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Thursday, February 19, 2015

#WineLabelDesignAwards at Beau Constantia

Christian Eedes of Wine Magazine has come up with this novel annual competition conducted on line. On Tuesday night at Beau Constantia we were present at the award ceremony. There were certainly some controversial, some new and innovative, and some well deserved and long awaited choices amongst the winners. You can see them here for yourself

There was lots of discussion about what a wine label should contain and there were a couple that had very little information on the label. Is it enough to put just three random words “agile curious poised” that do not seem to relate to the wine and do not inform the buyer what they are/would be buying? As ex-wine retailers, we know that customers need to know what is in the bottle, as they will move swiftly on to something with clear information. We would like to see a retail sponsor fund a Retailers Award next year where the retailers can pick the labels they think will (or do), sell the best, visuals that jump out at the buyer

The overall winner, BlankBottle’s, labels were self designed with no input from professional designers; there did seem to be a few noses out of joint about that. And one award winner’s bottles looked like they were mock-ups with cardboard labels

MC for the evening, designer John Pace had printed his T-shirt for the event

He was also the one who came up with the very novel logo – a calligraphy pen shaped wine bottle

Views from Beau Constantia over the upper Constantia valley are beautiful, especially at late afternoon/evening

Christian Eedes and partner Jacqueline Lahoud checking the award table before the guests arrive

A lovely glass of Tradition bubbly to start the evening

The Constantia mountain top, with vines now growing almost to its summit

Irene Waller from La Bri, which was a bronze medal winner for their series of labels. She is with John Pace

Media, designers and wine people gathering

One of Beau Constantia’s vineyards

It’s time to announce the winners

Christian Eedes presented the awards

Wicus Maritz, MD of Rotolabel, the sponsor

Explaining in a very visual way

why you need a label

on a blank bottle

and what it needs to say

And how with good design you can turn information into something to admire and covet

Christian talking about the judges and the judging

John Pace announcing the winner

and Jacqueline revealed the labels as they were announced

Rozy Gunn from Iona with her award. They won awards for three of their labels: for Mr P He Knows, Sophie TeBlanche and for The One Man Band

Really nice to see Mulderbosch get an award from a label that has been with us for a long time, but breaks with tradition and represents their brand so well

These were some of the winning wines

A delighted Adam Mason and the designer accepting the award for his Marvellous Range labels

And the winner of the solid copper Trophy went to the Blank Bottle series. Peter Walser also won a gold for the Range and got the most votes on line. Most of his wines are marketed to private clients on line

It is a very impressive Trophy

Owner, winemaker and designer of his own labels, Peter Walser accepting his award. He is now making his wines at Lanrust. The back labels are interesting but to find out about the wine you have to use your phone to read the QR code and get the information downloaded from the internet

Some of his winning labels

Paserene (a swallow) has very little information on their bottles

(picture courtesy of winemag.co.za)

This is the back label for their red blend, Marathon. We all wanted to know what the blend was. In Platter it says "secret red blend"

All these wines will be on display at the Design Indaba this year. They were then opened and we had a chance to taste them all

Joy Norman and Justin Stevens had a busy evening pouring fast and furiously! Everyone was curious to taste wines they had not had before

Canapes circulated with the wine: Cucumber, biltong and peach. And were gratefully received

Beetroot and avocado

Pesto and tomato; and some smoky creamy cheese with roasted peanuts inside flame grilled courgette strips – very good indeed

Evening lights began to come on in the valley as we headed home

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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Vertical Dombeya chardonnay and shiraz tasting & lunch at Haskell

An invitation last week to Dombeya vineyards to do a blending competition with members of the other media was quite a draw card so we were rather disappointed to discover on arrival that this had been cancelled. It seems it was difficult to organise in the middle of harvest, which is understandable. So instead we had a vertical tasting of five of the Dombeya Chardonnays and then five Dombeya Shirazes. This was followed by lunch at their Long Table

Superb grapes just moments away from harvest

The entrance to the Dombeya cellar and tasting room: This was our first visit to the farm. It is owned by Preston Haskell (the majority shareholder) and it is where they make the Haskell wines

An amusing bit of history: The Dombeya Story*. Cape Town, October, 2005.

Grant “What’s this Dombeya thing?” Preston “That was the original name of the wine farm”. “ Grant “Reckon we should can the name. Run with Haskell. Easier. Less complicated for consumers”. Preston “I like the name”. Grant “But the label has a tree with sheep under it”. Preston “ Dombeya is a tree, and the place has been run as a wool shop for years. And I paid Anthony Lane the GDP of a small African nation for that label”. Grant “ Still reckon we should can it”. Preston “No”. Grant “ Sure you don’t want to think about that?” Preston “ Yes” *Abbreviated for dramatic effect

Welcomed by a New Zealand Craggy Range Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc, which is imported into SA by Haskell CEO and partner Grant Dodd, who is originally from Australia. It has nice restraint with peas and green pepper, with notes of honey and golden apples and a kick of hot spice on the end

Elbie Booysens in the tasting room

Some canapés to stave off any hunger

Winemaker Rianie Strydom with Samarie Smith

Gathering in the tasting room

We take our places to start the tasting

and begin

Grant Dodd tells us about the five Chardonnays we are about to taste: 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013. This is the first vertical tasting they have done. The 2006 was very different from the rest, much more approachable due to its age, with a full mouth of smooth silk, limes, warm vanilla and plums with minerality on the end. These wines are built to last. We found that Rianie has developed the Chardonnays to have a steely, quite austere French style; they are crisp and dry with citrus notes, wood & loads of minerality, they need time and go well with food. The current one selling is the 2013 at R95 on the farm.

The five tasting samples

Rianie telling us how she makes the wine

Then it was time for the five Shirazes

Alan Mullins CWM, Cathy van Zyl MW, Winnie Bowman CWM and Melvin Minnaar

Question time

Grant tells us about the Shiraz. We found them spicy, full of warm fruit layers with nice depth and balance. The 2008 especially enchanted us with its plum pudding Christmas notes. It is a full on fruit driven wine with layers of different fruit, but still elegant rather than fully ripe, and has nice notes of oak on the end. We found salty licorice on nearly all and the younger ones do need some time. They decide in the vineyards which grapes are going to the Haskell or the Dombeya. The Dombeya Boulder Road Shiraz is currently selling on the farm for R96