International wine test matches — such as the Judgment of Paris tasting of 1976, which put California on the map, or the SAA Shield between SA and Australia in 1995 — work best when the outcome defies the rational expectation of an influential audience.
The Paris tasting acquired its historical importance because 40 years ago everyone believed that the best Old World wines would necessarily outperform anything from the New World. California’s overwhelming triumph forced everyone to re-examine their most basic assumptions. Suddenly the world wasn’t flat and the view could never be the same again.
This is why no subsequent "test match" has had the same impact as Spurrier’s quite casually organised 1976 event.
SA’s drubbing in the SAA Shield of 1995 achieved the same result from a negative perspective. It forced our overcomplacent wine makers to reassess their blind faith in the quality of what was coming out of the country’s cellars in the post-isolation era.
As UK wine writer Oz Clarke subsequently pointed out, the result of the Shield sent the "cellar rats" of the mid-1990s out into the real world. They came back inspired and emboldened, ready to create the style of Cape wine that has many influential international critics suggesting that SA is producing some of the world’s most exciting wines.
At 2017’s Six Nations Challenge — where 10 years ago SA battled to collect a few medals and certainly never contemplated the prospect of a trophy — the country bagged two trophies, one runner-up award, seven double golds and 23 gold medals. This was by no means SA’s best performance at the competition (a few years ago the country won most of the trophies) but it was creditable enough.
SA’s trophy winners were the Uva Mira OTV 2014 (a 60:40 cab sav/cab franc blend) and the Stellenrust 51 Chenin Blanc 2015. Simonsig’s Kaapse Vonkel Cuvée Royale 2013 was the runner-up in the Methode Cap Classique class.
Looking through the double-gold and gold medal winners there are no real surprises: among the double golds are Graham Beck’s 2012 Blanc de Blanc, Silverthorn’s Green Man (a Silverthorn bubbly won the fizz trophy a few years ago) and Steenberg’s Lady R (all fizz), Stark Conde’s Round Mountain Sauvignon Blanc 2016, Bosman Family Vineyards’s Nero d’Avola, Uva Mira’s Cabernet Franc and Darling Cellar’s Bushvine Cinsaut.
From the long list of gold medallists, it’s worth highlighting a trio of 2015 sauvignons — Delaire Graff Coastal, Mulderbosch 1000 Miles and Nitida Golden Orb — as well as five chardonnays — Paul Cluver Seven Flags 2016, Chamonix Reserve 2015, Eikendal 2015, Restless River Ave Maria 2015 and Rustenberg’s Five Soldiers 2015.
Other standout whites were the Foundry’s Grenache Blanc 2015, Darling Cellars 2016 Chenin, Botanica’s Mary Delany 2015 and Deetlef’s 2014 Semillon.
As always, there were fewer red wine gold medallists but among those that do deserve a mention are Newton Johnson’s Family Reserve Pinot, Paul Wallace’s Brave Heart Pinot and his Black Dog Malbec, Shannon’s Mount Bullet Merlot 2014 as do a trio of bordeaux blends from Haskell, Ernie Els and Diemersdal.
Nederburg safeguarded its slot among the dessert wines medals, a position it has held almost without interruption for at least the past decade.
About two months after the judging, I hosted a dinner for Christies in Hong Kong at which I presented a number of SA’s top wines — all served blind alongside highly reputed French benchmarks.
Classics such as Jordan’s Nine Yards Chardonnay were pitched against Corton Charlemagne, while the Mullineux Syrah went head-to-head against Ogier’s Cote Rotie Reserve. The guests were simply asked to indicate their preferences, and in all but one of the ballots, the Cape wines trumped their French counterparts. This isn’t news 41 years after the Judgment of Paris – but it’s still a gratifying and meaningful outcome.
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