Awards 2003
JULIET CULLINAN
CAPE WINE CONNOISSEUR'S AWARD !
Award winners 2003
Good grapes, good luck and good terroir. Wine-makers, critics and amateur connoisseurs are falling over each other to salute the 2003 highlights at the Juliet Cullinan SCMB Wine Festival.
Wine buffs have talked of little else since the preliminary tasting sessions when an all woman panel from Gauteng selected the same gems as internationally acclaimed foreign judges. Could this prove the superiority of the female palate?
With its sensational views over the Zoo and Parktown, the Westcliff Hotel provided a glorious backdrop to the serried rows of marked bottles, trays of glasses, and scoresheets. Wines for the festival were pre-tasted blind by the Cape Wine Masters, under the supervision of KPMG.
After sniffing, swilling and spitting their way through more than 60 wines a day, the Cape Wine Master judges, an all-woman team, pronounced their verdicts. The Cape Wine Master is the highest qualification in the country, identifying faults, quality, terroir and style. Included in the esteemed group were Marilyn Cooper, Margaret Fry, Val Kartsounis Elsie Pells and Cathy White. Assistant judges were Margie Fallon, Heidi Rosenthal and Junel Vermeulen.
The Juliet Cullinan Wine Connoisseur Award highlights the best wines at the Festival, awarding winning wineries with bottle stickers, certificates and silver lapel-sized taste-du-vins for their achievements. Apart from valuable publicity, the Juliet Cullinan Wine Connoisseurs Award winner receives an international air ticket to the wine destination of their choice and R3000 spending money.
This Standard Corporate Merchant Bank-sponsored prize will ensure that local winemakers are kept abreast of international trends. Red wines, Ports, and Noble Late Harvest styles were tasted this week and the white wines will be tasted in September. The winner, so far is Paul Cluver Noble Late Harvest 2000, a sticky pudding wine.
Top scoring wineries:
Flagstone - three winners out of three wines entered:
Strata In Cahoots 2001, The Music Room Cabernet 2001 and Dragon Tree 2001.
Overgaauw - three winners: Shiraz/Cabernet 2001, Tria Corda Cabernet Merlot 2001, and Cape Vintage Port 1997
Paul Cluver - Pinot Noir 2001 and Noble Late Harvest 2000
Kloovenburg - Cabernet 2001 and Shiraz 2001
Simonsig - Frans Malan Reserve 2000 and Tiara 1999
- Genesis Shiraz 2001 and Genesis Merlot 2001
The Cape Blends - red blends containing Pinotage - excited the judges. While not appreciated as a varietal wine, the grape comes into its own in a blend. The wines were spicy and intense with great complexity.
Exclusive boutique wineries with small parcels of terroir-reflective wines flock to the Juliet Cullinan SCMB Wine Festival where a smaller location ensures intimacy, a chance to network, make friends and mingle with buyers.
|
