The text of Higgo Jacobs' presentation:
The South African Sommelier Association (SASA) is happy to once again be involved in the judging of Wellington Quest for the Best, now marking our third year of participation.
To introduce the panel:
In absentia David Clarke – Australian Certified Sommelier, owns his own distribution company – ‘Ex Animo’
Kent Scheermeyer (the) – German qualified Sommelier, hospitality consultant and broker – ‘KS Consult’
Greg Mutambe – Head Sommelier, Twelve Apostles Hotel
Joakim Hansi Blackadder – Head Sommelier, The Hoghouse Brewing Company
and myself, Higgo Jacobs – Certified Sommelier at Large, independent hospitality consultant
Tasting format:
Wines were all tasted blind
Scored out of 20, and then discussed in each flight
Lots of deliberation over wines. Given the benefit of the doubt
Wines with highest average, regardless of category / style were awarded with Top 10
This spontaneously resulted in a nice spread across categories for Wellington
Feedback with overview of past 3 years:
2013 Top 10 was 1 Chenin, 1 Chardonnay, 1 Pinotage, 1 Malbec, 1 Cab, 1 Shiraz and 4 Red Blends, most of which were Cabernet dominant, and 2 of which came from Museum class
2014 Top 10 was 1 Viognier, 1 Chenin, 1 Chardonnay, 1 White blend, 2 Pinotage, 1 Cab, 1 Shiraz and 2 Red Blends, again Bdx style and both from Museum class (which is a strange name, by the way – perhaps cellar or vinothek collection?)
2015 Top 10 was 1 MCC, 1 Chenin, 1 Shiraz, 2 Pinotage, 1 Malbec, 2 Cab (1 from Museum class), and 2 Red blends (1 Rhone, 1 Cape)
Reds yet again showed better than whites this year.
Sparkling wine was a very pleasant surprise. Although we only tasted 3, one got a top 10 inclusion, and another just missed the top 10 with small margin. I don’t speak from any viticultural insight here, but perhaps there is potential here for the district in this very strong and flourishing category.
White wines:
Once again no winning Sauvignon this year. We tasted 3 wines. All three of them without fault, and market ready, but one dimensional and similarly ordinary, and certainly not in the fine wine echelons.
Chenin is where it’s at for Wellington. Still lots of room for improvement, but immediate step-up from Sauvignon. We tasted 8. Would love to see more. Or even Chenin-based white blends. Perhaps a little more vineyard (and less cellar) focus can offer more complexity in this category, as the fruit shows promise.
Chardonnay – Unfortunately was unimpressive this year. Reductivity is also an issue across all the categories. Perhaps important to look at lees management and also bottling practice under stelvin.
No White blends?! – Our feeling is that in warmer climate blending is your friend (if you look at successful equivalents worldwide). Last year one out of 2 wines tasted received top 10 entry
Only one other white variety?! – There must be exciting opportunities here with Mediterranean varietals (also said it last year). We tasted 1 Viognier, liked the typicity and balance, and it only just missed out on a consecutive award.
Older whites – 3 Tasted, generally lacked tension and freshness. Hasn’t been strong over the course of the 3 years.
No sweet wines?! This is very disappointing. Don’t underestimate this category. It doesn’t only consist of noble lates as a category. I’m thinking sweet Muscadet style sparklings, Beaume de Venice style fortifieds. Be gutsy to be innovative and experimental here.
Reds:
Improved managed ripeness across the categories this year. Perhaps vintage orientated. Good varietal expression also across the categories. Over-extraction on too large a component, missing freshness. Still lots of chariness on the reds, but generally better oak integration too.
Side note: We believe that there is lots of potential for Wellington to own the light-medium bodied red category at attractive price points, and from suitable varieties.
Pinotage – 2 winning wines. Most improved category. Lots of promise here. Exciting in the market currently also. Clearly has a spiritual ‘home’ in Wellington. Less coffee flavour drivers than before. Be open to less oak on the lower to mid-level price points, or even no oak (sacrilege!)
Merlot – quite simply doesn’t work well. At least not among the wines we tasted over the 3 years.
Cabernet Sauvignon – plenty of commercial, worked expressions. Sugar coated greenness often. Purity of fruit and detailed wines were awarded. 2 winners, one from museum. Cabernet is clearly a serious concern for Wellington, as it should be, but once again, don’t try to emulate Stellenbosch. Wellington Cabs must have their own identity.
Most potential for reds seems to be with Shiraz. Once again one very good Top 10 winner. We experienced this wine to be effortless and pure (elements that the panel were looking for). Stalks are welcome, as long as it’s not used cosmetically.
Shiraz also represented in Red blends with one Rhone style winner. The other being a Cape blend.
Very small representation for Other red varieties. It certainly would be interesting to see what Wellington can achieve with earlier ripening, thick skinned, robust red varieties. Malbec has been a winner for 2 out of 3 years of judging.
One little note here. You gotta get onto the Cinsault train. You won’t be sorry.
As a parting comment, and a similar message to last year – Plenty of the wines seem to be made for supermarket shelves rather than dinner tables. The way forward for Wellington must be to find the style expressions & cultivars that are best suited to Wellington as a whole, AND also the smaller defined terroirs within Wellington.
As the cradle of the wine industry (stokkies trade), Wellington is well positioned and should really be at the forefront of experimentation and innovation around new varieties.
In an ever expanding ocean of wine choice, the consumer of fine wines is more savvy than we think, and their purchasing choices shouldn’t be underestimated. The new fine wine consumer looks for and follows wines with personality, detail and sense of place (especially relevant here considering the origin of QFTB, as founded by Dave Hughes).
Above all they look for wines that they would love to drink.
These are the wines that we look to award for Wellington QFTB. Congratulations to all the winners.
JUDGES INDIVIDUAL FEEDBACK:
Gregory Muthambe
I was impressed with the red wines presented. I noticed that there was correct ripeness very few wines were neither green nor jammy/porty.
The most improved category was the Pinotage, the coffee styles were noticeable some of them were charming and some had purity of fruit and had varietal character expression.
Merlot and Cabernet and blends thereof were very average.
There is great potential for Shiraz. One of our top scores was for a Shiraz. More should be done to promote this category in Wellington.
Chenin can do much more than currently. Sauvignon Blanc not so much. Most were light and thin.
MCC was a short category but impressive.
Kent Scheermeyer
It is clear that they are very cautious producing wines away from the main stream varieties.
Chard were very disappointing - also Sauvignons. The Chenins ok, I did like the Viognier…
Quality of red grapes - Bordeaux Red blends (or the grapes they used… it looks like they are using the blend category for mixing their lesser quality grapes in) and Merlot are not good - Shiraz, Cab and Pinotage have improved from last year - quality of grapes. Ripeness was much better judged with less wines being porty/raisiny, overripe (could be just a vintage variation)
Pinotages - too heavy on oak, too much toast and oak”sweetness” - perhaps less extract on the fruit which would lead to less oak - question is if they want to go this route as they are clearly seeing their future in this style of wine. Nevertheless this group has improved from last years Pinot. Which might be a simple vintage variation…
White wine blends - this should clearly be a class for them to work on. Many Chenins could have benefit from some herbaceous features. This is why God created Rousanne, Marsanne, Grenache blanc etc etc….
Shiraz Blends - performed much better than Bordeaux style - but could also benefit from grapes such as Morvedre, Grenache, Carignan ets etc to add more complexity and freshness.
Chenins are very ripe and upfront. Perhaps fermenting on the skins could give these wines a different dimension - now most of them are falling flat on the palate.
Historically they should have many old Semillon vineyards - but not one shown - There are many good Semillons from warm climate regions…
Chardonnays were in general disappointing and uniformed - as were the Sauvignons.
Also seems that they are pushing for ripeness with the whites, and then counter act it with lees contact to gain weight. I was missing a bit of texture / pithiness. Fermenting on the skins could help.
Whites in general - pick less ripe and reduce sulphur - many of the wines the sulphur was very “visible"
Museums red & white - not a class they can be proud of if they continue this way (growing & making). Not many wines were older than 6 years - that isn”t really museum…. I would expect from a red to show well at least 8 to 10 years after vintage.
David Clarke
Not enough entries
• Expected stronger Chenin and white blend categories
• Surprised with the quality of the bubbles. Well done.
• Sauvignons and Chardonnays were mostly banal, simple and flat
• Viognier example was very good
• White Cultivars more suited to warm climates (ie not Chardonnay or Sauvignon) seem to do very well here. The market may not be ready for them, but Wellington should start telling people what works there.
• No one on the outside really knows what Wellington is about. They mostly think it is Paarl’s little brother. And Paarl isn’t exactly killing it either. Big opportunity to really make some noise. But you need the right stuff in bottle
• Pinotage bracket much improved (can I say almost exciting?), please keep away from oaky monsters, the best wines were fresh and had light fruit and chewy (not charry) tannin
• Syrah bracket had the best wine of the day by far in my opinion. Perhaps Wellington Syrah is something to build and get serious about
• Cabernets were consistent and strong, but ultimately replicable in other areas
• Sweet wines? Where are they?
• With the climactic conditions, rose could make sense here also. Relatively early picked reds would still have acid and probably enough fruit weight. The bar is pretty low in SA in general, so your competitors would be minimal. Is it a big enough market? Maybe not. Mulderbosch seems to do pretty well. I doubt there’s much Stellenbosch fruit in there.
Joakim Blackadder
Good varietal fruit-expressions and healthy fruit in general. Some reductive issues.
Not many over-wooded wines, which is nice to see.
A lack of diversity - No white blends, no sweet, no fortified, only 4 (!) white varietals
Positives where the surprises - the only viognier, the only malbec, the mcc range.
Uniform whites - high yields and powerful yeasts makes many of them taste very similar
Very extracted reds - A couple (literally two I think) were done smartly but most of them overt ending up with - bitterness, lack of balance and freshness and very poor ageing ability
Surprisingly many wines, reds and whites, lacked fundamental freshness which lowered the average scores. I think it also looks like the main part of the lineup we tasted are aimed at supermarket shelves and not restaurants or food
