10-Year-Old Wine Report 2021
By Christian Eedes, 16 March 2021
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Introduction
This year’s 10-Year-Old Wine Report convened by Winemag.co.za is now out. There were 78 entries from 40 producers and these were tasted blind (labels out of sight) by a three-person panel, scoring done according to the 100-point quality scale.
Top 10
The 10 best wines overall are as follows:
White
94
Tokara Director’s Reserve White 2011
Wine of Origin: Stellenbosch
Abv: 14.33%
93
De Grendel Winifred 2011
Wine of Origin: Western Cape
Abv: 14%
93
Tokara Reserve Collection Stellenbosch Chardonnay 2011
Wine of Origin: Stellenbosch
Abv: 14.28%
92
Delaire Graff Coastal Cuvée Sauvignon Blanc 2011
Wine of Origin: Coastal Region
Abv: 13.38%
92
Tokara Reserve Collection Sauvignon Blanc 2011
Wine of Origin: Elgin
Abv: 13.69%
Red
94
Remhoogte Aspect Merlot 2011
Wine of Origin: Simonsberg-Stellenbosch
Abv: 14%
93
Keet First Verse 2011
Wine of Origin: Stellenbosch
Abv: 14.29%
93
Nederburg The Brew Master 2011
Wine of Origin: Western Cape
Abv: 14.62%
92
Remhoogte Sir Thomas Cullinan 2011
Wine of Origin: Simonsberg-Stellenbosch
Abv: 14.5%
Sweet
93
Boschendal Reserve Collection Vin d’Or 2011
Wine of Origin: Western Cape
Abv: 10.17%
About the Report
Just how well do modern-era South African wines perform as they get older? One of the most important measures of great wine is that it should be age-worthy, that is it should become more pleasurable and more interesting to drink with time in the bottle and the annual 10-Year-Old Wine Report sets out to examine precisely this.
In-depth analysis
To read the report in full, including key findings, tasting notes for the top wines and scores on the 100-point quality scale for all wines entered, download the following: 10-Year-Old Wine Report 2021
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David Smith | 21 March 2021
This comparison is odious if the top names were not there. What about the Kanonkops, Rust-en-Vrede etc etc. These are all well known for lasting ages with good good cellaring – would love to see how they did in comparison. Perhaps Nederburg is getting back to the Gunther era! Do you remember that Nederburg Cab of 1974 which we drank 20 years later. Superb.
Kevin Forrest | 17 March 2021
Very interesting report, particularly to see the whites score so well ten years later, contrary to popular believe that bottled to drink now in SA. Very surprised not to see a Chenin in the top white and Cab Franc in the top reds. I think all the “quality” wineries should vie for honours in this category as a real measure of how quality holds up over the longer term and give, we the consumer, an incentive to buy and cellar. I would also be interested in what the initial scores were for each wine on first release from say Platters! keep up the interesting work!
Kevin+R | 17 March 2021
My takeaways:
Tokara strong as always in the age-worthy department
Altitude a factor in general
Mike | 17 March 2021
Yup. Tokara was surely the most successful producer in this competition, followed by Remhoogte. Yet according to the full Winemag report, Nederburg was the top-performing cellar overall – despite not having one wine in the Top 10.
Mark | 17 March 2021
maybe they changed it but i can see Nederburg The Brew Master 2011 up there
Kwispedoor | 17 March 2021
I must agree that I also find this a touch curious, Mike. Why reward mediocre (within context, of course) performances of multiple wines from one stable over the potential excellent performances of smaller producers? While it’s commendable for a large producer to have multiple with scores of 90+, smaller producers will only have a really scant chance of ever getting the top performer award with this model. Even if, for instance, a small producer enters two wines that both get 98 points, with the next highest score only being 93, a large producer can still scoop the top performer award if they enter seven wines, of which only three get a score of 90+. Or am I misunderstanding the criteria/process here?
Christian Eedes | 17 March 2021
Hi All, Nederburg The Brew Master 2011 did place in the Top 10 with a rating of 93 from the get-go (no retro-active editing). Historically, we’ve declared the cellar with the most wines rated 90-plus as top performing overall – we find algorithms complicated… That Nederburg have taken the honours in 2019, 2020 and 2021 is surely noteworthy in its own right.
Mike | 17 March 2021
Oops! So there was a Nederburg wine in the Top 10. Nice one too. But when will competition organisers quit giving so much kudos to the guy with the most wines scored 90+. Who’s talking about complicated algorithms?! Surely the top performers are those with the highest scores, the ones who came first, whose wines impressed the judges most. Simple.