Last night saw the announcement of the Ultra Value Wine Challenge for wines retailing at under R100. Brought to you by www.buybetterwine.com and Ultra Liquors, this new competition sifted through 500 entries to find the best in every category. I was one of the judges and I can tell you two things
a) We were mean! So if something got an award, believe me, it earned it!
b) There were some bloody good wines out there in that price bracket.
All told, only 30 wines were awarded top marks with a range of other medals distributed to a further 250 wines. Big winners in terms of the top marks included
Louisvale Dominique 2013
Muratie Melks Blended Red 2014
Mount Vernon Unbelievable White NV
DGB Shiraz 2014
Brampton Pinotage 2014
Ken Forrester Petit Pinotage 2014
Cape Point Splattered Toad Shiraz 2014
Whilst several producers walked off with multiple awards for their wines including Van Loveren, Leopard’s Leap, Stellenbosch Vineyards and Douglas Green.
The awards were worked out by an algorithm which looked at the scores received by the judges combined with the actual price. So the top winning wines, although not necessarily the absolute highest scorers, are clearly over-deliverers of note. Expect to find most of these turning up in Ultra Liquors stores soon, but in the meantime, I’d print this guide out and start stocking up your summer wine cellar now!