For a winemaker, harvest time is all about the quality of the grapes and the smooth sailing of cellar processes. Or is it? “Of course, I will not have a job if the grapes and the cellar are not priority”, says La Motte Cellarmaster Edmund Terblanche. “But without being too sentimental about it, I also...

The energy of harvest time in the Winelands is infectious and La Motte wine estate in the Franschhoek Valley invites guests to join in the excitement with a special Harvest Tour and Tasting, presented for the duration of the 2017 harvest. Starting from 31 January, guests can book for a guided vineyard tour presented by...

Truth be told, can your Sauvignon Blanc be too cold? Although that sounds highly unlikely at this time of year in the Southern Hemisphere, it is important to remember the influence serving temperatures can have on the enjoyment of wine. The serving temperature of wine is critically important to our enjoyment of it and also to...

The friendly and well-loved face of La Motte’s Guest Reception, Angela Williams, recently received the Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Judges Commendation for Outstanding Service in the Wine Tourism Industry. Angela started her career at La Motte 24 years ago as a cleaner in the tasting room. Through the estate’s training and development...

As part of La Motte’s Art in Clay Exhibition, A Sense of…, artists were asked to interpret the estate’s award-winning food and wine pairing and come up with new dishes for the gourmet bites from the Pierneef à La Motte kitchen. Well-known ceramicist Hennie Meyer was intrigued by the 2016 La Motte Sauvignon Blanc and...

La Motte celebrates the extraordinary performance of its premium Pierneef Collection Syrah Viognier and is delighted to announce having been awarded a Five Star rating by the 2017 Platter Wine Guide. This recognition follows shortly on the wine being appointed as one of South Africa’s Top 100 wines by The National Wine Challenge, as well...

Passionate about the finer things in life, Franschhoek-based La Motte Wine Estate is presenting a creative and innovative interpretation involving food, wine and art to its participation in the annual Franschhoek Art in Clay festival. Part of the recently established Franschhoek Art Route, La Motte’s 2016 exhibition of Art in Clay is entitled, A Sense...

Viticulturists agree that Chardonnay is quite an easy variety to produce. It can be planted in most wine countries where it can result in a wine of satisfactory quality. Even non-traditional wine countries such as Zimbabwe, has in the past produced acceptable Chardonnay. With the release of the 2015 La Motte Chardonnay and 2013 La...

Sometimes there are vintages that, because of an ideal set of conditions, deliver exceptional wines and sometimes one has the luxury of only producing or at least releasing wines from these special years. Most of the time, however, the romantic image of wine production is also guided by commercial means and an established brand has...

We often tend to think of wines as being quite seasonal – white in summer and red in winter. But can a wine be better suited to one season than to another? What makes one wine more of a “summer wine” and another more of a “winter wine”? There is no simple formula for wines...