2016 Cape Winemakers Guild tutored tasting and Auction Showcase

This is, without doubt, always our best wine tasting experience of the year. We had the opportunity to taste 38 of the 54 Guild 2016 Auction wines and one brandy, at speed, hear what each winemaker has to say about the wine he or she is entering in the auction, make notes, empty a glass for the next wine and move on quickly. Some winemakers are great and talk up their wines giving the tasters time to do all the above. Others just say the name of their wines and move off at speed, which adds to the frisson of the event, but leaves us breathless

The wines are extraordinary. If you love and buy wine, register now to attend this year's auction which will be on the 1st of October at Spier. It is open to the public. Registration for the Auction and sales of VIP Lounge tickets will close on Wednesday, 16 September 2016. Contact CWG for details. http://www.capewinemakersguild.com/auction We will see you there

The tasting was held in the Reserve at The Taj Hotel

A choice of welcoming bubblies from Villiera, Spier, Graham Beck and Simonsig to open the palate

Radio broadcaster Guy MacDonald in high spirits, already

The room fills up fast. This tasting is for wine trade, media and other invited guests

Kevin Arnold of Waterford with Journalist Maryna Strachan

A hello hail from Michael Olivier

John Loubser of Silverthorne getting the tasting bottles lined up. The pouring staff were magnificently efficient

A forest of bottles

Enjoying the day, Michael Olivier with Mike Bampfield Duggan of Wine Concepts

Guild Chairman Miles Mossop opens the tasting

Our great pourer, Inga Rix of Nitida, kept us on our toes. While you are tasting the wine in your glass you must have the other glass empty for her to pour the next wine. You have one minute to taste and write your notes before emptying the glass and going on to the next wine. It’s a nonstop process for about 2 hours. Oh, and it is recommended that you spit rather than swallow or you will need an UBER home – or, perhaps, an ambulance

Bernhard Veller of Nitida introduces his auction wine, the Swan Song 2015 Sauvignon Blanc - 30 cases. Green, lovely mouth feel, zingy. Will do well

Bartho Eksteen took seconds with his presentation of the Vloekskoot wooded Sauvignon Blanc 2015 - 44 cases. Cat's pee nose, Tropical fruit palate and long finish

Simonsig has two wines this year. Johan Malan presents his Mediterrano 2015, a great blend of Roussane, Grenache Blanc and Verdelho. 50 cases in the auction. Complex layers of fruit, a white Rhône style wine, for food

Linda Potgieter and Marine Point observing the tasting

We were so pleased to see new CWG member Sebastian Beaumont with his first Guild wine, The "Moerse Moer" 2015 Chenin Blanc - 40 cases. A wine to invest in, we think. He received a nice warm welcome from the audience

Kevin Arnold introducing his Waterford '88 Kept Aside Chardonnay 2015 - 40 cases Refined and elegant, made to last

The other Kevin, Kevin Grant of Ataraxia presenting his Under the Gavel Chardonnay 2015 - 40 cases. It's a major food wine, very complex, layered and giving

The room in full flight, concentrating hard

Jonathan Snashall, Michael Pownall and Anel Grobler in the front of the room, all seriously tasting

Miles Mossop of Tokara with his Siberia Chardonnay 2015 ("If you lot think it's so darn cool, call the farm Siberia!", said Tokara owner GT Ferreira) 30 cases. Silky smooth and rich

Boela Gerber with his Groot Constantia Chardonnay 2015 - 40 cases Zingy Citrus, concentrated, time

Pourers at the ready

Another new member welcomed was Gordon Newton Johnson. He presented the Family Vineyards Seadragon Pinot Noir. 40 cases. Spicy cherries, smooth and sweet. free of sulphur in the winemaking, this should do well

Neil Ellis with his Insignium 2013 a blend of Tempranillo and Grenache, which was the talk of the tasting. 60 cases. Layers of ripe dark Mediterranean fruit, grippy tannins and long finish. A great expression of Rioja's grapes

Carl Schultz introduces his Hartenberg Auction Shiraz 2014 - 60 cases. Always anticipated, its rich full fruit with right tannins. this wine is made to last and will sell for top prices

After the afternoon tasting, we walked down to the CTICC for the public tasting of CWG wines. Here Pierre Wahl showed both his Rijks Pinotage and the 2013 Chenin Blanc. A Pinotage which Lynne enjoys (there aren't many); it’s salty with layers of dark fruit and spice

Peter Finlayson of Bouchard Finlayson had his Missionvale Chardonnay 2012 and the Galpin Peak 2012 for tasting. Always good

Miles Mossop is excited about this year's auction wines and we hope that he will do as well as he did last year

Here he enjoys a tasting with Neil Ellis of his Tokara Siberia Chardonnay

David Finlayson of Edgebaston with Annemie Adriaanse and Mark, tasting his CWG Edgebaston Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 Reserve - 60 cases. One of our highest scoring wines. Soft and silky fruit with a spicy buzz, warm and magnificent, berries, cherries with length and depth. Watch this space. from the GS vineyards

Duncan Savage pouring his Savage White 2015

Every year, we try to support the CWG Development Trust Protégé programme by bidding on the Silent Auction, it is our way of putting something back into the industry that supports us so well. . Despite several bids Lynne only managed to secure one wine this time. The silent auction is getting deservedly more attention. It is Teddy Hall’s Mediterranean White

JOHN ADD A PICTURE PLEASE OF THE TEDDY BOTTLE HERE

We will try to get more bids in on the Silent Auction on the day of the Auction. But Lynne hopes not to encounter the man who followed her closely and immediately (with a huge smirk on this face) topped every one of her bids as she made them last year. He was obviously very competitive and very rich. She was tempted to make a huge bid on something so he would have to top that too but she is not that devious. Or rich

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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The South African Young Wine Awards at The CTICC

Why do we love going to this awards presentation? It's not really to taste the young wines; they are still very young and need to develop their spurs but at these occasions we get to meet the young winemakers who are involved in making these wines and they are the future of the wine industry

It was held this year at the CTICC and is always a black tie event. We didn't get to go last year as the Gala Dinner was held at Augrabies, near Upington. The event was hosted by the Oranje Vaal Wine Region and Agri-Expo, who has been involved in this competition since its inception 183 years ago. Which may make this the oldest wine competition in the world. It dates back to 1833 when the first show was held by the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society (now Agri-Expo) in Rondebosch, Cape Town.

Before the awards ceremony you can go to the wine room and do a tasting of some of the new wines nominated for the awards. We were sad to see how few wines were entered this year and there is a worry that this competition might fail in future if the low entries continue. We hope people will take note and enter for next year. Agri-Expo is keen for wine farms to do so. and to talk to them if they feel the entry rules are blocking entries

We met some friendly faces tasting through the wines, Duimpie Bayly CWM with his wife, Sue

Impressive flower arrangements

We then proceeded to the banqueting hall for the main event. Everyone looking very glamorous in their evening attire

Margaux Nel of Boplaas Family Vineyards in Calitzdorp with Leon Coetzee

Find your table and let the evening commence

Bennie Howard Vice Chairman of South African National Wine Show Association (SANWSA) began with a funny joke and then took us on too more serious matters. This wine show gives winemakers the opportunity to showcase the best wines of the current vintage now. There is an impressive roll call of industry judges. See the lists here http://www.youngwineshow.co.za/judges/

He and Charles Hopkins also talked about the reasons why the entries are the lowest they have been in the last five years and wanted to make the following points. 1. entry is not expensive 2. Don’t think your wine is not good enough 3. People say there are too many competitions to enter, this one is unique 4. Cellars can only enter if they don’t buy in grapes, not true 5. The perception is only regional entries, not national

Christo Pienaar of Agri-Expo who is Chairperson: Technical Committee of SANWSA gave a visual presentation of the history of the competition and Agri-Expo

The glittering array of trophies on stage

We began dinner with quite a good simple starter. A concasse of fresh tomato with smoked Franschhoek trout, mozzarella bocconcini ,radish, rocket and a good herb and balsamic olive oil dressing. The only thing that let it down was the raw onion. Served with good rolls and horror, margarine! The grissini were stale.

Then began the presentation of the trophies. If you would like to read about the winners check the website here http://www.youngwineshow.co.za/awards/

Nice to see Boplaas Family Vineyards take the SAWFA Trophy for SA Champion Port and the Dr A Perold Trophy for Vintage port

The main course was a real curate’s egg, good in parts. The huge ostrich steak was well cooked, but far too gamey for most people. However there was a very good pastry wrapped oxtail on the side, tender and full of flavour. The vegetables were fresh, and gently handled and the wine jus was very good

Charles Hopkins made the awards and had fun with Duimpie Bayly. He told a very long joke

Then finally came the two top awards of the evening : The General JC Smuts Trophy for the SA Champion wine went to BADSBERG WINE CELLAR: for their wooded Pinotage

These awards were presented with a fanfare worthy of J Arthur Rank or Metro Goldwyn Mayer! Badsberg also took the Pietman Hugo Trophy for the best points earned from five or more entries.

There was a rather bland cheesecake dessert like those often served on aircraft but, thankfully, there was also a good cheese table with all the necessary accoutrements

That trophy looks rather heavy, Margaux!

As we left we bumped into two very good old friends we haven't seen for a while, Jean and Audrey Grobbelaar of Rivierzicht farm at Goree riverside in Robertson. It was such a huge event that we hadn't seen them earlier

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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