Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show 2009: Review

Show Review

Michael Fridjhon, chairman of the judges, on what the show says about SA wine quality in 2009.

It is almost impossible to review a competition like the annual Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show without descending into platitudes of the "Curate's Egg" variety. No single class can ever be a touchstone of a whole industry, and no result, however intricate, can fully reflect the nuance embodied in the line-up of the top wines.

It is easy enough to dispose of what doesn't work. As always, there were literally hundreds of bland, ordinary wines, the ill-thought out submissions of producers whose lack of focus in winemaking is carried over into an almost frivolous approach to selecting their show entries. Brian Croser, one of the international judges at the Trophy Wine Show - and past chairman of the Australian national show as well as the annual Sydney show - described one of the classes in the following terms: "Nondescript, stale, clumsy wines with far too many showing oxidation... and mercaptan faults... Embedded in this unpromising seam are the gems..."

These comments could pretty much have applied to all the categories. The business of extracting from the welter of submissions the nation's top wines is an exercise in prospecting - the equivalent of working through mountains of gravel to identify the real diamonds lurking there. Perhaps the judges occupy a world whose aesthetic criteria are so far removed from those whose achievements they are invited to rate that there really is a disconnect between the two realities. I would prefer to think of this as two parallel worlds functioning in adjacent spaces but (for the moment at least) with only a limited overlap.

Producers get on with making wines directed (in their minds) by the fruit they harvest, conducting running repairs (such as decisions around the use of oak, for example) during the vinification and ageing process. Judges are mainly interested in the end result. They see things from the consumer or market perspective. They are not really interested in the vagaries of the weather or the limitations of place - the issues which afflict the everyday lives of producers.

Where efforts coincide - where what nature has delivered has required least intervention in the production process and yielded an expression of fruit and place that emerges with often startling luminosity - there is clear agreement about what is a champion wine. Where this is not the case, there are often well crafted, eminently drinkable triumphs of the winemaker's art. Drawing these distinctions, identifying true virtue, lifting it above the solid but uninspiring beverages that form the bulk of even the better end of the industry, is what events like the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show set out to achieve.

In what has almost become an annual refrain, we noted this year that the white wine categories were generally better and with a higher percentage of really impressive wines than the reds. Spread across most of the classes - Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Chardonnay and various white blends - was a depth of talent which is sadly still absent from most of the red wine classes.

Some of this should be obvious from the evidence of the trophy and gold medal line-up. There were no Merlots, Pinotages and Pinot Noirs judged worthy of gold - just as in past years there have been, at best, only one or two candidates for top honours in these classes. Among Cabernet Sauvignons the pickings at the very top were also quite lean (in more ways than one), and, in retrospect, the difficulties afflicting fruit quality in Merlot and Cabernet carried forward into the Bordeaux-style blends.

Much of this probably relates to the problems of virus in the vineyards: red varieties have been the worst affected, so it should come as no surprise to find that the dearth of healthy fruit sources has translated into a paucity of impressive reds. The most notable exception to the red wine rule is Shiraz, and here too the explanation remains consistent. Most of the Cape's Shiraz vineyards were established in the past decade. The planting material was healthier than the vines supplied to
Merlot and Cabernet producers in the early 1990s, and, to the extent that it is likely to succumb in time to virus, it still has a little time ahead of it. A few years ago it was quite difficult to find gold-medal Shiraz, but that was because the vineyards were still very young. Now they are more mature, but still healthy. Four gold medals from the admittedly largest entry of any class in the 2009 show is less surprising than it might, on first sight, seem to be.

The same is true of Sauvignon Blanc, a category in which South African producers have been focusing for some time. There is a formally established Sauvignon interest group which meets regularly, hosts seminars and discusses key viticultural concerns. Producers have also been more aware of the importance of site when it comes to Sauvignon than appears to be the case for Merlot (or even Shiraz). The most successful Sauvignons come from cooler locations and have been managed by producers who have thought about the expression of the fruit - in short, the wines have not been left to chance. Where vineyard location has not lead to an appropriate unwooded style, astute oak elevage (a feature of the Chardonnay and Chenin side of the white wine industry) has also played a role.

Chenin is in much the same position as Sauvignon: the top producers have selected suitably sited vineyards and have been working at developing styles that work within the constraints of their material. They also have access to the oldest, reasonably healthy blocks of vines in South Africa.

Chardonnay's success shares many of these elements - older vineyards, a greater sense of the importance of location - that lead to a less interventionist approach in the winemaking. The white wine disappointment this year was Semillon - never a major contributor to the medal count but a source of gold medals in previous shows.

Beyond the major red and white wine classes there was a surprising absence of really interesting examples in the more niche categories. With the exception of one really good silver medal (Rhine) Riesling, there was nothing of note from this increasingly endangered class. Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and a host of the more fringe reds - many of which have their own champions in the Cape - simply did not perform.

The two areas which have traditionally been industry strongholds - dessert wines and Ports - produced a truly splendid result this year. Botrytised wines were sumptuously represented in the gold medal lineup while (fortified) Muscadels and vintage-style Ports were - as always - on the awards platform in force. The Muscadels, in particular, revealed their potential to present the Cape wine industry with a unique point of difference. The Ports showed the strength of their specialist producers as well as the value of South Africa's focused attention to the category.

Dessert wines and Ports - produced a truly splendid result.

As always, the best is world class and the worst incapable of yielding any pleasure. The good news is the growth of the middle class - the silver and bronze medal winners. Many of these wines have been produced in ample volumes and provide irrefutable evidence of the Cape wine industry's inexorable march to quality.