Written by: Russell Cook – Winemakers’ Choice Sales
28 June 2010Winemakers’ Choice Award 2010:
Appreciation of Art – Red Blends
There is a conspiracy, believed by few, that blended wines are made from the left-over’s of single varietal wines. This must be a fallacy – drink a fine blend and it will put your mind at ease. Blended wine is art.
In creating art, creativity is what is most essential. Creativity requires a different kind of thinking. I doubt that thinking in straight lines can ever be creative. It is out-of-the-box thinking that makes creativity possible. Blending wine is not straight line thinking; it is also not single varietal drinking. Drinking a good red blend will blow your mind. There is another way of blending that might just blow your mind too, namely, co-fermentation – a co-molecular blend. Put that in a box.
Art must be appreciated. What I appreciate about a blend is how the nuances of the individual constituents may be noted. However, the character of the blend as a whole is what makes it so unique, as it takes on a new form when the constituents react with one another.
These are the red blends that Winemakers’ Choice Awards have appreciated as being exceptional works of art.
Bordeaux Blends:
• Bilton Sir Percy 2004
• Backsberg Klein Babylonstoren 2005
• Zorgvliet Richelle 2005
• Saronsberg Seismic 2005
• Saronsberg Provenance Rooi 2005
• Zonnebloem Laureat 2006
• The High Road Reserve 2006
Cape Blends:
• Backsberg Klein Babylonstoren 2004
• Simonsig Frans Malan 2005
• Beyerskloof Synergy Cape Blend 2005
• Diemersdal Matys 2006
• Idiom Cape Blend 2006
• Sumaridge Epitome 2007
• Windmeul Cape Blend 2008
Other Red Blends:
• Uva Mira Vineyard Selection Red Blend 2004
• Lourensford Seventeen Hundred 2005
• Bellingham St Georges 2005
• Lourensford Shiraz Viognier 2006
• Bellingham Bernard Series Small Barrel S.M.V 2006
