The philosopher Susan Sontag was not wrong when she noted “taste has no system and no proofs.” Nowhere is Su’s point more sharply made than in the results of SA wine competitions. While commentators like yours truly reach for the rafters to describe SA Sauvignon Blanc from the 2009 vintage, the “charismatic” Gallic gourmets of Santam’s Classic Wine Trophy Show deplored the “absence of quality Sauvignon Blanc entries” in their competition earlier this month.

Where was the Sauvignon?

Lawrence Osborne, author of The Accidental Connoisseur (North Point Press, 2004) could have had Su in mind when he told the New York Sun he’s really not a wine writer. He’s actually into norms. “My real subject is the creation of norms, inside ourselves, I mean, not outside” like those proposed by wine competitions, presumably.

Proofs aside, Su did detect “something like a logic of taste: the consistent sensibility which underlies and gives rise to a certain taste” but then it’s not clear if she had SA wine competitions in mind which are typically run for profit by people trying to sell the stuff or advertising space in magazines. The vinous analogue of foxes guarding chicken coops. Which could explain the distinct lack of enthusiasm in testing for special show samples and competition cuvées that gives SA wine competitions the credibility of a presidential election in Zimbabwe.

As Financial Times columnist Patrick Marmion reminded us on the eve of the Academy Awards a few years ago: “in an age of cultural relativism, the creations of pantheons of perceived excellence consecrated by televised ceremonies may be all we can agree on. If so, artificially created league tables must not be allowed to slough off their manmade character, lest they be mistaken for truth.”

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