What I Drank Last Night

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 [...]

Colleague Angela Lloyd wrote an article for the April issue of WineLand magazine on what makes a good wine judge. Towards this, she put a set of questions to various local and international judges. Here are my answers: 1) Why do you act as a judge? Having stumbled into wine writing, I quickly realised that [...]

The Quoin Rock cellar is located in the Simonsberg ward of Stellenbosch, but the range also includes wines made from vineyards in Cape Agulhas such as this, a partially wooded Sauvignon Blanc named after a Danish ship that sank there in 1783. The 2007 was maiden vintage and it comes highly decorated (best wooded Sauvignon [...]

Judges for the 10th annual 2011 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show judges have been announced and I’m delighted to be included on the panel, this being my fifth consecutive year. Show chairman since inception is leading wine critic Michael Fridjhon and there are three international judges and five other local judges. The international judges are [...]

The fifth annual Wine Judging Academy run by Wine magazine in conjunction with leading wine critic Michael Fridjhon was held this past weekend, its aim since inception being to help raise the standard of local wine judging. During a module presented by international guest lecturer Peter McCombie MW, the Cape Point Vineyards Isliedh 2005 was [...]

It is curious to me how one particular producer can be a front-runner in a particular category for a while and then seemingly get overtaken by other producers who deliver wines even more impressive and aesthetically pleasing. Stellenbosch farm Simonsig enjoyed significant success with its Merindol Syrah in the mid-2000s, the 2000 vintage winning double [...]