ON THE EVE of the 100th test match between the Springboks and the All Blacks, on a rugby field in Australia, came the news that the countries’ winemakers had all but shared the spoils in an encounter featuring some of their top Sauvignon Blancs. The overall winner was South Africa, however the two top-scoring wines were from New Zealand, namely Villa Maria Reserve 2020 from the Wairau Valley in Marlborough and Astrolabe 2020, also of Marlborough, followed by South Africa’s Stark-Condé Round Mountain 2020 from the Jonkershoek Valley in Stellenbosch.

The competition, staged at Diemersdal Estate in Durbanville, was organised by South Africa’s Emile Joubert, wine writer, author and communications consultant for various cellars, together with New Zealand’s Erica Crawford, co-founder of the Kim Crawford wine brand and owner of Loveblock Wines. The ‘All Blacks’ in this instance were selected by Crawford and a team of “Marlborough Wine People”. The ‘Springboks’ of the Cape winelands, selected by Joubert and Sauvignon Blanc SA, were as follows: Alvi’s Drift Reserve 2020, D’Aria The Songbird 2020, Diemersdal Winter Ferment 2020, KWV Cathedral Cellar 2020, Our Darling The Pledge 2020 (Le Grand Domaine), Spier 21 Gables 2020, Stark-Condé Round Mountain 2020, Steenberg The Black Swan 2020, Stellenbosch Vineyards Southern View 2020 and Thelema 2020.

The panel of judges: Cape Wine Master Winnie Bowman (chair), winemaker Rüdger van Wyk (Stark-Condé), Germany-born Steffi Leyer (Diemersdal marketing manager), America-born sommelier and wine writer Erica Tayler, Portugal-born Joaquim Sá (MD of Amorim Cork SA).

For more about this vinous test, click here. At the time of writing, a final report with the full results had yet to be published but was expected anytime soon on WineGoggle.co.za.