‘Habenero red’ Platter’s brims with five-stars and Starboard surprise
[caption id="attachment_229008" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Winery of the year winner Bruwer Raats, second from left, of Raats Family Wines with his ‘partners in wine’ Mzokhona Mvemve, left, and Gavin Bruwer Slabbert, right, congratulated by Platter’s publisher Jean-Pierre Rossouw, centre[/caption]
These are wines you can go to war with.That’s how Jean-Pierre Rossouw, publisher of the Platter’s by Diner’s Club Wine Guide, describes the record line-up of 111 five-star wines in the 2018 edition launched last week, saying these stellar wines “can go anywhere in the world”.
In the guide’s 38-year history, 987 wines have been awarded the coveted five stars. This year alone, almost the same number, out of about 8000 tasted, were put forward for five-star consideration.
This “extraordinarily large number”, says Rossouw, is an indicator not only of growth in numbers of wineries and wines on the local landscape, but also testament to ever-improving wine-making, aided by “a great run of quality vintages”, especially in 2015 and this year.
The 2018 guide holds a number of record-breaking achievements, not least that of winery of the year winner Raats Family Wines, with cellarmaster Bruwer Raats responsible for an unprecedented eight five-star wines – five from Raats plus the renowned MR de Compostella made with winemaker friend Mzokhona Mvemve, and two from his B Vintners collaboration with cousin Gavin Bruwer Slabbert. Guests at the Cape Town launch were treated to the opportunity of tasting the 111 five-star wines – and many made a beeline for the wines from the Raats stable: the MR de Compostella 2015 Bordeaux blend a hot favourite (at over R1000 a bottle, not something one gets to sample very often!).
Twenty producers earned their first-ever five-star ratings this year – among them, astonishingly, given their history, Lanzerac winning for the outstanding 2015 Pionier Pinotage.
A happy Eastern Cape twist came with the first five-star accolade for Elgin’s Highlands Road, owned by PE attorney Michael White, for their 2015 sauvignon blanc reserve, from what winemaker Vanessa Simkiss calls a “cracker of a vintage”, with old oak barrel ferment bringing out fantastic balance of zestiness, minerality and creaminess.
This was the first year a wine of the year trophy was awarded to a fortified dessert wine, to Beaumont Family Wines for an unusual blend of tinta barocca and port. Called “Starboard” because it falls outside the category of port-style wines, winemaker Sebastian Beaumont says the winning wine is “a blend of some leftover barrels of vintage port” – the result a delicious, multi-layered wine that calls out for lingering conversation and comfy leather couches.
The colour of the Platter’s cover is kept a closely guarded secret every year, with publisher Rossouw sneaking into the Table Bay Hotel ballroom via the service entrance at last week’s event to avoid being caught with the “habanero red” edition in his pocket before the big reveal.
The 2018 guide is available on in both hardcover and digital subscription, and should be in stores soon.
