Thursday, November 18, 2021

The Awards Ceremony and Lunch of the 38th Blaauwklippen Blending Competition

Every year for 38 years, Blaauwklippen Wine Estate in Stellenbosch has held a Blending Competition for wine clubs
We were delighted to be invited again and to write about the winning wine and the winners of the 38th competition

A glass of the Blaauwklippen Brut Rosé started the day well

Good to see people whom we know entering the competition

The canapés that were circulating were delicious. Confited fresh salmon on a pea purée

Rather difficult to eat with your hands were the crumbly deep fried pani puri
stuffed with sweet spiced lentils. We later had these as one of the main courses

MC and judge Guy McDonald with Blaauwklippen winemaker Narina Cloete

Two long tables for lunch. The contestants from the top 3 teams were intermingled with judges, media and wine people

The winning wine is always put into magnum bottles. It was on the table to be tasted with lunch before the winners were announced. When tasted, it had Cabernet Franc front and centre on the nose, with savouriness, then cassis Cabernet and incense wood, then smoky bacon. On the palate, softness and sweetness initially, then very crisp fruit acids and heavy chalky tannins with some strong dark wood bitterness on the end. One to age

Time to hear the story of this year’s competition from our MC Guy MacDonald. The clubs do the blending at home and then send in the percentages they had decided upon for their chosen wine blends. These are then made up at Blaauwklippen and judged. Only four out of 44 entries made it to the final and their names are Business Times, Carignan my Wayward Son, First Four and Oom Davie International Wine Tasters

Winemaker Narina explained that they had asked the teams to make up a classic Bordeaux blend. They had been supplied with a bottle each of Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petite Verdot and needed to use them with certain provisos, not less than 25% and not more than 50% of each cultivar

The wines are then submitted and tasted by a panel of judges who, this year, were
Narina, Jaco van der Westhuizen, Clive Torr, Guy MacDonald and Marius Lategan

Then the club leaders introduced themselves. Ruan de Hart of Business Time

Carignan my Wayward Son. The members originally met when studying at Stellenbosch University,
where they were members of the University wine club; they are now all living and working in Johannesburg

Oom Davie International Wine Tasters
We know Janine van Zyl; she is a chef and is currently studying for Cape Wine Master final examinations

First Four Members were announced as Chris and Andreas

Blaauwklippen 2021 Sauvignon Blanc, served with lunch

Good to see Journalist Johan Crafford, here being poured a glass of the winning wine but,
at this point, we still didn’t know which team's wine it was; that was to be announced after lunch

Then we had a repeat of the crumbly deep fried Lentil stuffed pani puri, which was followed by a neck of lamb chop called Denningvleis, from our Indonesian heritage, usually flavoured with bay leaves and tamarind 

This pea, kale and asparagus dish with a squeeze of lemon. We still have not developed a taste for raw chewy Kale

It was accompanied by a baby chicken which was flamed at the table on a small hibachi grill. Very tender

Half a chicken each. Combining the two

We were then told the components of the three blends and asked to guess which one we thought was the winner
Lynne had detected a lot of good Cabernet Franc in the glass we were poured, so she guessed right

And the winner is: Business Time from Cape Town

Ryno Jansen, Ruan de Hart and Paul Ackerman are the members

The back label with the winning blend

Dessert was a soft koeksister with a frozen vanilla flavoured dessert

All attending were given a magnum of the winning wine and two crystal wine glasses. donated by the sponsor Vitria Glass

So good to see Kathy Raath and her son Dane; they are both purveyors of fine wines to the trade
Kathy is a legend in the wine industry and has been involved with Blaauwklippen since 1980 

There have been so many brilliant changes to Blaauwklippen tasting room area and restaurant;
you can now enjoy a tasting outside on the terrace

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