Amorim Cork MCC Challenge awards at The Twelve Apostles

The Amorim sponsored annual awards event, now in its 14th year, took place on the eve of Cape Wine at The Twelve Apostles Hotel. The awards are divided into four categories: Blanc de Blancs, Rosé, Blended Brut and a Museum Class for wines including and before the 2008 vintage. There is an overall winner, and the award this year went to Altydgedacht for their Blanc de Blanc MCC 2013. To promote inclusivity among producers, entries were open to non-members of the Cap Classique Producers Association. The competition was judged by Chairman Allan Mullins, writers Cathy Marston and Samarie Smith, sommelier and wine exporter David Clarke and critic Christian Eedes. Pearl Oliver, sommelier at the Belmond Mt Nelson Hotel, was an associate judge. All the wines are tasted blind and the judges do not know until the awards who the winners are. All the winning wines were served with canapes

The category winners were Blanc de Blanc: Altydgedacht for MCC 2013. Louisvale Wines from Stellenbosch took the Trophy for Best Rosé with the Louisvale Chardonnay/Pinot Noir Rosé n/v, while KWV – no stranger to Cap Classique Trophies, won Best Blended Brut for the 2010 Laborie MCC Brut, made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir

The Trophy for Best Museum Class Cap Classique, always an eagerly awaited award, went to Desiderius 2003, an icon wine of Distell’s Pongrácz label, which is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. There were only 4 entries in this category this year which the judges and we agree is a pity, as our MCCs have shown great aging potential

Chairman of the judging panel Allan Mullins said that this year’s wines were remarkably consistent.

The Frans Malan Legacy trophy (now in its second year) was awarded this year to Achim von Arnim of Haute Cabrière & Pierre Jourdan sparkling wines, who had done so much for the Methode Cap Classique (MCC) class in this country, including suggesting the name when France refused to let us use the term Champagne

Achim looking suitably dazed, but delighted at his award

He made an amusing speech about his life making wine

Horst Frehse the General Manager of the 12 Apostles hotel chatting to Allan Mullins, the recipient of the award last year

Father and son. The Pierre Jourdan team from Haute Cabrière - Takuan von Arnim with his father Achim

PRO Emile Joubert acted as MC for the evening

António Rios de Amorim, CEO of Amorim Corks in Portugal came especially to present the awards

A very glamorous Christiane and Takuan von Arnim listening to the awards being announced

Etienne Louw, winemaker of Altydgedacht Estate, receives his award for the best wine on show. He also won the award for the best Blanc de Blanc.

The prize for the overall winner is a sword, which he is encouraged to use to perform sabrage on the MCC bottles at his winery

Here is Etienne Louw being taught to do Sabrage by expert Achim von Arnim. It was his first time. He was excellent at it and made a very quick and clean cut.

Horst Frehse, Director of The Twelve Apostles Hotel capturing the sabrage on his cell phone and Sommelier Greg Mutambe

The four award winners with their trophies.

 L to R: Johan Fourie (KWV), Elunda Basson (Distell), Etienne Louw (Altydgedacht), Simon Smith (Louisvale)

It was a warm spring evening and we were able to go out onto the terrace

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Chenin blanc Association Beach Party at The Grand on the beach, V&A Waterfront

An informal gathering on the beach at The Grand turned into a great fun event with the Chenin Blanc Association members showcasing their best Chenins while we partied "on the beach" from 11 to 3 on Monday.  And despite rumblings of thunder, the weather held. This was our first Cape Wine function of the week and the foreign trade were also invited and turned up.

MCC made from Chenin was offered as a welcome, together with a rather nice T shirt advertising the event as a gift to all attendees. All the staff and many of the farm representatives were wearing them

Journalists and winemakers relaxing on the beach with glasses of  Chenin

Ken Forrester, who is the Chairman of the Chenin Blanc Association, opens the proceedings with Billy du Plessis, Standard Bank Executive Business Banking Head in the Western Cape

Winemaker Karl Lambour of Grand Provence in Franschhoek with his team and, on the left, Tyrrel and Anette Myburgh of Joostenberg with theirs

Delene & Jean Pierre Daneel of Jean Daneel wines

Girls having fun on the beach. Mercy Mwai, Anel Grobler and Kimberley Ndlovu. We were supposed to wear relaxed beachy clothes, but many of us had another Cape Wine evening function to attend, so came dressed a bit more smartly than the event required

The tasting terrace

Some of the foreign buyers attending Cape Wine were here too

Some were in very suitable beach attire

Maryna Strachan of Wine Extra with Etienne Buys of Vrede en Lust

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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PIWOSA Car boot sale at Journey's End

The first time this festival was held and what a success it was. PIWOSA stands for Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa, www.piwosa.com. It was a real family day, with a special tent for the children. They could enjoy face painting, free candyfloss and lots of fun events, including wine Olympics. The adults were kept really busy tasting and buying bottles and boxes of wine from the backs of bakkies, vans, cars and trucks. And there were some really good wines to buy

And then there was the Trebuchet - a medieval catapult, from which they attempted to destroy a caravan by firing first barrels and then a car at it!

Rain had been threatening all week, so a huge marquee had been erected.

Glenelly out of the boot of a bright yellow 1950s Peugeot 402

Gary Jordan fresh from the Caribbean, in the back of their van

With a tanned Kathy Jordan and Thea van der Merwe selling wine

Nice if you can get it, a Silver Bentley S1 from the mid 50s

The vintage wine table in front of a model A Ford

Seating was at a bit of a premium in the tent

The food queues. They were badly let down by some food trucks. 5 were booked, only 2 turned up. The queues were long and a bit slow, but we did all get fed. Those 3 won't be asked again

The truck with the steak rolls, the calamari which, sadly, ran out and the pulled pork sandwiches with chips, which were delicious

Ken Forrester is manic about the Cluver and Jack cider

Friendly faces at the Ken Forrester stand

It was great to see people having a fun time and enjoying themselves

You climbed the stairs to the highest truck for the Paul Cluver tasting with cellarmaster Andries Burger

Ken brought his big yellow 1959 Chevrolet

Babies and wine mixed well. Liesl Cluver Rust, back from a sales trip, enjoying time with her son

Dawid Nieuwoudt with his Cederberg wines being helped by Pieter du Toit and a friend

The Klein Constantia team were constantly and consistently busy

You have reached the end of your journey at Journey’s End farm

German Consul Klaus Stross and his wife Tita relaxing in the Peugeot

Lynne and Tita wondering how much money this car costs to run

Boys having fun, Dave Nel and Alex Dale

Quenching the Thirst on Radford Dale out of the boot of a Jaguar XJS

Boggom & Voertsek Blonde Ale from Cederberg. Lynne tried to convince them the next ale should be a BOGGOF - buy one, go get one free. It's a great ale with lovely citrus flavours

Feeding time

and Candyfloss time

The Drift Farm (Bruce Jack's family) with their Jeep, watched by Swedish sommelier Hansi Blackadder

Yes, we will be needing more wine

Now the fun starts. After catapulting several barrels from the Trebuchet and hitting and destroying the rugby posts, they decided to aim the ancient Mazda 323 at the caravan

Loading it takes quite a long time

Everyone stand clear as the rope is pulled

The counterweight falls back dragging the car forward

and it gains speed and momentum

Up she goes

over head

and to the top of the trajectory

Oooops, missed again. The car hits the ground and shrinks down to half its size. More practice needed chaps. But it was huge fun and a great giggle. Lynne got it on video on her phone too

The end of a lovely day marked by a pair of redwing starlings

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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