Woodhouse Strikes Again

If you'll remember my recent gushing about my co-worker Ryan Woodhouse and his ability to find great wines from all over the Southern Hemisphere, then please allow me to let you in on the big email that's going out today. While Mr. Woodhouse has completely transformed our New Zealand and Australian wine departments, it's with South Africa that he's really got my head spinning. The five best wines I tasted in 2015 were all from South Africa (granted four of them were from the same producer). One of those wines, however, only cost $9.99 per bottle: the Hermanuspietersfontein Sauvignon Blanc from the country's Western Cape. Ryan's ability to buy the wine directly and use a local importer to clear it resulted in the severe price reduction (normally this would cost you $20+ easily). We BLEW through this wine last September when it first arrived. First no one could pronounce the name, then no one seemed to care because they were pouring bottles of this deliciously crisp and expressive wine down their gullets with reckless abandon.

Ryan reloaded and the second shipment just landed. Woodhouse is seriously like our own wino version of Robin Hood (and he's British, too!). He basically buys wine for prices that look like steals, then gives it to customers in need of serious value. If you can't afford to spend more than ten bucks on a bottle of wine, then this is definitely where you should put that ten dollars. It's an amazingly complex, layered, and delicious bottle of Sauvignon Blanc—Sancerre-like in quality—for nine freakin' ninety-nine. And it's not like he's buying wine from some no-named up-and-comer! HPF is the creation of master of Sauvignon Blanc winemaker Bartho Eksteen. Bartho is known in South Africa as: "the Sultan of Savvy"..."The Sage of Sauvignon Blanc"...and even "Monsieur SB"! He was voted Top Winemaker in South Africa and is a leading member of the Cape Winemakers Guild. This guy is a legend in South Africa. 

He's about to be a legend at K&L as well (check out On the Trail for more info).

-David Driscoll