Cape Town blind tasting: SA Pinot, Chardonnay against world’s best

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• Greg Sherwood | 11 September 2025

  CE, do you agree with a 98 for the Newton Johnson Chardy? Thats certainly a big score in SA terms! I love their wines but I am yet to score any SA Chardonnay 98 points.

  Reply
  • Christian Eedes | 11 September 2025

    Hi Greg, It was a blind tasting, which is precisely the safeguard against favouritism or prior expectation. Big scores will always divide opinion, but hedging your bets doesn’t really advance the conversation. On the day, the Newton Johnson Chardonnay showed at 98 for me – and that’s what went down on the sheet.

    Reply
  • William Fraser | 11 September 2025

    A follow up from the question posed by Mr Sherwood.

    I seldom ( not always) see scores for S.A wines below 92 in these publications. Either you 1: prefer to taste only wines which are received to be “premium “ as it is referred to in a previous article) , or quality in S.A wines have improved immeasurably but it is misunderstood globally (where seldom scores above 92 is recorded – I exclude biased publications here…) , 2: taste inferior wines but decline to post the scores for fear of losing access to “premium” wines from the brand 3: inflate the scores to retain access to the wines from the producers?

    Or scores globally across all publications have edge higher for no reason but to retain “relevance “, but this does not benefit the average consumer . The “premiumisation “ of wine will most likely not happen if the average consumer is fed incorrect information about wines at a higher price point – why take the risk and spend on one bottle that a case of known and liked wine cost… it is a question….

    The scores of Mr Eedes also seems to be an outlier and would most likely have been ignored in the final published score. If not, the remaining scores most likely experienced a wide margin of error which , to me, makes the final average score meaningless.

    A score of 98 is either relative, or absolute. I.e. it is ranked according to other wines tasted on the day, or it is ranked according to a globally accepted scale relative to all wines over all time frames. Or the taster doesn’t have sufficient experience or had enough opportunities to taste different wines across different continents and thus properly benchmark the wines . I.e. is a Chardonnay from S.A scoring 98 on par with a 98 pointer from Burgundy ?

    Same question goes to the reports put out by Mr Atkin and the likes: does that serve the local industry relative to one another or absolutely ? I.e. is it meant for the global investment / consumer market looking to accumulate and enjoy SA wines, or the local industry who are looking for relevance and the opportunity to increase margin…

    To rank a very good Chardonnay in S.A 98 points, higher than the majority of all Burgandy wines over all time periods across all publications , is challenging to understand, unless we know how the wines are scored on a particular day.

    Some explanation on how we should interpret these scores are required….

    If you are really concerned about the lack of demand for wines above a certain minimum price point, why not educate the consumer? Taste and rank wines in the entry level price point, and then recommend producers / cultivars which are in the next price bracket, but an improvement in quality, enjoyment, complexity. How you get them to read your publication is a different challenge altogether.

    Reply
    • Christian Eedes | 11 September 2025

      Hi William, Firstly, poor wines still exist, and secondly, score creep is real – but in an over-traded market, I don’t believe publishing lots and lots of low scores is that useful for either producer or consumer – I’d rather highlight wines worth buying than those to avoid. With 25 years of tasting around the world, I’d like to think my expertise isn’t in question. Any taster scoring in a band of 91 – 94 is never going to be “wrong”, but so what? Our aim, as much as anything is context: showing where SA wines sit locally and globally, giving readers actionable insight rather than simply publishing numbers for their own sake.

      Reply
      • Clivetorrwines@gmail.com | 12 September 2025

        Well done CE
        ALL my favorites
        Would pay to be there

        Reply
• Paul Benade | 11 September 2025

  No Domaine Leroy or
  Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
  Bindi’s Original Vineyard Pinot Noir
  Yattarna Chardonnay
  Antica Terra ‘Botanical’ Pinot Noir
  Soter Vineyards Estate Chardonnay
  Etc, etc….
  Could we see the complete selection and scores of all the “judges”?

  Reply
  • Christian Eedes | 11 September 2025

    Hi Paul, You’ll find links to the full line-up of wines, with group average scores, at the bottom of the post. The organisers communicated upfront that individual scores would not be released – these were submitted anonymously in any case. The tasting panel comprised: Christian Eedes, Dalene Fourie, Wikus Hunan, Derek Kilpin, Malu Lambert, Matt Manning, Jason Millar, Jörg Pfützner, James Pietersen, Jean Vincent Ridon, Treve Ring, Eben Sadie (moderator), Jimmy Smith, Madeleine Stenwreth and Bernard Stramwasser.

    Reply
• Schalk Burger | 11 September 2025

  This is fascinating – would you be willing to share your scores for all the wines on the day, Christian?

  Reply
  • Christian Eedes | 11 September 2025

    Hi Schalk, I’d prefer not to share my scores for every wine – not out of shyness, but because it feels contrary to the spirit of the tasting, which was about gauging where SA stands at a glance. I’d like the focus to remain more on the broader context rather than any individual number.

    Reply
    • Schalk Burger | 11 September 2025

      Thanks Christian, understood.

      Reply