Value

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

It’s been 10 years since Wine magazine’s first ever Best Value Wine Guide was published. Last week they announced the Value Award winners and I had the opportunity to reflect on the changes that had taken place as chronicled between the pages of the past decade of Value Guides. (And I must also declare that I was one of the six judges who tasted on the Value panel.)

At inception, the price threshold was R30 and under – and there was a tremendous amount of value to be had. And there still is. I almost shook my head at the thought of wines selling for R10 or less a bottle just 10 years ago – but it’s a fact that the largest chunk of wines assessed in the Guide were then selling for between R10 and R20! Nowadays that’s moved north to between R30 and R40 per 750ml bottle, as much a reflection of inflation as of the current tough global economic trading environment.

I took a quick look at the numbers. Ten years ago there were around 500 wines submitted whereas it had doubled to just under 1 000 by 2010 (969 to be precise). In the first guide, 250 wines made it through the screening round to the final judging by a full panel. 2010 showed a higher hit rate – with a higher minimum quality threshold too: all wines had to be worthy of at least a 2 Star rating according to Wine mag’s criteria (a score of 14 points out of 20) to get through the initial screening – and 605 made it with a further 419 being deemed worthy of inclusion in the Guide at 2½ Stars or better. The bar has been ratcheted higher – and yet there are more wines comfortably making the cut-off.

There were a scant 32 wines at 3 Stars or better in the first Guide, versus 147 in the 2010 edition. It must be stated that no sweet wines were included back then, whereas muscadels, jerepigo, noble and special late harvest and ports are included nowadays. With those included, it takes the current star tally to 184 at 3 Stars or more.

There was just one red 4 Star and two white 4 Star wines back then and two and five now. Looking at what particular classes hold sway, on both the red and white side, it is blends – 67 to 40 respectively. Shiraz streaks out ahead in terms of red varietal popularity and performance with 37 wines in the 2010 Guide to Pinotage’s 22 and Cabernet Sauvignon’s 21. There’s not much separating Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc with 28 wines for the former and 33 each for the latter two.

It’s still a fact that there’s more value to be had in the white spectrum than red but one thing is very obvious: consumers are spoiled for choice when shopping for a bargain. The overall quality is really good – lovely palatable, tasty wines which run the gamut from dry to sweet, Chenin and Colombar to Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. Nice to have some good news amidst all the general doom and gloom nowadays!