaresco lovers and fine-boned, perfumed Pinots. There are Chardonnays that invite easy comparison with grand cru Burgundy and coolly composed Cabernets and Cabernet-based blends.

Chenin Blanc excelled, proving itself to be, as Chris Alheit said while we were tasting his Chenin quartet, ‘a helluva honest grape.’ The range of expressions of different terroirs, from Stellenbosch to the Swartland to Citrusdal Mountain, and from blended wines (like David & Nadia’s superlative eight-site Chenin) to single-vineyard iterations, is incredibly exciting. No wine region in the world comes close for this grape (not even its Loire Valley homeland).

While several of the Cape’s top Syrahs see an extra year in bottle before release – and the 2023 renditions from Boekenhoutskloof, Boschkloof, Damascene, Mullineux, Porseleinberg, Reyneke and Savage are all beautiful – most exhilarating from my perspective were the 2024 Syrahs. Reenen Borman nailed it when we were tasting his Sons of Sugarland: ‘the vintage shines as honestly as it can for Stellenbosch and for Syrah,’ and this is true for other origins too. Alheit’s new Fogwell label, both Rall Syrahs, Savage Girl Next Door, Sons of Sugarland, and Van Loggerenberg Graft all have significant density and a massive tannin charge that make them absolutely thrilling for the long haul, as well as a rawness of expression; there is something about them that feels unfiltered, like their very essence is magnified, as you’ll read in my tasting notes.

Of the 19 wines that scored 97 points or more, eight were Syrahs, seven were Chenins, two were Chardonnays, and two were multi-varietal blends. Admittedly, I tasted far more Syrahs than Cabernets and far more Chenins than Chardonnays but my takeaway is clear, building further on the results of the 2015 new wave retrospective back in May: South Africa is making some of the finest Syrahs and Chenins in the world and, with a few exceptions, they represent a bargain in the context of their European counterparts. There is much more to recommend these wines than the value they represent but it would be an oversight not to reference it.

Assigning a number to a wine to designate its quality is an exercise I find inherently reductive and at times frustrating; I think it is far more important to put the effort into accurately describing the salient features of the wine. I try to convey the wine’s ‘personality’ and provide the context around its production in my notes. The greatest wines in the world are charismatic and alive, and their idiosyncrasies, like people’s, are subject to shifting; they resist reduction to a number, so I would encourage you to read my notes rather than the scores alone.

The South Africa Report 2025 was designed to help collectors decide which South African wines should be in their cellars now. The intention was not to deliver an exhaustive review but instead provide a snapshot of the top end of South African wine in 2025. There are many more producers worthy of attention and I am hoping that the results in this report will inspire you to further explore the Cape’s dynamic and evolving fine-wine landscape.

Tasting notes and scores from Club Oenologique’s South Africa Report 2025 (featuring only those wines scoring 90 points and above) are available to all registered users of The Collection, the online home of our premium wine and spirits content. To register for free, click here.