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The annual Cape Winemakers Guild auction
M FRIDJHON, 2005
The annual Cape Winemakers Guild auction is held in Stellenbosch in October. The organisation represents many of South Africa's cutting edge producers and its members decide - at a blind tasting - which of the wines meets a standard appropriate to the Guild's vision of itself.
No judging process is perfect, but it does seem - from the line-up for this year's sale - that the panel has done a better job than ever before. In the past, there was a comfortable, almost clubby, sense of letting colleagues' wines slip through under the net - which no longer seems to be the case.
Obviously there were standout wines, and some categories in which producers performed better than others. I was struck by the great overall quality of the white wines. The Vinfruco Credo Sauvignon Blanc 2004 is sumptuously fruited - the kind of wine the fakers are at pains to emulate. Pungent capsicum aromas, gooseberry tropical notes, and plenty of fruit weight. The De Trafford Chenin Blanc 2003 was also delicious - a lovely green-gold colour, bright honeysuckle fruit, and subtle oaking.
Flagstone's Month of Sundays - a fruit salad blend of Chardonnay, Weisser Riesling, Morio Muscat, and Sauvignon Blanc, bottled under screw cap - really does deliver fresh pear aromas and lime apricot notes on a rich but dry finish. David Finlayson's Glen Carlou Chardonnay Reserve 2004 is one of the best Chardonnay ever offered at the Guild auction. Technically dry, it does have lovely sweet caramel notes which add to its overall 'sex appeal'. I also liked the white Vergelegen and was completely bowled over by the Graham Beck Blanc de Blancs Brut 1993. The latter is a Champagne Methode sparkling wine that has been on the lees for more than a decade and has the complexity, balance, and baked bread character of fine Champagne.
There were fewer completely spectacular reds though I thought that both the Grangehursts had an elegance and finesse often too easily ignored. The same is true of both the wines from L'Avenir where perfume, finely handled tannins, and true fruit sweetness powered through. Hartenberg's Gravel Hill Shiraz continues to impress, so does the Jordan Sophia and the De Trafford Perspective.
However, for me, the most striking of the reds was the Warwick Femme Bleue 2001, undoubtedly one of the best wines ever to emerge from this Stellenbosch cellar. Elegant, refined and with brilliant fruit and great oak handling, it suggests that it will be the newer vineyards that catapult Warwick's renaissance.
There were also obviously disappointments, and several wines that I don't think should have been included in the sale. While these are subjective opinions, I cannot imagine why the Guild let both of the 2005 Steenbergs - where the fruit was marred by the bush fire - into the line-up. I was also disappointed with the 2002 Red Vergelegen Auction Reserve though I have no doubt that, as always, it will emerge as one of the highest priced wines of the sale.
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