What I Drank Last Night

At last year’s Nederburg Auction, a case of six half-bottles of Zonnebloem Cabernet Sauvignon 1961 fetched R5 500, the equivalent of R1 833 per 750ml bottle. Does old South African red deserve this sort of premium? Yesterday the chance to explore the age-worthiness of Zonnebloem Cab, the line-up including 1964, 1974, 1982, 1995, 2000 and [...]

Why has Lars Maack, owner of Constantia property Buitenverwachting, removed his Riesling vineyards just when interest in what can be done with the variety locally finally seems to be reaching a meaningful level? To answer the question a bottle of his Rhine Riesling 2006 next to Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 2005 from the [...]

Why is Meerendal such a perennial under-performer? This property’s location in cool-climate Durbanville alone should mean more accolades while it managed to attract the services of high-profile winemaker Karl Lambour for the 2006 harvest before he left for Constantia Glen  and who is now at Holden  Manz in Franschhoek. A rolling stone gathers no moss, [...]

Tim James has been up to his usual wine competition bashing efforts over on Grape.co.za (see here, here and here), his issue not only that any one competition will produce a set of results that are “mix of valid and rubbish” but also that there is “extraordinary disparity” between the results of different competitions. I’m [...]

Quarry 2008 from  Hillcrest in Durbanville won the trophy for best Merlot overall at the 2011 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show announced today while the 2009 got gold. The Merlot 2005 from this property was best in class at the 2007 competition.

A continuous point of debate while judging the Unwooded Sauvignon Blanc Class during this year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show was how much methoxypyrazine character to tolerate. In line with the general tendency prevalent locally at the moment, I was inclined to give high reward to wines showing a pronounced herbaceous character, international judge Debra [...]

Judging for the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show 2011 is now complete, it having attracted 1 062 entries from 225 producers (compared to 1 014 wines from 234 producers in 2010). Entry breakdown of the main classes was as follows: Sauvignon Blanc 141; Shiraz 132; Cabernet Sauvignon 106; other red blends 101; Bordeaux-style red blends 98; [...]

Last night an informal dinner for 2011 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show judges at Marc’s restaurant in Paarl. A mix-and-match approach to food and wine, with some judges bringing special bottles to share with colleagues. Main-course menu options included pan-fried Kabeljou, Wildebeest Wellington style and trio of butternut – gratin, carpaccio and risotto. After a [...]

Last night the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show sponsor’s dinner at Bosman’s, the fine-dining restaurant at Paarl hotel Grande Roche. After a 12-hour day chairing the panel that reviewed the 124 entries in the unwooded Sauvignon Blanc class, I was up for some grub. To start, duo of beef with Feiteiras Verdelho 2009 (best niche [...]

It is tradition to mark the start of judging of the annual Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show with a tasting of old South African wines (whites fifteen years after vintage or older and reds 25 years after vintage or older). Yesterday’s line-up included such stand-out wines as Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc 1986, GS Cabernet Sauvignon [...]