Vineyard Consistency Award: 2nd Place Overall (following last year’s 1st place) 

Top 100 & Double Platinum awards
Three Double Platinum/Top 100 winning wines, including: 

Fairview Nurok 2016
Fairview Beacon Shiraz 2014
Fairview La Beryl Blanc 2017

Grand Cru National Champion Best in Class
A Grand Cru First Place in category win

Fairview Nurok 2016

Double Gold awards

Six Double Gold Awards, including:

Fairview Paarl Chenin Blanc 2017
Fairview Rose Quartz 2017
Fairview Caldera 2016
Fairview Homtini 2015
Fairview Extrano 2015
Fairview Viognier 2016

Charles and the team were thrilled with the news, with Charles sharing his thoughts on the Top 100 winning wines below: 

“Much like last year, our three Top 100 winning wines are all so different – which reflects the talent I believe our winemaking team has, as they are capable of traversing various varieties and winemaking styles to produce consistently refined and award-winning wines.

With the drought on the tip of everyone’s tongue, I am grateful that our team has prepared accordingly and that our vineyards continue to yield fruit of excellent quality, giving the wines richer depth and character.  

As far as the Top 100 wines go, Nurok is from one of our more vibrant and most food-friendly ranges, the Regional Revival Range, which highlights the value of using Mediterranean style varieties.

Our Fairview Beacon Shiraz is a favourite from our Single Vineyard range, and I have a hunch that it’s striking new, award-winning label must have added an extra bonus point for its shining performance this year!

Finally, our La Beryl Blanc, a traditional straw-dried sweet wine made since 1998, has been a consistent accolade winner for years. Named after my mother, Beryl, I think this wine reflects her warm and nurturing character, and clearly hits a sweet spot with its dedicated following.”

Overall, the Fairview winemaking team is delighted with our wins, as they span the gamut of our winemaking capabilities. We are particularly humbled by the recognition for our Vineyard Consistency Award for a second year running. Over the decades, the goal has not only been to refine our craft, but to be able to continue on that deliverable year on year, as after all, consistency is only the starting point! 

Cheers to our vineyard, cellar and winemaking team – you are clearly all doing something right!

The post Consistently On Top | Our Top 100 Wins! appeared first on Fairview.

Mother block vineyards are just like what they sound – the first vines to be grown in a region that give rise to the rest of the same variety’s vines in that region. At Fairview, we are very fortunate and proud to have the original mother block of Viognier, planted in 1997 by Charles Back.

Charles desire to bring the aromatic white variety to the Cape stemmed from a visit to France’s Rhône region in 1989. During his trip, he tried Viognier for the first time, and explains how he was immediately struck by the unique nature of the wine, with its intriguing balance of fragrance, deep fruit and austere structure.

“I knew at once that the terroir of the Cape would be well-suited to Viognier, and as we tasted the wines I was thinking about the soils and sites that I was fortunate enough to have found come across over the years,” shares Charles.

When he returned to South Africa, Charles carefully started the process of sourcing the vines to bring to South Africa – a lengthy, complicated and often laborious process. It’s not easy bringing a foreign vine to local soils! But being determined, by the early 1990’s, Fairview was harvesting fruit from our Viognier vineyards.

Today, our trellised Viognier vines grow on the slopes of Paarl Mountain, on decomposed granite soils. Despite the beating summer sun, the resilient grape results in full, ripe and healthy grapes, and after maturation in bottle, shows its well-loved subtle perfumed fruit and great mouthfeel with every vintage.

In 2017, we celebrated 10 years of bottling this varietal. Our Fairview winemakers enjoy sculpting this variety into various styles, including as a single variety (try our Fairview Viognier), as well as being the frontrunner in our unique Brut MCC, and a leading component of our celebrated Nurok white blend. It’s even featured in our Goats Do Roam White Blend and Goat Roti!

Viognier is very flexible, working in a wide variety of seafood, roasted or grilled chicken, pork, spicy flavors and Asian cuisine. A Malay curry with delicate spice and dried fruits is particularly delicious when paired with Viognier. This Mother’s Day, our recommendation is to grab yourself a bottle (or two) of our very own mother block wine, Fairview Viognier, and celebrate!

The post Our Mother Block | Viognier appeared first on Fairview.

In order to be eligible for the White Blend Report, wines had to contain a Chenin Blanc component of more than 15% and less than 85%. 38 entries from 31 producers were received and these were tasted blind (labels out of sight) by the three-person panel, scoring done according to the 100-point quality scale. Ratings over 90-points were awarded a certificate at the ceremony. We were very happy to host some of South Africa’s most esteemed winemakers and wine opinion formers in our Beryl Back Master Tasting Room, treating all to a veritable cornucopia of our Fairview Brut for starters, followed by a flavourful Fairview Cheese selection and delicious canapés served by the Goatshed Restaurant team! Fairview Nurok is from our Regional Revival Range, made to honour Diane Back’s lineage and inspired by Old World winemaking. It has always been a particular labour of love for the team, read more here. With the label depicting one of Diane’s own paintings, we dare say the beauty of the outside matches the elegance of the inside. A perfect Christmas gift for someone you treasure!

Photos courtesy of: Danie Nel

The post Nurok Scores 92 Points at the Cape White Blend Report 2017 appeared first on Fairview.

Fairview was the first to plant and bottle the varietal, and we are now looking back on 20 years of Viognier. Controversial at times, loved, hated or misunderstood; Viognier lends itself beautifully to food pairing, and its’ potential when blended with varietals such as Shiraz, Mourvèdre or certain white varietals, has been influential in the Rhône revolution in the Cape.

Owner of Fairview, Charles Back, reflects on the story:

“I first tasted Viognier in 1989, while travelling in the Rhône. I was immediately struck by the unique nature of the wine, with its intriguing balance of fragrance, deep fruit and austere structure. I knew at once that the terroir of the Cape would be well-suited to Viognier, and as we tasted the wines I was thinking about the soils and sites that I was fortunate enough to have found come across over the years. Upon my return to South Africa, we started the process of sourcing the vines and by the early 1990’s we were harvesting fruit from our Viognier vineyards. Some twenty years later, and looking back on 10 years of bottling this varietal, we are still discovering the grapes’ potential and I am confident that the wines that we are currently bottling are the best that we have made as yet. Viognier is a fantastic food wine, and pairs well with Cape style cooking as well as many of our Fairview handcrafted cheeses.”

Since the introduction of the stunning varietal to our vineyards, our winemaking team have had the fortune and pleasure of working with Viognier regularly, utilising it across a variety of our wines and ranges. We feature it as a single variety in our Fairview Viognier, but it is also used in blends such as the Fairview Nurok and our Fairview Brut MCC.

Anthony de Jager, our Chief Winemaker here at Fairview, shares his thoughts on the French grape:

“The Rhône valley has always intrigued me, and the great wines that the area produces have influenced the direction that my winemaking has taken through my career. Fairview has always embraced innovation and Charles’ perpetual search for new and interesting varietals led us, amongst others, to Viognier. Over the last fifteen years we have been engaging with the complexities of this varietal. While the similarities that the Rhône and the Cape winelands share have provided a successful launch pad, the differences have allowed us to seek out and develop a style that is unique to the Cape. I am proud of what we have achieved to date, and continue to be surprised, inspired and challenged by what emerges each vintage.”

Fairview Viognier is available at our Tasting Room and via our online shop for R100.

SPECIAL: To celebrate 20 years of Viognier, this week we are running a special for R50 a bottle. Click here to buy.

The post 20 Years of Viognier! | Our Heritage Grape appeared first on Fairview.

Tim Atkin is a well-respected British Master of Wine, and an award-winning wine journalist, broadcaster and commentator. He is also a judge of several international wine competitions and a photographer. Atkin has visited our Fairview farm on several occasions, including on his trip earlier this year, and has built a positive rapport with Charles Back and team. He even introduced Charles Back when he was awarded the IWC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Click here to see the full video.

When reflecting on the wines he tasted, Tim writes:

“Overall, I am extremely impressed with the quality of what I tasted in 2017. The 2015 vintage, as we know was spectacular, but, in the right hands, the much more challenging 2016 harvest has yielded much better wines than I anticipated. The 2017 whites are crisp and very promising and I have included a number of these in the report. This year I was again delighted to discover some exciting new names alongside established performers. The South African wine scene has never been more exciting or more diverse. You all deserve enormous credit for that.”

Our roll of honour is as follows:

1. Bloemcool Vis & Tjips 2016 – 94
2. Bloemcool Di’Tjie 2016 – 93 (not available yet)
3. Fairview Caldera 2015 – 90
4. Fairview Drie Papen Fontein 2016 – 90
5. Fairview Homtini 2015 – 90
6. Fairview Nurok 2016 – 90

Honourable mentions go out to our Fairview Rose Quartz 2017 and Fairview Cinsault 2016 which both received an 89 score, and our Fairview Chenin Blanc 2017 which received an 87 score.

All our awarded wines are available on our Online Shop (click on the links above to purchase), except the Bloemcool Di’Tjie, which is not available yet. Congratulations to our hardworking wine and cellar team – here’s to you!

Tim Atkin’s 2017 South Africa Special Report is available to download from Timatkin.com for £20 or R345.

The post Our Tim Atkin Raving Results 2017 appeared first on Fairview.

If you’ve ever tried some of our Single Vineyard wines, you might have come across the term ‘old vines’. But what exactly do we mean by that?

It’s quite simple really. We mean vines that are old. And why is this worth writing about? Well, every vineyard is special. But there’s something truly magical about an old vine vineyard. When it comes to old vineyards, a winemaking team starts tending to not only the vines, but the heritage too. And even though the yield may be going down (i.e. less wine) year on year, the fruit of the vine produces wine of great structure, concentrated flavours and aromas worthy of conservation. A further added benefit includes a deep root system, meaning these vines are hardier in extreme weather conditions, such as the current draught we are experiencing. Much like a fully grown adult versus a young teen, the older vines are more self-sufficient, cutting down on vineyard maintenance and costs.

So what counts as old vines? In South Africa, ‘old’ vines are generally accepted as being 35 years or more. In Old World wine producing countries such as France and Italy, that number drastically increases to up to 120 years. The reason our vines are relatively youthful is due to a number of factors, including past viruses and planting more economical crops. Plus, our history of winemaking is way younger than our Old World counterparts (hence South Africa forming part of the ‘New World’ grouping of winemaking countries).

Well-respected old vine specialist, Rosa Kruger, estimates that South Africa has approximately 2,162 hectares that qualify as ‘old vines’. At Fairview, we are fortunate to have a handful of legitimate ‘old vine’ vineyards. For example, we pick our Carignan grapes from the Bassons’ bushvine vineyards in the Swartland side of the Perdeberg Mountain. It is the oldest Carignan vineyard in the country, planted in 1972, and now reaching the ripe age of 45 years. The vines grow on Malmesbury shale soils, which provide elegance and sheer complexity to the final wine. We make our Pegleg Carignan from these grapes, a Single Vineyard wine that has a unique story to tell.

The Basson family, who have farmed at Die Slot for three generations, were one of the first families to plant Carignan in South Africa. At 17 years of age, Cobus Basson was helping his father plant vines when a tractor overturned and rolled onto him, causing the loss of a leg. Being a man of great humour and spirit, he is affectionately known amongst local farmers as “Houtbeen” (Pegleg) Basson. Our Single Vineyard Carignan is named Pegleg as an homage to a man and wine which are both bold and spirited with enormous character and depth.

We invite you to come and taste the difference. Our Pegleg Carignan is available here.

The post The Magic of our Old Vines appeared first on Fairview.

This year marks the fifth annual Shiraz SA Wine Challenge with about 220 entries received. The results were announced at Rhebokskloof Wine Estate in Paarl. The competition has maintained great prestige and popularity since its inception, no doubt a testament to the popularity of this specific cultivar amongst South African wine lovers.

In addition to our Top 12 achievement, the Fairview Jakkalsfontein 2014 and Fairview Cape Granite Red Blend 2014 were also finalists in the competition. The Fairview Jakkalsfontein is a 100% Shiraz, while the Cape Granite Red Blend is crafted from Shiraz, Grenache and Tempranillo. We were also recognized for our vineyard consistency, having maintained a spot in the Top 12 for the last five years.

“Shiraz has always been a flagship variety for our farm, carrying with it a special heritage and significance,” says winemaker Anthony de Jager.

The Fairview Beacon Shiraz 2014 is dark ruby red in colour, with aromas of white pepper, mixed spice and black cherries. The Shiraz resembles a French Syrah from the Northern Rhone.

Meanwhile, the Swartland Shiraz 2014 has a rich concentrated palate, with flavours of ripe fruits, savoury spices and silky tannins on the finish. Perfumed aromas of cinnamon, dark berries and liquorice can be picked up on the nose. Both wines go really well with red meats, such as lamb and beef, cooked either on the braai or in stews.

“There is so much diversity within the styles of Shiraz – it’s definitely one of the aspects that excites us most. We’re really proud to have so many wines in the running this year, and for two of our wines to be in the Top 12,” says winemaker Stephanie Wiid.

We pride ourselves on our abundance of Shiraz wines that feature in almost all of our ranges. These include a number of exceptional wines namely, the Fairview Cyril Back, our flagship wine named after owner Charles Back’s father, as well as three different Shiraz wines in our premium Single Vineyard range – the Beacon, Jakkalsfontein and Eenzaameheid, a recent Top 100 2017 winner. These wines were created to showcase the powerful difference terroir can make in the ultimate result of a wine. We invite you to come visit all these wines, available from our tasting room.

The post Two in the Top 12 Shiraz SA! appeared first on Fairview.

You could say there is a trend permeating among local winemakers, and it is a very positive one at that. After centuries of keeping close to traditionally classic, cooler climate grape varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot, there is a quiet avant-garde movement happening that is turning the status quo on its heels.

In recent years, South African vineyards have seen a steady rise in Rhône-style varieties such as Grenache, Mourvèdre and Cinsault being planted, and a more warm-hearted embrace to crafting wine out of our own indigenous grape varieties such as Pinotage and Chenin. The change is dynamic, and one solid reason for such a choice is that these Rhône-style and local varieties are better suited to the harsh, hot and now drought-ridden climate that seeps through our winelands, producing beautifully refined bottlings.

It is with this philosophy in mind that Charles Back went out and pioneered the plantings of such varieties on our farm over 30 years ago. And today, our winemakers are blown away by the results that our Paarl-based vines are showing, in particular the Paarl Chenin and Old Bush Vine Cinsault. Both these varieties are the traditional work horses of the South African wine industry, mainly because of their high yield and ability to blend well with other wines. But with extra care and attention to detail, both have broken the mould and the resulted wines are expressive, well-structured and great additions to the Fairview portfolio. It just goes to show what can happen when you give each grape its time to shine.

As we love doing things differently, we encourage our fans to do the same, and join us as we toast to the comeback kids Chenin & Cinsault – trust us, they’ll be the words (and taste) on the tip of your tongue very soon.

Both of these special wines are available from our online shop.
Paarl Chenin Blanc: R100 – click here to buy now
Cinsault: R115 – – click here to buy now

Paarl Chenin Blanc grapes on the left, and Paarl Cinsault grapes on the right, captured by our winemakers last week

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This year, the word on the tip of everyone’s tongue within the Western Cape is no doubt ‘drought’. With approximately 23% water remaining in our dams, harvest 2017 is sure to take a knock. Says Anthony, Chief Winemaker at Fairview:

“As far as the drought is concerned, Darling and Swartland are the most affected, although we are seeing marginally better crop levels from last year. We’re short on our Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc grapes. But the positive news is that the quality coming in looks good – it’s still early days though, but the fermenting grapes that we already have are expressive and looking good.”

Meanwhile, Stephanie comments on the fact that the white grape harvest is almost complete, with Riesling the only variety remaining to be picked. “I’m happy to report that our white grapes have a fresh, high acidity which we don’t always expect with such warm weather, so this is a welcoming ray of hope with all the challenges facing us. We’ve seen smaller berry sizes, much like 2016, which give lower juice yield on white wine but have a higher skin-to-flesh ratio on the reds”.

With about 3 weeks left to go of harvest on the farm, Annette says she is looking forward to seeing how the Roussanne will show, as the vines have reached their maturity and the grapes looked very promising. “My focus is shifting to the reds now, and I’m particularly excited to work with the Cinsault and Grenache – two aromatic red varieties that are growing beautifully in our vineyards.”

Here’s wishing the best of luck (and energy) to our tireless winemakers and cellar staff team during this period, as they work effortlessly from dusk till dawn to bring us our beloved Fairview wines!

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