ANOTHER interesting line-up of wines from that ‘heartbreak grape’. To think that there are so many Pinot Noir producers in South Africa! And kudos to Elgin-based Master of Wine Richard Kershaw, the only winemaker to place among the winners of both the inaugural Top 5 competition associated with the country’s Pinot Noir Association and that organised by Winemag.co.za which involved the announcement of a Top 10 some weeks earlier.

Compared to Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Pinot Noir Report that attracted 30 entries from 24 SA producers, the 2020 Mosaic Top 5 Pinot Noir Wine Awards were contested by 64 producers who fielded 109 entries. Most (37) entries for the SA Top 5 taste-off were from the Walker Bay district including Bot River, Hemel-en-Aarde and Stanford, followed by Elgin (30 entries), Stellenbosch (12) and Franschhoek (9). Whereas submissions for the Winemag Report were mostly from Elgin (12), followed by the Hemel-en-Aarde appellations (5).

The Winemag Report was transparent in divulging the names of all the wines on the tasting bench, giving five of the Top 10 rankings to Elgin wines and two to wines from Hemel-en-Aarde. The Mosaic report, along the lines of most wine competitions, only names the award winners, with three Hemel-en-Aarde bottlings in the Top 5 and four among the runners-up, while Elgin wines accounted for two of the Top 5 and two of the runners-up.

The new competition, convened by the Top 5 Trust in conjuction with the South African Pinot Noir Association, sets out to identify benchmarks for the development of distinctive wines in this category and to illustrate the quality of SA Pinot Noir to the world. In year one, “almost all” of the SA Pinot Noir Association members (listed on their website) participated, with nine wines judged worthy of ’90+ Award Medals’ and five awarded Top 5 status, scored between 91.4 and 92.8. This compared with the Winemag scores of 90+ for 17 wines – the exact scores of the Top 10 are to be revealed at the end of the year, and one wonders if any will exceed 93.

On the Mosaic Top 5 panel of judges: Cape Wine Masters Winnie Bowman (chair), Anton Swarts (Spier winemaker) and Karin Visser (Great Domaines), sommelier Gregory Mutambe (Twelve Apostles Hotel) and Stark-Condé winemaker Rüdger van Wyk. The powers that be at the Top 5 Trust don’t spell out their wine rating definitions, unlike Winemag, who set the bar at 93/100 in order to qualify as “outstanding”.

WINNING WINES

Brew Cru Pinot Noir 2019
Price t.b.a. by producer, Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge

Creation Art of Pinot Noir 2018
R910pb ex-cellar, Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge

Elgin Vintners Pinot Noir 2019
R234pb ex-cellar, Elgin

Kershaw Pinot Noir 2017
R605pb ex-cellar, Elgin

La Vierge Apogée Pinot Noir 2016
R550pb ex-cellar, Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge

90+ MEDALLISTS

• Botanica Pinot Noir 2018
• Creation Pinot Noir 2019
• Des Dieux Josephine Pinot Noir 2015
• Flagstone Fiona Pinot Noir 2016
• Kat se Snor Pinot Noir 2017
• Leopard’s Leap Culinaria Pinot Noir 2017
• Oak Valley Groenlandberg Pinot Noir 2019
• Smuggler’s Boot Pinot Noir 2016 (Kershaw)
• Whalehaven Conservation Coast Pinot Noir 2016