Lock, stock and wine barrel: Platter’s wine guide 2020

Forty years later and Platters Wine Guide is a quintessential South African tool. In fact, it’s become such an authority on the winescape that copies are saved and revered.

You can check strengths and weaknesses, and how different wine estates have evolved.

Platter’s by Diners Club South African Wine Guide 2020 was launched at the end of last week where it was revealed 125 wines and even a brandy received a five-star rating.

This accolade is reserved for wines that are “South African classics” and score 95 points or more on the internationally recognised 100-point scale.

Since its inception in 1980, Platter’s has offered rich detail on most of the wineries and individual wines produced in the country, as well as useful information about wine and travelling in the winelands.

This makes it a book that appeals to wine experts as much as to anyone wanting to uncover more about our country’s wines, wine cellars and regions.

Platter’s wine guides.

After 40 years, the independent guide has become an institution in South Africa and highly respected around the globe, with two Best Wine Guide Worldwide awards to its credit.

The publisher of Platter’s by Diners Club, Jean-Pierre Rossouw, said: “Our warm congratulations to all! These represent the pinnacle of South Africa’s wines, as all were highly rated in the initial sighted review and then went into a second round of tasting where they were assessed against their peers.

“Since this second round was conducted blind (without sight of the label), the stringency of this model means our five-star wines truly proved themselves as being best of best.”

The Editor’s Award Winery of the Year goes to Boekenhoutskloof Winery, while Newcomer Winery of the Year went to specialist sparkling-wine producer Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique.

The Top Performing Winery of the Year award goes – once more – to Mullineux.

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