Neil Ellis Chardonnay leads South African charge at IWC

05/2022 Mike Froud Leave a comment

NOW IN ITS 38th year, the International Wine Challenge (IWC) is one of the world’s most rigorous wine competitions. Every medal winner is assessed ‘blind’ on at least three separate occasions by a minimum of two panels of judges tasting together, and then again by two of the show’s co-chairs, who in 2022 comprised Tim Atkin MW, Sam Caporn MW, Oz Clarke, Jamie Goode, Peter McCombie MW and Helen McGinn. The judges are industry experts, buyers and Masters of Wine working in unison to rate the thousands of entries from over 50 countries, with the South Africans on the team including two of the 28 panel chairs, Cathy van Zyl MW and Winnie Bowman CWM, another of the senior judges, sommelier Higgo Jacobs, as well as Benguela Cove cellarmaster Johann Fourie and Jenny Ratcliffe-Wright CWM.

The trophy laureates had yet to be confirmed at the time of writing, however the names of all the medallists announced by the IWC included 13 South African wines that had earned gold – 12 scored 95/100 and one 96/100, the 2020 vintage of Neil Ellis Whitehall Chardonnay, made from Elgin grapes at the family cellar on the Helshoogte Road in Stellenbosch. The panel’s tasting notes for this 96-pointer: “Pure, intense and refined Chardonnay that wouldn’t look out of place in the Côte de Beaune. Nuanced oak with patisserie and citrus peel flavours with lovely definition supported by chiseled acidity.”

P.S. A week after the names of IWC 2022 medallists were released, the trophy winners were announced: click here.