Awards will sniff out the top wines
THE Veritas Awards, presented by the South African National Wine Show Association, is the country’s top wine competition and the single or double gold stickers awarded are the ultimate seal of approval for us wine fanatics.
The week-long judging of the 1753 entries by 105 wine makers, masters, writers, consultants and other assorted experts from as far afield as Canada, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Australia and the Netherlands, has just been completed and the winners will be announced on October 11. With the most entries in a category, Shiraz (220) is sure to come out tops, so keep an eye out for the winning wines on the shelves of your local store.
In the meantime, there are some great Shiraz deals about. The Mountain Shadows Shiraz 2004 is one that caught my eye but I’ve searched the Platter and the web with little joy other than discovering that the wine seems to come from Ruitersvlei and is produced for export, so only limited quantities are available locally. It’s described as having “spicy overtones with lots of juicy fruit coming through” and best of all its only R19.99 a bottle – haven’t tried it yet but if anyone has, let me know what you think of it.
Another great value for money wine with huge amounts of potential is the Porcupine Ridge Syrah 2007 which is available at R39.99 a bottle. The 2006 is a Platter four-star wine so the chances are that the 2007 will be pretty good. At this price, its worth buying a few bottles for putting down – it can only improve with time.
The Fish Hoek Shiraz 2005 is a result of a collaboration between Bruce Jack’s Flagstone Winery and Riebeek Cellars under the new Springtree Wine Company umbrella.
This wine comes with an impressive pedigree and, according to the tasting notes, is succulent and ripe with concentrated fruit, hints of delicate white pepper, leather and cloves on the nose. The palate shows ripe, juicy, red fruit with smoky undertones and a clean, lingering finish and all for just R31.99 – another fantastic collectors’ item.