Spier is IWSC Producer of the Year

Spier won the South African Producer of the Year Trophy it was announced on Wednesday evening 16 November
Andrew Milne, Chief Executive Officer of Spier received the Dave Hughes South African Producer of the Year Trophy from Dave Hughes in the presence of HRH Prince Robert of Luxembourg in front of 500 members of the international wine and spirits industry at the IWSC awards ceremony in London’s Guildhall.

Pictured left to right: HRH Prince Robert of Luxembourg, Dave Hughes, Andrew Milne.

Spier was picked from a shortlist comprising Kaapzicht Estate, Kanonkop Estate, Fleur du Cap, KWV and Nederburg.

Pinotage Association Saves Trophy

The International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Trophy for Pinotage has been saved by the swift intervention of the Pinotage Association when KWV withdrew their 13 years sponsorship at short notice.

The Pinotage Association, with the backing of their sponsors ABSA, immediately stepped in to ensure that Pinotage continues as a Trophy category.

The Trophy has been renamed the Abraham Perold Trophy for Best Pinotage to give recognition to the father of Pinotage, Abraham Perold. KWV, who hold the rights to the Abraham Perold brand name, graciously consented to the re-naming of the Trophy. “We believe that this will enable a more collective drive in honouring the legacy of both Pinotage and Perold internationally”, said KWV CEO, Thys Loubser.

The IWSC is one of the world’s biggest and most authoritative wine competitions and South Africa’s own grape variety, Pinotage, was introduced as a category in this competition in 1995.

Frances Horder, IWSC Competition Director, said “with the sponsorship of this trophy now coming from South Africa’s Pinotage Association and their sponsor, Absa, it will for many years be an established and prestigious part of the Wine and Spirit Competition.”

This year the 2009 Abraham Perold Trophy was awarded to Rijk’s Private Cellar for their Pinotage Reserve 2006.


Photograph shows Dave Hughes, South African’s international wine expert and honorary member of the Pinotage Association (left) holding the new Trophy with Sir Ian Good, 2009 President of the IWSC. Photo courtesy of the Pinotage Association

Dave Hughes Honoured by Pinotage Association

Dave Hughes has been awarded Honorary Membership of the Pinotage Association.

Beyers Truter, Chairman of the Pinotage Association, handed the honorary membership certificate to Dave and called him South Africa's best wine friend. Dave's career includes distiller, winemaker, wine auctioneer, international wine and spirit judge, writer on drink and allied subjects, consultant to Nederburg Annual Wine Auction, Veritas Wine Awards, South African Airways Wine Selections and the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

One of the first times he showed Pinotage overseas, was in September 1976, for a Wines and Vines magazine tasting in San Francisco. One of his first overseas presentations of a range of only Pinotage wines was at the Wine Educators Conference in Santa Rosa California in 1981, where he presented eight different Pinotage wines to an audience who had never heard of the grape.

According to Dave it was difficult to promote South African wines in those days because of international sanctions, due to our politics. In 1985 he was barred from talking at the Roseworthy Campus in Australia, because a few students objected to the presence of a "racialist South African". The tasting was held in Wolf Blass cellars and instead of 30 odd students, there was a crowd of about 100 students, winemakers and consumers.

My congratulations to Dave; may your socks never match!

Pictured above, left to right, are are De Wet Viljoen (Chairman of the Absa Top 10 Pinotage organising committee), Dave Hughes and Beyers Truter (Chairman of the Pinotage Association).

From Rusty Nail to Elegant Fruit

Articles about Pinotage all too often tell of the group of British Masters of Wine who visited South Africa in 1976 and, comparing Pinotage’s taste to "rusty nails", declared that the variety had no future.

In that group was Julian Brind MW (pictured right) , until recently head wine buyer for the UK Waitrose supermarket chain. Thirty-one years later he again tasted Pinotage in South Africa, this time as a judge at the Pinotage Top 10 Competition.

Interviewed after the judging, Julian remarked that most of the wines in the competition were of an exceptionally high quality based on international standards, and it was almost impossible to select only the top ten wines.

"I think the rest of the world must discover these wines and South Africans must be very proud of it,” he said. “The balance of fruit, elegance and good integration of tannins is an indication of the talent of South Africa's viticulturists and winemakers. They made it very difficult for us to select only the top ten."

Fellow judge South African Dave Hughes emphasised the combination of quality and diversity. "People think there is only one kind of Pinotage, but the variety of styles makes it a real tasting experience, but every wine still is a Pinotage,” he stated. “A few years ago, it was my opinion that you could only select the top five to seven out of all the entries, now it is difficult to select the top fifteen. The quality and fine balance of the wines improve year after year."

The results of the 2007 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition will be announced on 31 October at the Arrabella Sheraton Hotel in Cape Town.