Has quality of South African wine got better in the last couple of years?
25 gold medals, 70 silver and 331 bronze at OMTWS 2009
Has the overall quality of South African wine got better in the last couple of years? The Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, which has been running since 2002, has become an important gauge of the state of the industry. Judging for this year's competition finished yesterday and it was interesting to hear the thoughts and reflections of the various judges: Julia Harding MW (writer and editor of www.jancisrobinson.com and assistant editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine) commented that she did not detect "huge progress" since her previous visit in 2001. "I was impressed then and am as impressed now rather than even more impressed," she said. "I'm happy to defend South African wine to its detractors".
Brian Croser, founder and owner of Australian winery Petaluma for 27 years and past president of the Australian Winemakers' Federation suggested that any improvements in quality he noticed were not as dramatic as "the spread of styles, regions, variety and producer" that had occurred since he last judged at the competition in 2004. He suggested that South Africa was "going through a revolution" regarding the quality of its fine wine (as opposed to commodity wine) and suggested that "specificity" would be key, that is to say achieving the optimal varietal match to a specific site or region.
Looking purely at the medal count in recent times, I think local wine enthusiasts are entitled to take a slightly more bullish view than that expressed by either Harding or Croser: the 2009 show attracted 1 155 entries , compared to 1 024 in 2008 and 968 in 2007. While the proportion of gold medals remains fairly static (25 or 2.2% in '09, 24 or 2.3% in '08 and 24 or 2.5% in '07), the proportion of silver and bronzes has increased ahead of the rate of entry. There were 70 silvers or 6% this year, 52 or 5.1% in '08 and 38 or 3.9% in '07. As for bronzes, there were 331 or 28.6% this year, 242 or 23.6% in '08 and 175 or 18% in '07.
The increase in silvers and bronzes over the last three years might not seem that significant but I think it's fair to say that the expectations of a wine to be worthy of a medal have grown as the competition has become established. Michael Fridjhon, show chairman and co-convener with WINE magazine, is fond of saying "Today's gold should be the equivalent of bronze in five years' time", and applying this, then it is safe to say the quality of local wine is on a steep upward curve.
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My impression, from my own sipping, is that the quality of our benchmark wines has held steady since the 'giant leap' of the 90's, while choice and value-for-money (after allowing for inflation) have definitely improved.
I think recent acolades - such as Eric Asimov's paen to SA Cabs in the New York Times - have more to do with foreigners opening their eyes than South Africans trying harder.
To illustrate, the wine that particularly pushed Asimov's buttons - De Trafford Cab Sav '04 - was awarded three-and-a-half stars by your esteemed tasters, compared to the four-and-a-half they gave to David Trafford's 2002 offering.
There are countless other examples of professional palates reaching wildly divergent views over the same wines, so I would be cautious abour reading too much into medal counts.
There may be - and I sincerely hope there is - a gradual improvement in local wine quality overall, but I think your assertion that it's on a 'steep upward curve' is a bit... steep. "