.: Prescient Chardonnay Report 2016

This annual event (now in its 6th year), sponsored by Prescient, was held this year at Smith Studio, an art gallery in Church Street and there were some really good winners who were awarded the top scores. Judged by Christian Eedes, Roland Peens and James Petersen, they tasted 60 invited wines. The competition is by their invitation only. They score the wines out of 100 and any wine getting over 90 is awarded this accolade. The wines do have more of a drier French slant, rather than some the generous buttery chardonnays that are also delighting the public (there are some, most notably the Tokara). But this is to be expected, as the wines are always tasted by the same three people and obviously they would veer more towards their personal tastes, especially as the wines are invited to enter. All of them are excellent. You will find the list of top Chardonnays on the winemag.co.za web site

The function venue, Smith Studio in Church Street, was a little small and very boxed in

Graham Beck Blanc de blanc 2012 bubbles to begin

Christian Eedes’ business partner Jacqueline Lahoud begins the ceremony

Writing and listening

A very happy Wendy Appelbaum of De Morgenzon with GM and winemaker Carl van de Merwe. She was just off to New York to collect another prestigious award for their wine. The Chardonnay scored 95

Prescient Executive Director Craig Moxford said "The wines last year were very good, how can you top that?" There were several familiar wines that have been top in the competition before, some several times

James Pietersen with two members of the wine media, Malu Lambert and Jeanri Tine van Zyl

The certificates and stickers for the wine bottles

Christian Eedes made the presentations

13 wines scored 91; these are the winners with their certificates

Award ceremony over, the wines are revealed and we can taste them. Richard Kershaw had 4 wines in the top Chardonnay, this Lake District Bokkeveld Shale was the highest scoring of those, with 95 points

There were 4 wines with the top score of 95 points. Richard Kershaw’s, Miles Mossop of Tokara with their splendid wine, Boela Gerber with the Groot Constantia 2015 Chardonnay ,,,,