Wine magazine's Shiraz Awards lunch, which had elements of a wake, was at Catharina's on Steenberg wine estate in Constantia. Garth Almazan's excellent food was paired with the winning wines. It was a beautiful, clear mid-winter day, the only sad note being the imminent closure of the magazine. Of the 165 wines tasted, only one wine received 4.5 Stars and was an outright winner. Eight faulty wines were not scored, which left 5.7% of the wines scoring 4 Stars, 8.3% scoring 3.5 Stars and 22.6% receiving 3 Stars. a five-person panel (Carrie Adams, Miguel Chan, Karl Lambour, Angela Lloyd and James Pietersen) tasted the wines blind and assessed them using the 20-point/5-Star scoring system. Carrie Adams, the co-ordinator of the judging panel, said that the overall quality of the wines was very good, but that there was too much brettanomyces infection in the submissions. The outright winner, Land's End Shiraz from Hidden Valley, made by Louis Nel, was well clear of the others. The Best Value Award winner was Obikwa 2010, which earned 2½ stars.
Steenberg manor house
Alan Ramsay, Stuart Lowe and Michael Olivier
Norman McFarlane and Friends
Lynne with Cathryn Henderson
Judging co-ordinator Carrie Adams, dressed for a chilly Johannesburg
Dave Hidden with his Award-winning Land's End (Hidden Valley) Shiraz, made by Louis Nel.
Garth Almazan, Catharina’s Executive Chef
Higgo Jacobs, Sommelier
The lunch dishes:
fresh salmon cured in biltong spice, red wine jus, served with the Value wine winner, Obikwa Shiraz 2010.
Chargrilled springbok loin, served with the Award-winning Land's End Shiraz.
Chocolate trilogy
Cathryn Henderson, Publishing Editor
Celia Gilloway, Events Co-ordinator
Kate Clohessy, Events & competitions assistant
Lynne, Samm Bain, Wine National Sales Manager and
Stuart Lowe, Managing Director
Brandon de Kock, Group Content Director
Allan Mullins CWM
Alan Mullins with Lauren Cohen
Angela Lloyd
Kim Maxwell, Michael Bampfield-Duggan, Mel Minnaar, Michael Olivier, James Pietersen CWM
James Pietersen, Karl Lambour, Nikki Werner, Kim Maxwell, Mike Bampfield-Duggan, Mel
Minnaar
Garth Almazan and his team
Norman McFarlane
Kobus du Toit, Brenn-O-Kem CEO
Kathy Marston, Garth Almazan and Dax Villanueva
Dax Villanueva (Relax with Dax)
Dax Villanueva (Relax with Dax)
Graham Howe
