Cape Wine Master Bennie Howard was in the Bay last week to share his choice of a whopping 22 double gold and gold winners from the Veritas Awards, SA’s foremost competition for market-ready wines and brandies.
The awards have been contested for the past 28 years, with 264 contenders claiming 50 double gold, 219 gold, 671 silver and 559 bronze medals in 2018.
What makes this competition stand out is that it is so consumer orientated: enough bottles of the winning wines have to be available for the market to access.
Consumers are also increasingly taking note of the winners and many now use the Veritas awards as a yardstick when buying wine.
It is the 17th year that Howard, vice-chair of Veritas, has hosted this tasting in the Bay. The former radio announcer remains fond of the city, having lived here for six years before leaving for the Cape to become Stellenbosch Farmers Winery’s PR manager back in 1981.
Last Wednesday’s tasting at the Garden Court Hotel was attended by scores of Bay wine lovers, with Jacques van der Merwe once again the local organiser on behalf of Veritas.
We started with some fine bubbles in the form of Lord’s Wines’ gold-scoring Brut MCC – a winery in the McGregor valley with which many in the room were unfamiliar.
The tasting moved to numerous whites and everyone was decidedly proud of the Highlands Road sauvignon blanc 2015 which earned gold and has a local connection in that the Elgin farm is owned by Bay attorney Michael White, who has been working around the country to promote his wines.
“This one, for a 2015, is superb,” Bennie said. “I don’t know why it didn’t get double gold. Just look at the palate – the balance of fruit and acidity comes together beautifully.”
One big surprise among the whites was the wonderfully zesty Orange River Cellars colombard 2018, an off-dry wine which scored double gold and retails for, wait for it, just R46.99 a bottle!
Next came 11 reds and here the gold-scoring Diemersdal pinotage 2016 had many fans – incredibly its retail price is only around R110.
We also tasted some superb reds from the likes of Glenelly (their evocative Glass Collection cab-sav 2015) and Simonsvlei (the 1945 Granite Red limited release 2014).
The tasting ended with the Bon Courage noble late harvest 2016, the Villa Esposito Muscat d’Alexandrie straw wine 2017 and, as the ultimate soother of the senses, the double gold-winning KWV Imoya Fine Potstill Brandy. For the full list of 2018 awards visit veritas.co.za