News24

News24 wine editor Dal ne Fourie curates and recommends a collection of six champion wines to get you through the icy winter months.

"There's always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world." - Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky.

News24, in partnership with To Be Giftboxes, has launched a limited edition wine box. The wines in this curated box were hand-picked by our very own in-house wine editor Dal ne Fourie.

Edition One, specifically created for cosy winter nights around the fireplace, only has 100 boxes available. If you're serious about your wine, and you want to treat yourself. This is the ultimate at-home wine experience.

"I was looking for something true," says wine editor Dal ne Fourie who curated six internationally acclaimed, top-rated wines available on To Be Giftboxes.

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT NOW.

"Something that encapsulates the vigour, excitement, irrepressible hope, and beauty of life in South Africa, aside from all the obvious pitfalls of social inequality, poverty, crime, corruption, and the unfairness of it all. Because despite it all, we still have the ability to laugh at ourselves, to take chances, to work hard, and do ever more seemingly impossible things to survive (and sometimes even thrive)."

Fourie added, "Edition One, of what we hope will be a long series of News24 Curated Wine Cases, represents not only six wines but two Tim Atkin MW Young Winemakers of the Year, a Diner's Club Young Winemaker of the Year (2018), one Cape Winemakers Guild Member, a maiden vintage Syrah from the forbidding winemaking region of Elim, a newly designated wine region with only one winery to its name, a decidedly old school grape from the unruly West Coast with a new lease on life, and classic Burgundy-style Chardonnay from the Hemel-en-Aarde, made by someone who back in the day used to question why people pay so much for wine.

"It is a combination of the old and the new, not quite what you'd expect, but representative of our innovation, diversity, and ability to adapt. The sheer energy that imbues this industry with that South African spark wine writers comment on the world over."

The six wines is a study in diversity. Demonstrating the great range of our terroir, a mix of traditional and non-traditional varieties, and the evolution of our winemaking style. Finding and designating new (and very old) wine regions, planting and rediscovering ever more eclectic varieties designed to withstand harsh weather patterns, and the people looking to make wines of weightless intensity, true to the soil. We've gone in search of the deeper story and hope to bring you not only a top-rated selection of wine, but a commentary on South African culture as told by the wine and its makers.

Like Neal Martin said: "South Africa is a visceral country. You don't go to South Africa, you experience it."

Thus: Drink the wine, get to know the producers and their stories, and celebrate the things we excel at, despite all the odds.