Five Stellenbosch-based wineries featured on the top ten list of this year’s Chardonnay Report, convened by Wine Mag and sponsored by financial services company, Prescient.
According to the report, which was released on 13 October, there were 87 entries from 66 producers and 59 wines rated 90-plus on the 100-point quality scale.
Among the top-performing local wineries are Tokara, Stellenbosch Reserve Moederkerk, Meerlust and Delaire Graff, which had two wines featured on the top ten list of the Chardonnay Report.
Christian Eedes, the editor of Wine Mag and panel chairperson, said that the panel tastes the wine entries blind and discuss each one afterwards to reach a consensus.
“We taste with no knowledge of vintage, so it’s entirely random to be as fair as possible. It’s discussion-based, so each taster looks at the wine and then once we’ve gone through each one, we discuss our respective scores to reach a consensus,” said Eedes.
Eedes added that it is due to a combination of factors that Stellenbosch wineries scored so well.
“It’s all the different mountains, proximity to the ocean, varied soil types. Stellenbosch does chardonnay well, but it does everything else pretty well too,” said Eedes.
Top performers
For Mike Ratcliffe, the chairman of the Stellenbosch Wine Route, local wineries’ top performance is an affirmation of the hard work that has gone before and a question of focus and specialisation.
“After all these hundreds of years of planting grapes and making wine in Stellenbosch, these highlights are emerging and our strength of cabernet and chardonnay are really taking notice,” said Ratcliffe.
Tokara entered five of their wines into the various Prescient wine competitions this year and the Chardonnay 2019 was the fifth wine to achieve top ten status. This was according to Suzanne van Dyk, sales and marketing manager of Tokara.
“Our aim is to offer consistent quality throughout our ranges with no compromise and this recognition supports these efforts in a tremendous way,” said Van Dyk.
Every accolade always helps with the sale of wine, especially when it comes to ultra-premium wines, Van Dyk said.
“The Prescient reports give wines some much-needed exposure in an industry where there are a lot of fantastic wines available. This enables wine lovers to make informed decisions when they buy wines,” she said.