Last night at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Abingdon put on a dinner with wine pairings from their wonderful Estate up in the Midlands. This venture by Ian and Jane Smorthwaite really is something we should all get behind. They are making some fantastic wines, and Ian is making enormous strides in giving the wines he is creating their own distinctive character.
His Sauvignon is a revelation, flinty, Sancerre like crispness, clean on the palate and wonderful. I would challenge anyone in a blind tasting to say it was South African, it tastes European through and through.
His Blanc de Noirs, something I drink a lot of, as we really rate this style of wine in Europe, is deserving of at least four stars in Platter, and is a testament to Ian’s commitment to making a perfectly balanced wine, which is left on the skins for only ten minutes. 
To listen to Ian talk is to see the depth of his passion for winemaking, three o clock in the morning lightning bolts of ideas involving moving wines from barrel to steel to get the alcohol content correct, plans to stop monkeys from eating his grapes, great stuff. The partnership with his stunning wife Jane, is obviously integral to their wine making philosophy and it is a pleasure to watch them interact, Jane’s calm balancing Ian’s boyish excitement.
His Cabernet Sauvignon is complex and world class, the thinner skins you get up in the Midlands, means the tannins are there and the wine has legs, but it is soft to drink, ripe, and acidic. I would never have guessed it had only just been bottled.
Mark my words, if you can get your hands on some Abingdon Sauvignon Blanc, or the Cabernet put them in your cellar for a few years and wait for the wine press to tell you what a clever bunny you have been. You heard it hear first! These wines sell out, and with their inclusion in the Wines of the Southern Hemisphere, things can only get better.