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Six Nations Wine Challenge 2016 results

By , 6 October 2016

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six-nations-wine-challengeResults of this year’s Six Nations Wine Challenge between Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA have been announced.

There are six judges, one from each participating country with Michael Fridjhon representing South Africa, and each judge is set the task of selecting 100 wines across 15 classes with a maximum of 10 in any one class. A trophy is awarded for the top scoring wine in each class.

Top Three Trophies
Wine of Show: USA – Roederer Estate L’Ermitage Brut Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2007
White Wine of Show: USA – Anthony Road Dry Riesling 2014
Red Wine of Show: New Zealand – Akarua Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2014

Class Winners
New Zealand won seven classes; Australia five; Canada two; and Chile won one.

Top Wine of the Class Trophies
The USA won six, New Zealand four, South Africa four, and Australia one.

SA won the following trophies:
Cabernet Sauvignon – Rustenberg Peter Barlow 2010
Other Red Varieties – Rijk’s Reserve Pinotage 2012
Shiraz/Syrah  – Cederberg 2013
White Blends – Stark Condé The Field Blend 2015

Double Golds for SA were as follows:
Bordeaux blends – Gabriëlskloof 2013
Bordeaux blends – Uva Mira OTV 2013
Cabernet Sauvignon – Nederburg II Centuries 2012
Chardonnay – Kershaw Clonal Selection 2014 (2nd Place)
Dessert wines – Nederburg Private Bin Edelkeur 2005
Other red blends – Eikendal Charisma 2013 (2nd Place)
Other red blends – Saronsberg Full Circle 2014
Other white varieties – Bellingham The Bernard Series Whole Bunch Roussanne 2015
Other white varieties – KWV The Mentors Grenache Blanc 2014
Riesling – Spioenkop 2015
White blends – Nitida Coronata Integration 2014

For full results, click here.

Comments

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    Michael Fridjhon | 13 October 2016

    SA’s problem at Six Nations is that many cutting edge producers don’t enter. Lack of national support is hampering our efforts to win classes rather than trophies. Icon US wines are entered – because hard currency cost of entry is no barrier for them. I suggested a few years ago to WoSA Chairman Michael Jordaan that WoSA should either subsidise entry to high profile international competitions or reward those who enter and do well by refunding their entry fees. He never saw the merit in this proposal – or maybe WoSA simply does not have the money. I think it’s remarkable that we garner the number of trophies we do. However, without in-depth support from the industry, we’re never going to secure a fully representative result in terms of overall performance

    Brett Chrystal | 12 October 2016

    Just looking at the overall results, South Africa faired fairly poorly overall, despite individual trophy wines for 4 wines.

    We are possibly 4th place behind NZ, Australia, USA and only marginally ahead on Canada!

    There seems to be quite a disparity with theses results versus the Tim Atkin report released a short while ago, with Tim’s comment being we are the most ‘dynamic wine producing country in the world’.

    Are we not submitting all our best wines to the 6 Nations, or do we have a false sense of the general quality of our wines produced based on solely our ‘young guns’ and the hype around them?

      Christian | 13 October 2016

      Hi Brett, Michael Fridjhon advises that many of SA’s Top Gun producers don’t enter for whatever reason but equally I think that while we have made massive advances in quality in recent times, we should not become complacent. It’s competitive out there…

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