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But needs a judging rethink by Cassie du Plessis
One aspect, however, flaws the impressive performance and phenomenal growth of the event. This is the fact that questions regularly arise about certain aspects of the results - the amount of medals awarded and, especially, the apparent anomalies when comparing categories and styles.
This year, the total medals awarded decreased from 93% to 77% of wines entered, probably both as a result of three hot vintages in a row and ever stricter judging norms. At the same time, however, the results again reflected some notable contradictions with other authoritative competition results, as well as with the feedback from the market-place.
The market, for instance, still shows little interest in fortified wines; yet these (namely sherries, ports, muscadels and jerepigos) excelled in Veritas 2000. Thereby large producers with large stocks of such products, often of older vintage years, are elevated to star status.
The two top performers this year in terms of total double gold medals were Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery and Boland Wines, who between them took six double gold and nine gold medals. However, all but one of the double golds, as well as five golds out of nine, were for fortifieds. Interestingly, five of these winners from SFW were non-vintage sherries. One observer remarked at the gala evening that this means you can just keep large volumes of such sherries in the ongoing criadera-solera system, bottle them in batches and keep on winning awards. No wonder, some disappointed participants snidely talked about the "Sheritas Awards".
The irony is, at what was certainly the biggest, most spectacular and classiest Veritas gala evening to date - experienced by 900 guests of the new major sponsor, Santam - some leading industry personalities asked whether the right message is conveyed to the consumer and, in particular, the international market?
The international role of Veritas, of course, was until recently insignificant - it was in the first place intended as a reliable guideline for the domestic consumer. But today it's a different story as the globalisation of wine trade is drawing in all facets of South African wine. And Veritas has in the past two years, in collaboration with the SA Wine and Spirit Exporters' Association taken a leading role in identifying what should be displayed to the world.
Shortly after the awards evening, the Veritas "road show" was heading not only for public and trade tastings in Cape Town and Johannesburg, but also trade and media tastings in London and Holland.
The competition, which actually started 10 years ago as the SA National Bottled Wine Show, has grown from 768 entries for the first round under its present name in 1991 (when 54 double gold - 20% of the entries - were awarded) to a record 1 486 entries this year. In fact, the entries have broken previous records five years in a row.
This obviously conveys a strong positive message - even more significant if one keeps in mind that to get together 233 wineries or participants over a diverse spectrum of "cellar types" and structures, sizes, styles and interests, to "risk" their names and reputations, is nothing short of a miracle. Some will always stay out and there's always bound to be criticism? and sour grapes, of course.
But when 11 of the 35 double golds awarded are for fortified products (four muscadels, two jerepigos, three ports and two sherries) nasty questions are bound to follow. Or are these product categories - which have always fared particularly well at Veritas - really the best the Cape offers? and simply suffering from being "under-marketed" and unappreciated?
The fact that Pinotage received one double gold and three gold at a time when good vintages are in the market-place, and receiving plenty of praise from overseas observers, adds to the questions. So also the fact that Shiraz achieved no double golds (nine golds) and MCC's also got only double gold (three gold) fuels the debate.
Although Veritas and the SAA Awards, the country's next biggest cellar showdown for bottled wines, differ vastly in their judging systems and purpose, observers tend to compare them. The two now appear to be more on a par than last year, but one must notice that the Avontuur Chardonnay Reserve 1999 which took the white wine trophy at SAA managed only a silver at Veritas.
Actually Chardonnay, as well as Sauvignon blanc and Cap Classique have over the years showed quite poorly. This year was no exception, with Chardonnay getting three and Sauvignon blanc two double gold - between them they got 16 gold out of a total of 176 and 137 total entries respectively. A staggering thought is that all white wine categories together, including noble late harvest and MCC, managed only eight double golds. If this were a true reflection of the state of our art, it is indeed a sad picture.
Hats off to far-flung Cederberg that pulled off a double gold for Chenin blanc. This clearly says a lot for right terroir - keeping in mind this cellar is at the highest altitude in the country.
A positive development is that Merlot featured strongly in the double gold listings, with three for pure Merlot and several in blends. Red blends did best among the various categories with seven double gold, followed by four to Cabernet Sauvignon.
Seven cellars actually clinched two or more double gold awards among the 35 double gold and 102 gold - which respectively represented 2,4% and 6,8% of the entries.
SFW's Monis range - crafted by winemaker Dirkie Christowitz in Paarl - made its mark with double gold awards for the 1992 Moscato, Medium Cream Sherry and Pale Dry Sherry.
Double gold medals were awarded to Boland Cellar, Paarl, for their Cabernet Sauvignon 1999, Red Muscadel 1997 and White Muscadel 1997, vinified by Johan Joubert and Naud‚ Bruwer.
Three double gold medals were awarded to Morgenhof in Stellenbosch for Morgenhof Brut Reserve 1997, Morgenhof Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 and Morgenhof Reserve Centnaire Vintage Reserve 1998 produced by winemaker Rianie Strydom. The only double gold medal in the category for sparkling wine was awarded to the estate's Brut Reserve 1997.
Gary and Kathy Jordan and fellow winemaker Rudi Schultz walked off with double gold awards for Jordan Chameleon Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 1998 and Jordan Merlot 1999.
In the Worcester region, winemaker Wilhelm Linde took double gold with Nuy's 1998 Red Muscadel and 1998 White Muscadel.
Double gold awards were presented to Rust en Vrede winemaker Louis Strydom for the estate's 1995 and 1997 Rust en Vrede Estate Wine - a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot.
Veenwouden 1998 Classic - a Bordeaux style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet franc and Malbec - clinched a double gold award. Winemaker Marcel van der Walt's Veenwouden Merlot 1998 also won a double gold award.
Beyers Truter achieved two double golds under different labels, one for his Beyerskloof Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 1998 and another for the formidable Kanonkop Paul Sauer 1997.
A significant award was the first ever double gold medal for a Pinot noir, and it had to be Hamilton Russell Wines, with their 1999 vintage.
A panel of 105 judges - including eight international experts - adjudicated the record number of entries over four days at Nederburg in Paarl. They awarded 10 or more double gold, gold and silver to only 15 of the 233 participants, namely to SFW (25), KWV (20), Graham Beck (17), Bergkelder (15), De Wetshof Estate (15), Boland (14), Simonsig Estate (14), Nederburg (12), Vergelegen (12), Boschendal (11), Morgenhof Estate (11), Villiera (11), Delheim (10), Slanghoek (10) and Steenberg (10).
Other interesting features of the results this year were the many young faces from the winemaking fraternity, and a new prominence of female winemakers? as well as plenty of new cellars and labels. New names among double golds were Du Plessis (Cabernet Sauvignon 1999), Durbanville Hills (Sauvignon Blanc 1999) and Rijks Private Cellar (Sauvignon Blanc 2000).
Veritas Chairman Danie de Wet said in his keynote address he would like to see the viticulturists behind the wines to be honoured as well... and set the example when his winemaker and viticulturist collected De Wetshof's double gold for Limestone Hill Chardonnay 2000.
Danie called on all players in the industry to join forces to work together for the best possible standards of competitions and thereby to improve the wine quality. He stressed that Veritas had always been an industry project? with the ability and preparedness to adapt.
"The number of awards presented this year indicate higher standards of adjudication. The specialist judging panels are subtly improving their standards on an ongoing basis."
A novelty this year was that the specialist panels first eliminated some substandard wines before judging the rest? and discussion was allowed to promote concensus. But, Danie conceded that the above-mentioned anomalies did bother him? a rethink on certain aspects was needed.
Double Gold Awards
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Ten years down the road, the country's national wine show for market-ready wines this year reached an all time high in volumes, prominence and glamour - thus truly qualifying as the "Oscars" of the wine industry.
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