Impressionism

Monday, May 9th, 2011

The title or heading doesn’t mean that I’m going to start waffling on about art or even literature. Those ‘isms’ are best left to folk who know something about the subject matter – or at least think they do. The impressions I’m going to share are those of some of the judges of the Decanter World Wine Awards and the International Wine Challenge, of which both competitions have been judged in London over the past two weeks.

The weather in London is holding – it’s sunshine and blue skies day after day. And since the Brits have a national fixation with weather (such a handy conversational filler…) already the talk is turning to water restrictions and drought since it’s been the driest March and the warmest April on record – or even more dramatically stated: “since records began”.

South African judges have made their presence felt at the International Wine Challenge held at the Barbican exhibition hall in London this week. Sommelier and wine consultant Higgo Jacobs has been in action along with Winestyle editor Jenny Ratcliffe-Wright and Durban’s glam vinophile, Yegas Naidoo.

At Decanter a number of wine professionals commented on the strides that South African wines have been making – and singled out the whites for special mention. Chenin Blanc is always one of the first categories raised for discussion and that often leads onto its use in white blends, along with other grapes such as Roussanne and Viognier. South African Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc blends are also gaining in kudos with the quality appreciated by palates which are familiar with the original Graves template. Obviously Pinotage came in for more than its fair share of discussion but there genuinely appears to be recognition of the fact that it is becoming less offensive to the foreign palate. The tide is turning – a bit like a heavily-laden oil tanker: slowly… but people who would happily have slagged it off at length are now conceding that it is not all dire and depressing. Good examples of Pinotage can be found which are grounds for celebration.

Wednesday saw the trophy judging round of the International Wine Challenge and one Master of Wine told a small group of tasters after lunch how much he’d enjoyed one particular flight of wines. Being the trophy round the wines on display had already gone through two rounds of tasting panels. The first week a panel had done a preliminary screening and decided the wine was either out of the running, to be commended or even worthy of a medal.

If it was the latter scenario the wine went through to round two – and the second week of judging by a more stringent panel which decided whether it was a bronze, silver or even gold medal wine. The other option – which does happen – is that the second panel wonders what the first were thinking…and knock it out or down to commended.

But the point this MW was making was that he saw his panel had a flight of South African Shiraz. Paraphrasing somewhat (because I was listening, not taking notes…) he thought to himself: “Ok, here we go: big, overripe and yet simultaneously green monsters heavily cropped off young vines…” His reaction after tasting the flight? “One wine stood out head and shoulders above the rest. It was beautiful! Elegant, well-made, balanced, perfectly ripe fruit and no sign of that somewhat herbal, green flavour you often get on SA reds.” He went further to say: what is this producer doing to get it so right where others aren’t? And on the basis of that one wine, what else is South Africa capable of?

The results of both competitions will be announced at the London Wine Trade Fair on May 17.