Wines / 12 April 2013

Dornier with two Top 100 SA Wines in 2013

Two of Dornier’s wines are selected as South Africa’s best

The Dornier Donatus White 2011 and the Dornier Donatus Red 2009 have been awarded Top 100 Status.

The much anticipated winning wines from South Africa’s Top 100 Wine Challenge were announced last night.  Top winemakers, vineyard representatives, farm owners and their partners celebrated in customary style with a jazz band, canapés and the awards certification ceremony.  The party at Rodwell House, St James, really took off when all 100 winning wines were unveiled and tasted.

Record entry levels were up 15% on last year.  From 440 of SA’s top wines entered, winning wines included three Cap Classique wines, four Natural Sweet wines, five Port Style and Fortified wines, twenty seven White wines and sixty one Red wines.

Tim Atkin MW judging chairman quotes:  ‘Top 100 has established itself as a permanent part of the Cape wine scene in the space of only three years. I am proud of what the event has achieved in terms of organisation, recognition and, of course, the quality of the wines.  This year’s selection is the best yet.’

Higgo Jacobs, tasting director, reflects: ‘We remain steadfast in our aim to set the standard for tasting protocol and ultimate respect for entries. Once again all wines were decanted this year, with a decanted and recently opened pouring of each entry presented to judges for evaluation. Although having received record entries, the highest in the three years of the challenge, this year ran very smoothly.  There were higher average scores across all categories. We had the most unusual result where a perfect 100 wines received panel scores above cut-off.  This is unlikely to happen again soon!’

Robin von Holdt shared his enthusiasm: ‘It is hugely gratifying to partner with and grow our international brand of fine SA wines, together with the leaders in our dynamic wine industry.  We share common, tangible, commercial interests that drive our forward thinking activity to promote and encourage buying SA’s finest wines in key markets.  The team and I are thrilled at the level of support we have gained from vineyards that are founder stakeholders in our exciting venture these past three years.  We are also terrifically excited at the level of new support from first time entries from highly regarded vineyards. The only downside is that it is an extremely competitive event, with the result that it is very hard to gain entry onto the final Top 100 list.  It will only get harder.  Our brand, international event presence, marketing actions and overall growth are at the fore of ‘brand SA fine wine’.  We lead in all of the actions that we set out to achieve.  The Top 100 team are totally committed to the future and market share growth of SA’s fine wines.’

 

Lynne Sherriff MW, past Chairman, Masters of Wine Institute: ‘To draw upon the experience and knowledge of internationally renowned Masters of Wine as judges is a clear commitment to rigour and quality.’

Top 100 SA Wines offers the premier fine-wine judged competition as well as consumer tasting festivals in South Africa.

The judging panels annually identify winning wines and are led by international MW’s (Masters of Wine).

Expert judging panels apply objective protocols and methodologies in the annual wine list challenge. Renowned sommeliers, consultants and restaurant experts utilise benchmark templates with consistency and transparency to set new levels of judging standards.

Subjectivity is removed and is replaced with objectivity and openness. A novel approach using a second panel of consumer experts then rates lists for possible Good Value awards.

⯇ Return to news