Proving a connection between the 3rd US president Thomas Jefferson and Cabernet Sauvignon is great for terroir. Just ask German pop impresario turned wine dealer Hardy Rodenstock (born Meinhard Görke) who fooled the upper echelons of the Mondovino with fake bottles of 18th century claret engraved with the initials Th.J; property of Thos. purportedly discovered in a bricked-up Parisian cellar the location of which Hardy refused to divulge.

How Hardy fooled that UK wino of mega-gravitas, Michael Broadbent, is recounted in the surprise best seller by Benjamin Wallace The Billionaire’s Vinegar (Crown, 2008) although I bet his female opposite number, Jancis Robinson, is hoping that her plush book of tasting notes lost after a lavish multi-day Rodenstock tasting marathon (of impossibly old and most likely fake wines) recounted in her autobiography, stays lost.

Jancis was foreign judge for the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Competition exactly a decade ago. This year the foreign judge remains British, retailer John Avery. The election was won by Rust en Vrede winemaker Coenie Snyman with his Rust en Vrede 2007 Cabernet. The bottle has excellent Th.J credentials with the back label, a Jefferson gem: “I think it is a great error to consider a heavy tax on wines as a tax on luxury. On the contrary, it is a tax on the health of our citizens.” Johann Rupert could not have put it better and Th.J certainly brings back class to back labels, one of which has “don’t walk in the road, you might get killed” as approved health warning.

Coenie Snyman

Coenie admits he’s not too au fait with US presidents and recounts how golfers kept coming up to his Fancourt partner asking for an autograph, leaving exactly which retired US president he was partnering, hanging delicately in the air. Dave Hughes – “SA’s best wine friend” to quote Beyers Truter – was competition convener and the usual confusion of rigged judging and insufficient stock that ruined the competition for the last couple of years, was mercifully absent. In fact with 42 000 bottles of Cuvée Coenie in stock, there is an embarrassment of riches for R&V owner Jean Engelbrecht.

117 entries were submitted to the competition, the most prestigious in SA and the oldest, with Coenie emerging as the 29th DCWotY. This is the third time Cabernet Sauvignon has defined the category, the previous tourneys having been won by Walter Finlayson (1982) and Gyles Webb (1996). Which made Gyles (along with KWV winemaker Johan Fourie and Paarl restaurateur Marc Friedrich) eminently qualified to chair a screening panel which reduced the 117 entries to 63 finalists. From 63, a shortlist of 6 emerged, producing one clear winner.

Of course Coenie’s R&V has little in common with a real Jefferson claret, being unmistakably Saffer (as the UK wine writing fraternity refer to SA winemakers when they’re not complaining of “burnt rubber” reds). For starters, with a declared alcohol level of 15%, this is no effete European. The flavours are pretty Cape Floral Kingdom (fynbos) too, with spice and herbs and tobacco notes and those “gritty tannins” (thanks, Pieter Ferreira) you get from Helderberg koffieklip. But thankfully no coffee (or rubber either) from oak barrels. Which might cost it a few plaudits in the $99-a-year purple pages of Jancis Robinson’s site, judging by the tasting notes for 25 Saffer Pinotages posted recently and echoed for free on the Grape communal blog.

I asked Coenie for a farm price and he suggested R135 – although I expect his knowledge of retail pricing is probably even rustier than his recall of US presidents. Coenie is a popular winner. He debuted on the local radar screen as cellar master at Fleur du Cap, a jewel in the crown for the largest SA wine corporate, Distell. Coenie’s wife Caroline is business director for the Distell spirits division, confirming the Snymans as the golden couple for SA Drink de nos jours.

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