Shall we fill the cup with Viognier!

The prestigious General Smuts Trophy for the 2011 South African Champion Wine was awarded to Riebeek Cellars for their superb Viognier, at a ceremony held at Muisbosskerm on the West Coast on Friday.

'We are honoured that the judges of the South African Wine Show have chosen to reward our efforts,' said Cellar Master Zakkie Bester. 'But it's only fitting,' he added with a characteristic twinkle in his eye, 'as General Jan Smuts was born in our valley, just a few kilometres away.'

The Riebeek Cellars Viognier was one of only 58 Class Winners, of which just 17 were awarded Champion status, with just one wine going on to be declared the trophy-winner and the country's best young wine of the year. Significantly, it's the first time in the history of the  competition that the top honour has gone to a Viognier.

'It's an extremely special wine,' says Viticulturist Hanno van Schalkwyk. 'The grapes come from just two rows in one carefully selected block. The vines are meticulously groomed, pruned and suckered. Then they are hand-picked and kept overnight before again being hand-selected for crushing.'

Says Senior Winemaker Eric Saayman, 'In the cellar, everything is done by hand; no part of the process is mechanised. The wine is not pumped but poured into new 500 litre French oak barrels.'

Prior to the competition, the Viognier had spent 6 months on wood. A further 6 months will ensure optimal polymerisation and softening of the tannins, if anything resulting in an even more impressive wine, before just 1000 litres are bottled under the Cellar's Kasteelberg label.

'That's the total output of this limited release wine,' says Bester. 'It's not one of those wines that is carefully crafted just to win awards and then you find something different in the bottle.'

Not to be outdone, the Riebeek Cellars red team also put in an impressive showing, with their unwooded Pinotage beating out many wooded entries to scoop the Trophy for Champion Pinotage, and the only unwooded Pinotage to win gold.

'The judges commented on the fruitiness,' says Wine Maker Alicia Boshoff, 'and while this is characteristic of our wines, in this case we identified a quarter of our Pinotage block that, because of slope and soil type, ripens early. So we picked it earlier and incorporated it with the rest, giving the wine it's distinctive and quite exceptional fruit; so yes, unusual but typical of the hot, dry, stony soil it was grown in.'

And all this as the celebrations were just dying down after Riebeek Cellars had swept the boards at the hotly contested Swartland Wine Show.

Already the Viognier had given some idea of its potential, stealing the show as Swartland Champion wine and Class Winner in the 'Scarce White Cultivars' category. And already the Pinotage had claimed the Dry Red Trophy.

But this was supported by impressive depth, with no less than eleven class winners taking top honours in the wooded and unwooded Chardonnay, Rosé, Dry White Blend, wooded Viognier, wooded Dry Red Blend, wooded and unwooded Petit Verdot, wooded Cabernet Sauvignon, unwooded Pinotage and Cape Ruby categories.

For more information,  please call Alta Saayman on +27 (0)22 4481213 or email alta@riebeekcellars.co.za

Posted: winestyle.biz

Source: Riebeeck Cellars