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Veritas Awards 2011 results

By , 9 October 2011

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Top performing producer at the 2011 Veritas Awards is KWV with five double gold and nine gold medals – the most double gold and gold medals ever won by one cella

KWV won double gold medals for The Mentors Sauvignon Blanc 2009, The Mentors Petit Verdot 2009, Cape Classic Tawny Port, Muscadel LBV 1930, and 15 Year Old Brandy.

There were 1 739 wines and brandies entered, Sauvignon Blanc being the biggest category with 205 entries followed by Shiraz (196) and Cabernet Sauvignon (169).

Medal break-down was as follows: 42 (2.41%) double gold, 158 (9.08%) gold, 609 (35.0%) silver and 619 (35.6%) bronze medals were awarded. The category to win the most double gold medals was Cabernet Sauvignon with five, followed by red blends, Pinotage and Port, each with four.

For double gold and gold results, see here.

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12 comment(s)

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    Christian | 18 October 2011

    Hi Kwispedoor, Shane, BobO, A multi-comment and not too spiteful exchange on the state of SA wine? I’m greatly heartened. After Veritas 2011 managed to find only one example of Chardonnay worthy double gold and Platter’s 2012 only two worthy of 5 Stars, I’ve taken it upon myself to compose a report on the category to be released on 15 November. Hopefully, it will identify a few wines worthy of contemplation…

    Shane Gordon | 15 October 2011

    A truer appraisal of the current status can not be found. You may be interested in a tasting of interesting “foreign muck” I am giving to the Tygerbergse Wynproers Gulde on the 19th January 2012 in Durbanville/Bellville. This is the third year I have presented this tasting to them and I believe they have always gone down very well. Keep drinking the Veritas Award winnng stuff especially with good Braaivleis. I have seldom been dissapointed with Veritas Double Goild or even Gold medal winners but sadly never been overwhelmed. Regards.

    BobO | 15 October 2011

    Agree with you Shane, that Winifred is a stonker which improves with age. Burgundy and her wines do deserve sublte flavours and haute cuisine, but when Karoo lamb chops & good venison boerewors abound what can you do? Elegance is frightfully tough to attain down here, but folks will find it sooner than later – hopefully.
    Jip ja, folks should just get out there and revel in the what South African wine has to offer and taste, taste, taste without preconception and find their favourites. And producer’s should realize their critical role of not only trying to smous (sell) wine, but educate/inform/entertain folks in a way that people start to enjoy wine again – responsibly of course – for the greater good.

    Shane Gordon | 15 October 2011

    Thanks for the advice BobO. Ek sal dit onthou waneer ek weer in die Kaap kuier in Desember. Ek is bly vir jou part dat jy jou kelder se vooraad Vosne-Romanee met jou boerewors so geniet. Ek het geen twyfel dat u vooraad bestaan uit net Grand Crus. I am certain that El Bandito, a chenin I am acquainted with which I would describe as fruit driven and flavourful but not elegant, would make a very good partner to boerewors as would many of the other Swartland Revolution wines including: Badenhorst Red and white and his Secateurs red and white; Roulette rouge and blanc and chenin from Lammershoek; Mullineaux family wines white blend as well as their Syrah and no doubt their second range; Eben Sadie’s Palladius and Columella; Cloof’s very sexy shiraz etc… My preference would be Vergelegen’s Reserve Chardonnay or De Grendels’s Minifred. But hey its all down to preference and taste. I will keep my selection of Vosne-Romanee’s for different company and occassions. From your thread above it would seem however it is very clear who wines and who cares.

    BobO | 14 October 2011

    Shane, you know that Boerewors goes down quite well with Vosne-Romanee as well as an elegant “natural” Chenin like that El Banditio from the Swartland, and the only thing redder in December than a lekker fat West Coast Rock lobster is a pom that went to Clifton without his/her Coppertone.

    BobO | 13 October 2011

    Some few valids there, but it’s always a whinge & whine when it comes to Veritas [elke jaar dieselfd ou storie]. But, a counter argument as with all shows/competitions, is the “super stars” who hit bronze, those that get nothing (even though according to the “fact” you could enter dishwater & win a medal) and those that don’t enter – with their myriad of for various reasons.
    Veritas, in my opinion, is a good barometer – but whatever floats your boat, be it the looky-looky at my label guide, the gaudy financial service provider tea set or Italian lottery. However, the consumer’s out there must start to taste for themselves [as you and your merry wine club do] and the producer’s must be brave enough to bugger the stickers and educate folks about wine and by all means get folks excited about their product & make it “approachable”!
    Vicious cycle: sticker = good wine = sale; no sticker = bad wine = no sales , and who wins, who wines and who cares(?)

    Shane Gordon | 13 October 2011

    P.P.S: BobO – don’t burn the boerewors glugging Veritas Award Winners.

    Shane Gordon | 13 October 2011

    There is fact and there is allegation. The facts as stated seem to be transparent and clear. Almost every wine entered came away with an award. Looking at this objectively either a large proportion of wines entered are 17+ point wines or there is a problem with the scoring system as it stands. I feel that there are problems with all the scoring systems as they stand. I do think that a wine that has been lavished with attention to detail and a wine which has had a more frugal upbringing should be judges together. I feel that this would improve the spread of points and make for a fairer wine score. If value for money comes into the equation then the wine score is tainted and demeaned. Every year I visit RSA and dutifully acquire a Platters wine guide and tatste some of the wines scored in it. I without fail feel that the scoring values given in the guide are inflated across the board, although this makes Platter consistent it provides in my opinion an overestimation of the expert value given to the wine to the consumer. Reading it and interpreting it as I understand it to mean, it also seems to give high values to wines based on previous years tastings without current wines having been tasted. If this is as I read and understand it then it would seem to be a rather odd and unreliable way of placing value on the product. I enjoyed Christian’s thread on wine judging and scoring and although found his scoring spread over stretched I could appreciate his comments. Having 80% of wines getting awards though is equivalent to 80% of students getting 80% and this is unreasonable to expect even when only the cream of the crop are entered into the fray. Yours from the UK, Shane. P.S: Hope this was’nt the Cape Mentalle Cab/Merlot 2005 from the Margaret River in Western Oz typing; if it was ignore the thread and get your hands on some of this stuff I can recommend it – well done Oz – a conservative 16.5/20 and but most definately not a 11/9.

    Kwispedoor | 13 October 2011

    You’re missing the point, BobO. I didn’t say anything against the panel or that the results are rigged, etc. I simply said that less than 18% of wines that were entered didn’t receive a medal. To me it looks like fact, but do you disagree whith the fact that almost 80% of all wines entered get medals?

    I’ve tasted that 1930 LBV Muscadel from KWV in August 2010 with my wine club. Incidentally, it’s awesome and I scored it 18.5 blind, so pretty much agree with the judges. I’m not sure whether that will be amongst the selection tasted at the Veritas tastings, but while other people are tasting what the Veritas judges tell them is good (not necessarily a bad thing at all), I’ll be in a different room, tasting and making up my own mind.

    BobO | 12 October 2011

    So I take it none of you chaps will be around the spitoons standing like bergies at a robot in Rondebosch asking for a sip of that KWV or any of the other luminaries?
    Blind tasting + professional panel + Agri Expo [not some money hungry bloke wanting to make a buck for his retirement or pay for glasses] = Veritas. By the by, I’m reliably informed old Krisjan had a lekker pary last Saturday and those judges from Vredendal also didn’t even get petrol money. Kerels, gaan speel in die tuin terwyl die ouens wat van wyn hou gaan braai en grootmens dinge gesels.

    Shane Gordon | 11 October 2011

    Never a truer utterance made. It had to be said.

    Kwispedoor | 9 October 2011

    So, less than 18% of wines that were entered didn’t receive a medal. How do you win a Veritas medal? You enter a wine into the competition.

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