Time for Wine of the Month Club to laud their
suppliers. The event was held at Vista Marine restaurant which is behind the Aquarium
in the V&A Waterfront. This year's event was a chance to taste some of
their most popular wines and meet the winning winemakers
Emil den Dulk of De Toren, Mike Ratcliffe of
Warwick and Johan Malan of Simonsig all won awards
The man who started this
successful (now on line) wine club in 1986, innovator and owner of Wine-of-the-Month
Club Colin Collard
with his sons Clifford and Giscard, directors of the company and daughter Natalie, the wine buyer for the club and the
publisher of Good Taste magazine
Clifford Collard began the ceremony. They
have 30 000 active members and many more casual buyers. A box of wine is
delivered every month. How does the selection of the wines work? They invite a
panel of ten independent expert wine judges every week. They ask them to taste
40 wines each week (that is 2000 a year!) and score all the wines blind in a
neutral environment at their premises. Blind wine tasting ensures that no judge is
influenced by a label, the beauty of a wine farm or warmth of the host. As a
member, you can order a selection of wines on line or just let them send you a selected
mystery mixed case of the wine styles and varietals you prefer. Check out their
website https://www.wineofthemonth.co.za/
Caroline Rillema of Caroline’s
Fine Wines won an award for her own Celestina white blend and Jane Ferreira Eedes was
there to collect an award for Vondeling
Some hopeful faces.
The panel retastes the top 20 of each category every year and finds the champions.
They want to award quality
Kathy Leaver Miller, Account and Marketing Manager at Wine-of-the Month Club
Asif Hoosen, Head of Marketing,
Product and Public Relations at sponsor Audi South Africa, said that they
"are very interested in the top winemakers, they want to know their 'back'
stories and to be part of their future"
More intent wine people, with a
glass of Johan Malan's winning Simonsig MCC Brut. This has won this category
many times
Giscard Collard began the Awards ceremony
One of the slides showing the
demographic of their orders nationwide
and another with the top 10 suppliers to the club
Pierre Waal, of Rijks gets his
certificate as runner up in the Chenin Blanc category for the Reserve 2011
Chenin. The other runner up was Carl van der Merwe for the De Morgenzon Reserve
Alvi's Drift was awarded the Trophy for
the Chenin blanc category with his Albertus Viljoen Chenin blanc 2015 (a Platter 5 star wine),
collected here by owner Alvi van der Merwe
The Trophy of Winemaker of the
Year went to Gerhard Swart of Flagstone
Some prizes were also awarded, this is some Laborie MCC
for winemaker Stephanie Wiid of Fairview
Then it was time for some food
to pair with the winning wines
Spicy chicken drumsticks, superb
prawns, and fresh oysters,
Those drumsticks
A tray of canapés
Filo pastry quiches
A wicked selection of sweets, chocolates, biscuits and meringues
and a table full of the winning
wines to taste
The trophy winners with Colin
Collard, only missing Karl Lambour of Tokara who had to leave early
- Chenin Blanc: Alvi’s Drift Wines - Albertus Viljoen Chenin blanc 2015
- Dry White Blend: De Morgenzon- Maestro White
- Sauvignon Blanc: Brampton Wines
- Chardonnay: Pulpit Rock Wines
- Bordeaux Blend: Bellevue Wine Estate - Bellevue Tumara 2008
- Cabernet Sauvignon: Wellington Wines
- Merlot: Bayede Royal Wines
- Pinotage: Flagstone Wines - Writer's Block Pinotage
- Shiraz: Stony Brook Vineyards - Syrah reserve
- MCC: Simonsig - Kaapse Vonkel
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
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