Elgin 3:1 Hemel-en-Aarde – SA Pinot Noir Report 2022

SA Pinot Noir Report

NO DOUBT some of the folks up and down the Hemel-en-Aarde between Hermanus and Caledon were a little twitchy after the results of South Africa’s 2022 Mosaic Top 5 Pinot Noir Wine Awards went public. Only one of the winners was from that area of the country most renowned for this variety.

Many of the entries (26) were from cellars in the Walker Bay area that encompasses the three Hemel-en-Aarde wards as well as Bot River, Sunday’s Glen, Springfontein and Stanford. However there was no sign of, for example, Classified producers Bouchard Finlayson, Crystallum or Newton Johnson among the winners or runners-up – though there were a number of Walker Bay outfits awarded ‘Medals of Excellence’. In comparison, Elgin was represented by just nine entries yet scooped three of the Top 5 awards as well as a few medals – not including Paul Cluver, mind you, presumably another of the big names who chose not to put their wines on this tasting bench.

The panel of judges was also interesting: Cape Wine Master Winnie Bowman (chair), cellarmaster Adi Badenhorst, winemaker and researcher Achim Dörr of Geisenheim University in Germany, winewriter Fiona McDonald (editor of Cheers Magazine) and sommelier Gregory Mutambe of the Twelve Apostles Hotel. Badenhorst, for instance, is an ambassador for the Swartland, where they don’t grow much Pinot Noir, and he seldom serves on panels in wine competitions. Though good to have a winemaker of such high calibre on board, you’d think.

P.S. Elgin’s Richard Kershaw is the only producer to win a Top 5 award every year since the competition was first held in 2020, his Clonal Selection 2017 and 2020 getting the nod in 2020 and 2022, with the 2019 Smugglers Boot pulling it off in 2021.

 

Chamonix Pinot Noir Reserve 2020
R420pb ex-cellar, Franschhoek

Die Kat se Snor Pinot Noir 2019
R285pb ex-cellar, Hemel-en-Aarde

Iona Kroon Pinot Noir 2019
R550pb ex-cellar, Elgin

Kershaw Clonal Selection Pinot Noir 2020
R634pb ex-cellar, Elgin

Oak Valley Groenlandberg Pinot Noir 2021
R280pb ex-cellar, Elgin

 

 

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