"For the second consecutive year Spier was the country's top achiever at the prestigious Concours Mondial des Bruxelles competition."
Nicola Jenvey, Wineweek 2011
News
Raising the bar for South African wines
Written by Orielle Berry and originally posted on The Bolander
Trophy winners: Standing from left to right, Theo Basson (Ormonde Private Cellar), Pierre Wahl (Rijk’s Private Cellar); Andrea Freeborough (Die Bergkelder/Fleur du Cap); Andries Burger (Paul Cluver Wines), Kathy Jordan (Jordan Wines), Graeme Read (Hillcrest Estate), Jacques Erasmus (Spier), Morne Vrey (Delaire Graff Estate), Kobus Gerber (Lomond); Lizanne van der Spuy (Cape Point Vineyards), Carl Schultz (Hartenberg Estate); Rudi Schultz (Thelema Mountain Vineyards). In front: Chris Williams (Meerlust), Razvan Macici (Nederburg), Johan Jordaan (Spier), Johann Fourie (KWV) and Christo Pienaar (Nuy Winery).
As the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show Awards were being dished out this week at a lunch, my table companion, Hillcrest winemaker Graeme Read, turned to my neighbour, Rudi Schultz, winemaker at Thelema Mountain Vineyards, and said: “Ja Rudi, it’s not about us guys, it’s the quality of grapes that are responsible”.
Modest words indeed for a former marine biologist turned winemaker who has only been at the game for 10 years but is a second time winner at the awards: in 2007 his Hillcrest Quarry 2005 topped the list for the best merlot and this year his 2008 Quarry Merlot again scooped the Trophy for Best Merlot while he also received a gold medal for his soon-to-be-released Quarry 2009.
The awards were held at Reuben’s restaurant at the One & Only, V & A Waterfront, marking their 10th year.
I was there at the first awards held in 2002, and while I haven’t been at every single awards occasion, it has been noticeable that it has grown into one of the most auspicious, highly regarded and rigidly-judged shows.
As the ever articulate Michael Fridjhon (chairman and convenor of the show) pointed out in his opening address: “There’s a huge difference between wine appreciation and wine judgement. We are getting better at recognising the good and the great when it is there. The gold medals jump out of the glass.”
He added: “The bar is being raised – it’s a show we are building as the most rigorous of its kind”.
While there were 1 070 entries, the judges who had the formidable task of assessing these wines only deemed fit to award 25 gold medals (compared with 32 in 2010), but testimony to that “raising the bar” was the fact that this year there were a higher number of silver (116) and bronze (430) medals compared to 89 silvers and 329 bronzes last year out of a total 571 medals, compared to 450 last year.
In what was termed the most hotly contested race since the inaugural event, Spier just edged out Thelema to take the award for the top producer. Small surprise as Frans Smit, who seems to be on a stellar rise, is already clutching medals from the highly esteemed Decanter World Wine Awards and the Concours Mondiale.
Modest words indeed for a former marine biologist turned winemaker who has only been at the game for 10 years but is a second time winner at the awards: in 2007 his Hillcrest Quarry 2005 topped the list for the best merlot and this year his 2008 Quarry Merlot again scooped the Trophy for Best Merlot while he also received a gold medal for his soon-to-be-released Quarry 2009.
The awards were held at Reuben’s restaurant at the One & Only, V & A Waterfront, marking their 10th year.
I was there at the first awards held in 2002, and while I haven’t been at every single awards occasion, it has been noticeable that it has grown into one of the most auspicious, highly regarded and rigidly-judged shows.
As the ever articulate Michael Fridjhon (chairman and convenor of the show) pointed out in his opening address: “There’s a huge difference between wine appreciation and wine judgement. We are getting better at recognising the good and the great when it is there. The gold medals jump out of the glass.”
He added: “The bar is being raised – it’s a show we are building as the most rigorous of its kind”.
While there were 1 070 entries, the judges who had the formidable task of assessing these wines only deemed fit to award 25 gold medals (compared with 32 in 2010), but testimony to that “raising the bar” was the fact that this year there were a higher number of silver (116) and bronze (430) medals compared to 89 silvers and 329 bronzes last year out of a total 571 medals, compared to 450 last year.
In what was termed the most hotly contested race since the inaugural event, Spier just edged out Thelema to take the award for the top producer. Small surprise as Frans Smit, who seems to be on a stellar rise, is already clutching medals from the highly esteemed Decanter World Wine Awards and the Concours Mondiale.
As Mr Fridjhon explained, in what was no doubt a nail-biting moment for the contenders, while Thelema garnered the same medal count as Spier in its five highest scoring wines, it had a lower medal-to-entry over its total number of submissions – the straw that broke the camel’s back in this narrowest of margins.
Spier’s Creative Block 2 2010 won Frans Smit the Trophy for the Best Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Blend and he also scooped a gold medal for his Spier Private Collection Shiraz 2008 while Thelema Shiraz 2007 won the British Airways Comair trophy for the show’s best shiraz as well as a gold medal in the blended white wine class for its Rousanne Viognier.
Spier’s Creative Block 2 2010 won Frans Smit the Trophy for the Best Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Blend and he also scooped a gold medal for his Spier Private Collection Shiraz 2008 while Thelema Shiraz 2007 won the British Airways Comair trophy for the show’s best shiraz as well as a gold medal in the blended white wine class for its Rousanne Viognier.
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