Folks, it’s the Platter Guide not to be missed!
The new bright yellow Platter Wine Guide was released last night at a trade tasting at the Vineyard Hotel. The biggest news (apart from the colour of the cover, which had been exciting much debate on Twitter yesterday!) was who would be the Winery of the Year. This is at the sole discretion of Platter editor, Philip van Zyl but at the end of the day, there was really only one choice.
Winners at The South African Platter Wine Guide Awards last night were:
Winery of the Year: Boekenhoutskloof
Red Wine of the Year: Cape Chamonix Reserve Pinot Noir 2010
White Wine of the Year: Badsberg Badslese 2009
Superquaffer of the Year: Boekenhoutskloof’s The Wolftrap White 2010
Three wineries got three 5 Star awards and since Nederburg was Winery of the Year last year and Mullineux Family Wines, although undoubted contenders for future years are still relatively new on the wine scene, there was only one choice.
Boekenhoutskloof are a worthy winner of the Winery of the Year (as correctly predicted on this site – see here for details) since they have been massively consistent over a very long time with both their Syrah and their Cabernet and it was nice to see their sweet wine getting a gong as well. In addition, they also scooped the ‘Superquaffer’ award with their Wolftrap White – again as predicted on this site!
Favourite whites
I was briefly at the tasting and ceremony last night but managed to work my way through the line-up. Favourite whites included Colmant Brut Chardonnay NV, De Wetshof ‘The Site’ Chardonnay 2009, Vins d’Orrance Kama Chenin Blanc 2010, Graham Beck Pheasants’ Run 2011 (incidentally, the only 2011 wine amongst the 5 Stars), Fable Jackal Bird 2010, Flagstone CWG Auction Reserve Happy Hour 2009, Steenberg CWG Auction Reserve The Magus 2010.
Favourite reds
Amongst the reds I enjoyed were Warwick Cabernet Franc 2008 , Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Newton Johnson Domaine Pinot Noir 2010, Cape Chamonix Reserve Pinot Noir 2010, Mullineux Family Syrah 2009, Mont Destin Destiny Syrah 2007, De Toren Fusion V 2009 and Sadie Family Columella 2009 (one of the most completely satisfying wines I’ve had in a long time – no spitting here). Sadly I didn’t get to the sweets and the ports.
Bottle variation?
One small note of concern – I tasted 2 wines which were surprisingly less than good, so I searched them out on other tables where they were better. Bottle variation is a fact of winetasting, but it is a little disturbing to see when the wines are so pricy and not so easily available. Corlea Fourie, winemaker of Bosman Family Wines who I was talking to later, confirmed that she also experienced this at the WOSA tasting in London.