Celebrating 10 years of memorable wines

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show has become one of the most respected and authoritative national wine competitions in South Africa. With the stated objective at the 2002 launch of seeking “to identify the best wines in each category on the basis of quality standards applied around the world”, the results have surpassed even that early lofty goal.

 

Says Michael Fridjhon, chairman of the judging panel: “The past decade has seen extraordinary changes at the top end of the South African wine industry and the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show played an important role in discovering new talent and showcasing this achievement.”

He added that there have been more focused entries – producers seemed to understand this was a serious enterprise and frivolous entries were a waste of their money. This made the business of judging more difficult because more of the entries require very serious attention. In addition, “the pattern over the last decade initially saw an increasing focus on the major classes – but lately we’ve seen a bit of a swing to less fashionable varieties. This may be a matter of newer plantings gaining some age.”

International experience is a prerequisite for the nine tasters, three of whom are wine experts drawn from the who’s who of international wine. These have included journalists, authors, wine educators, winemakers and wine buyers drawn from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Germany and Hong Kong, among them six Masters of Wine. Luminary Jancis Robinson MW OBE, the most published wine author in the northern hemisphere, has twice served on the panel, which is in itself confirmation of the show’s prestige and credibility beyond our borders.

Continually evolving to reflect market conditions, there have been some changes over the years. Entries climbed significantly, from 787 in 2002 to stabilise at just over 1 000 over the past three years, while the number of trophies awarded grew from 16 at inception to 26 in 2010. New categories were introduced, such as Discovery of the Show for the best value wine and Museum Class for older wines of exceptional quality.

There are no automatic winners in each category; each award is strictly based on merit, with the result that some wine styles and varieties have trophy winners each year, while others are less frequent. New awards are added when a deserving winner is found. An analysis of trophy winners over the past nine years shows surprisingly few regular winners, given the pool of talent that enters. That means there is no predisposition to certain styles or wine varieties in the judging – it’s the best wine in the glass that wins.

THE 2011 JUDGES

Three of the world’s most influential wine writers – all equally famous as wine judges – visited South Africa in early May to join six local experts at the 10th Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show.

Debra Meiburg MW is a founding director and judge of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition, the largest pan-Asian wine competition..She has also been voted ‘Most Influential Wine Journalist in Hong Kong’. Neal Martin is critic-atlarge for eRobertParker.com, America’s most important wine publication. Thierry Desseauve, who was a founder of La Revue du Vins de France, now produces France’s most influential wine guide..All three spent almost a week at the Grande Roche Hotel in Paarl assessing the best of South Africa’s current releases.

They shared this task with several of South Africa’s most highly trained palates – including Cathy van Zyl MW, South Africa’s only resident UK-trained Master of Wine, former editor of Wine magazine Christian Eedes, winery owner Gary Jordan, sommelier Miguel Chan, industry consultant Ginette de Fleuriot CWM and wine buyer François Rautenbach. Michael Fridjhon, who has served as a senior judge at the world’s most important international competitions, again directed proceedings as the show chairman.

Commenting on their judging experience over the years, all six local judges spoke of the invaluable learning opportunity provided by tasting alongside the international judges. Cathy van Zyl MW further noted that judging was rigorous, with every effort made to ensure each wine is given a chance to shine. Ginette de Fleuriot CWM applauded “the flawless organisation, year in and year out,.which makes such a large and lengthy competition possible and credible”, while.Miguel Chan enjoyed the healthy debate among the judges in reaching consensus. François Rautenbach saw the detailed feedback to the industry as important in rectifying quality negatives or acknowledging positives. Winemaker Gary Jordan had noticed fewer faults on the wines entered as well as elegance and balance on many more wines than before, while Christian Eedes said there had been a “raising of the bar over time as a relatively stable core of local judges became more experienced”.

The final word belongs to Michael Fridjhon who said his choice of judges was always a balancing act, but that he needs “to make sure that the panels in general share a similar aesthetic sense”. He added that the local judges served to moderate and complement the role of the overseas judges.

JUDGING PROCEDURE

All the wines were tasted blind by the panel of nine judges over four days from 9 to 12 May, at the Grande Roche in Paarl.. Each panel comprised three judges, the chair of which was an international judge, each tasted an entire category and a wine’s final rating was decided by panel consensus. To add to the pool of future judges, associate judges were introduced in 2003. While their scores were not included in the final result, they tasted and fully participated in the debate on a wine’s final rating. To ensure credibility and accuracy, the results were recorded by an auditor present throughout the proceedings.

TASTE THE WINNING WINES

The 1 June results announcement of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show launches a two-week road show comprising Old Mutual MasterClass tastings in major SA cities and in Windhoek. Tastings for the general public will be held in Cape Town and Johannesburg on 9 and 10 June respectively. Tickets are available from mid-May via www.computicket.com.

These popular single-night annual wine tastings give wine-lovers the chance to taste about 90 of South Africa’s best wines in a sizeable range of wine categories – from sparkling and Sauvignon Blanc to Pinotage and Port – with a few lesserknown varieties guaranteed to make an appearance. Highlights of the show are the unveiling of the Most Successful Producer and the Discovery of the Show. All wines present at the public tastings achieve trophy, gold or silver medal awards and can be ordered at special deal prices on the night. Achieving an Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show medal is a significant accolade thanks to the intense scrutiny that each wine entry is subjected to by the panel of nine judges comprising international and local experts.

(See following page for further details on these public tastings.)

To get the results of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show and find out what memorable wines you must drink this year, get your free copy of ICONS in the July issue of Wine magazine. Or purchase this valuable wine guide for R79.95 from CNA, Exclusive Books, selected newsstands and certain wine retailers or by mail-order via www.trophywineshow.co.za.