The Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show 2013 kicked off its annual feedback session with some great positives and interesting critiques of some of South Africa’s wines.
The judges of this year’s show consisted of 3 internationals and 6 local judges, all of whom brought with their own levels of expertise and experience. Tom Carson, chief winemaker at Yabby Lake Victoria (Australia), Oz Clarke a wine writer and author and Eric Goettelmann, Executive Sommelier based in Burgundy, were the international judges. The South African judges were Christian Eedes, Gary Jordan, Angela Lloyd, James Pietersen, Francois Rautenbach and Rianie Strydom.
Michael Fridjhon, the show chairman, was delighted to announce that there was a higher depth of quality throughout all the classes though the awards were down from last year with Golds finishing on 31 compared to the 37 of last year. Shiraz continues to be the largest class and also the one which showed the most favour.
For South Africa’s own variety, Pinotage, it was sad to note that many had been hot, dark and generally too pressed. However, the ‘darling of the vineyard’ Chenin Blanc, was a fast favourite though, in a serious jest, Clarke remarked “Say what you like about the French, and I know we will, but they cherish what they have. They are patriotic and Chenin is really stating something about the SA personality.” He revealed that those who make the great Chenins, have a real vision of flavour which in turn, carries them to perfection.
In closing, a point made by Eric Goettelmann on the way the world views South Africa is crucial to its progression. Seen in terms of separates - South being warm and Africa, again much hotter than other countries - the message we can portray is that we offer heavy, big wines with too much warmth and not enough balance. Yet Goettelman had been surprised to find so much elegance. Fridjhon honed in on expressing the importance of spreading a message of elegance and refinement to the World.
