How unfortunate to see a South African wine guide get it so wrong
SADLY, the South African Wine Index (SAWi) is losing credibility as an annual guide to the country’s best wines, the grand gold and platinum bottle stickers that signify inclusion in the publisher’s ‘Grand Wines Collection’ (GWC) becoming lumped together with others that shoppers and collectors should be wary of. What might once have been a noble endeavour to rank the SA wine industry’s leading producers and benchmark offerings in various categories has slumped to the point where it seems that perhaps the algorithm used to calculate the findings is malfunctioning – or maybe the database has been hacked or hijacked to spread a bit of fake news here and there. Not a single mention of Kanonkop!
In a February 2020 press release it was stated that the latest GWC comprised just over 400 of South Africa’s consistently top-scoring wines, the best in multi-national blind-tasting competitions over the last 10 years. In March the names of the SAWi Top 50 were announced through the media, although only the Top 20 in the ‘Ambassador’s Club’ are listed on the SAWi website. And then came the news in April that to get all 400 names in the 2020 Collection selected from over 5000 wines you need to buy the first edition of SAWi’s ‘Definitive Fine Wine Guide’, hot off the press and available for R155 at selected bookshops or via the SAWi website where it can also be downloaded. We are told that the full selection represents 140 of the country’s 500-plus wineries, however “50% of the GWC wines come from only 50 wineries (including the Distell, KWV and DGB Portfolios), with the majority of these having 5 or more wines represented.”
Curiously, (only) 42 of the Top 50 producers are listed online where the SAWi GWC is explained, and while these do indeed include a number of the very best wineries in the Cape, also named are some cellars that wine experts are unlikely to associate with the Top 100, let alone the Top 50. Among the glaring omissions is Kanonkop Wine Estate, a Stellenbosch ‘first growth’, and that Villiera is not included on the list of top producers is also surprising, given the SAWi ranking of Villiera Monro Brut as South Africa’s best wine overall.
Of the 50 wines at the top of the SAWi pyramid, only one is a Cabernet and only two are Chenins. Who said these varieties are strong suits?! There’s no room for Beyerskloof Diesel, Kanonkop or Simonsig Redhill among the seven Pinotage listings, and no room for Boekenhoutskloof or Hartenberg among the eight Shiraz/Syrah.
No fewer than 77 names are included in the list of wine competitions monitored for the SA Wine Index, but these include some discontinued long ago as well as a number of obscurities in which few Cape wineries participate. The Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator are listed as competitions, which they are not, and interestingly there appears to be a complete boycott of the competitions convened by South Africa’s online Winemag.co.za. Go figure!
Mike, I am completely shocked… All of the wines mentioned by you such as Beyerskloof Diesel, Kanonkop, Simonsig Redhill, Boekenhoutskloof, Hartenberg… are in the guide.
To have the audacity to suggest “becoming lumped together with others that shoppers and collectors should be wary of” is simply rude and disrespectful. Your reference to some cellars that wine experts are unlikely to associate with the Top 100, let alone the Top 50, is just as far-fetched. Why not rather name the cellars? Is it because they do not fit your list?
This kind of reporting can’t be good for the industry at all. I trust that you will issue an apology.
Izak, I did not say that the highlighted wines are not in the SAWi guide; my point was that you did not include them in the Top 50. In the case of Kanonkop, I was reporting that you did not include the estate among the Top 42 producers listed on your site, and that none of Kanonkop’s wines are ranked among the Top 50 according to your press release.
Should you wish to know which wines and cellars rank highly according to the SA Wine Index but do not shine as brightly in the SA Wine & Cellar Classifications, you can check your findings against those on the relevant pages of Top Wine SA where the Classifications are carried in full, clearly presented and indexed. It is quite possible that identifying those cellars which fall outside the Top 100 in terms of the Classification would cause the sort of offence you apparently wish to avoid, but I will publish the names of any that you choose to speak up for here. Fire away if you must.
Mike… The wines mentioned are not in the top 50 listed by SAWi due to a lack of point scores from blind-tasting contests, e.g. Kanonkop. SAWi must be able to compare apples with apples. We don’t recognise reviewer scores.
The top 50 producers are those with 5+ wines in the GWC… For those wines excluded from the Top 100 Cellar Classification, it would simply be because of criteria differences – a reason why SAWi is not interested in comparing what we have with your classifications.
The Index is not a guide as we don’t publish results on our website as you do. We may highlight some performances.