Lawyer takes high road to produce top-class wine

A PORT Elizabeth attorney has won a top national award – not for his prowess in the court room, but for his wine-making ability.

Michael White, of Mill Park, received the Old Mutual trophy for Best Museum Class Unwooded Sauvignon Blanc for his Highlands Road Sauvignon Blanc 2009.

White said winning the "prestigious award is cause for great celebration".

"It's for moments such as this that I love this industry. From the winery perspective it is fantastic to see our name on the trophy alongside many other previous winners from leading and even iconic producers," he said.

"Being among the highly esteemed wineries who also were awarded this year will hopefully enhance Highlands Road's market reputation and industry accreditation and of course hopefully also lead to increased sales."

White said his love affair with wine – and ultimately wine-making – started with simply enjoying wine.

"From that starting point I was drawn to the winelands on tasting and touring visits and eventually decided to learn a little about the industry from the inside.

"I went to work in cellars during harvest and learnt some of the ropes and had my interest entrenched," he said.

"After a couple of years of doing that I bought a small run-down apple farm in the Elgin Valley [in the Western Cape] and set about converting it to a wine estate.

"In time the newly planted vines and the grapes needed to be processed and so, as always was the plan, a production cellar with tasting room and small restaurant was built on the farm.

"The result is today Highlands Road is a fully functional wine farm that produces award-winning wines."

He said the winning wine was thanks to a near perfect storm during harvest in Elgin that year.

"The right amount of rain at the right time combined with just the right amount of heat at the right time created fantastic conditions for ripening of exceptional sauvignon blanc grapes that year.

"This combined with Elgin's cool climate in general made for a wine that was wonderful starting out but which turned into something exceptional as it aged, hence the decision to enter it this year when it was already five years old," White said.

Old Mutual Wine Show chairman Michael Fridjhon said the hallmark feature of this year's results was "their coherence across a broad range of classes, with red wines enjoying particularly positive feedback".

"In previous years the under- performance of reds was pretty much a constant refrain from the judges. It seems the current releases herald a crucial turning point," he said.

"Older virus-free vines are now contributing a depth of texture and fruit – the absence of which was commented upon by the show's judges in previous years." - Yoliswa Sobuwa