07 September 2007

Record Entries for 2007 Top 10 Competition

**EXCLUSIVE**

This years Pinotage Top 10 Competition has attracted a record 148 entries -19 more than last year -and it welcomes 19 brands entering the competition for the first time.

The annual competition, now in its 11th year, is run by the producers' Pinotage Association and is sponsored by ABSA Bank. The competition is unusual in choosing 10 equal winners in order to be able to recognise and reward different styles and interpretations of South Africa's Pinotage grape variety.

As usual, wines from the Stellenbosch district are in the majority, but altogether 30 different Wine of Origins are represented. The three areas with most entries are Stellenbosch with 49 wines (33 in 2006), Paarl with 16 (17 in 2006) and Western Cape with 15 (5 in 2006). There were no entries from outside South Africa.

Entries come from six different vintages, with 40% from 2006 (59 wines) and 30% from 2005 (45 wines). The oldest vintage is 2002 (one wine) and there are six from the recent 2007 vintage.

This years Judges will be Duimpie Bayly(Pinotage Association Vice Chairman & Cape Wine Master), Charles Hopkins (winemaker), Chris Roux (winemaker), Dave Hughes (wine writer, Cape Wine Master), Neil Pendock (wine writer), Michelle Cherutti-Kowal (wine lecturer in England) and Julian Brind (UK Master of Wine). They will taste all the wines, then retaste the 20 highest scoring wines to determine the final winning Top 10.

**EXCLUSIVE**

No comments:

Post a Comment