.: FNB Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 Awards Luncheon at Cassia on Nitida, Durbanville

It was quite a controversial list this year, both in the trade and in the media. No Sauvignons from Constantia, Durbanville or Elgin, three of our top Sauvignon areas and quite a few from Stellenbosch, much better known for its red wines, the heat not usually producing the quality expected. But then many farms these days are sourcing grapes from other cooler areas and the competition did produce some excellent Sauvignons. Three winning sauvignons that we like very much are the Cape Point made by Duncan Savage, The Infidel made by Hermit on the Hill Pieter de Waal and The Mentors by KWV.

This was held in Nitida’s very good conference hall, which has large windows that open right back to let the outside in, if the weather permits. And it did for the awards.

Before proceedings began, you could taste the top 20 wines in the anteroom

10 on one side, 10 on the other

Diemersdal had their Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc as a welcome drink

All the staff had very impressive Award aprons. They were very well trained and efficient

The new assistant wine maker at Cape Point Vineyards, Riandri Visser

Surita van der Westhuizen showed Longavi - a wine made in Chile by David Nieuwoudt of Cederberg, using grapes he bought and vinified there. The question on everyone’s lips was “how was a technically foreign wine eligible for the competition?” “Because the competition rules did not prevent it", we were told . Apparently this loophole may well now be closed by the committee. It is a wine that we have tasted before and really liked; we did not identify it as origin South Africa, as it is very different. and it has won a double gold medal at Veritas

We were entertained by these two good musicians throughout the day

The girls chilling. Lynne is with Izele van Blerk of KWV and Shante Hutton, News editor of wine.co.za

Two tall winemakers having fun together. Duncan Savage of Cape Point Vineyards and Pieter de Waal of Hermit on the Hill. Both were subsequent winners in the top 10

The MC for the day was radio personality Johan Rademan of Radio Sonder Grense

Speech time

A Spoonbill on the edge of the lake that is next to the restaurant and conference facility

Our Amuse was a Gazpacho vodka shooter

The starter of seared tuna with a lemon and paprika aioli and a good pineapple salsa

Stephan Claassen, FNB Business Provincial Head: Western Cape . “Our acknowledgement of the Top 20 finalists aims to recognise the depth of wine-making talent we have in South Africa. The South African wine industry is an important contributor to economic growth and local producers continue to gain the respect of international markets as demonstrated through the sustainable rise in exports. We congratulate the Top 20 finalists on their achievement thus far”. FNB recently renewed their sponsorship of the competition, which is organised in conjunction with the Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group of South Africa (SBIG), for another three years

The trophies

Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group chairman Thys Louw says, “The results bears testimony to diversity. The winning wines, made with grapes originating from a broad range of producing areas including Darling, Cape Point and Stellenbosch, represent a plethora of Sauvignon Blanc styles and flavour profiles”

Christian Eedes, whose father Harold started this competition at Wine Magazine, with judge Winnie Bowman. Journalist Greg Landman of Country Life talks to Duncan Savage

The main course was tasty but rather tough duck with an orange sauce, which clashed a bit with the crisp flavours of sauvignon blanc. It was on a good rosti and came with beans wrapped in a piece of salt beef