They’re changing guards at Pinotage Palace. The news was relayed by Absa bank at their Top Ten function this afternoon: Stellenbosch had only two wines in the Top Ten (Danie Steytler’s Kaapzicht 2007 and a University of Stellenbosch wine called Die Laan 2008 that was 10% Petit Verdot) while some of the biggest names in the Pinotage Pantheon were conspicuous by their absence from the Top Twenty: Beyerskloof, Kanonkop, Stellenzicht, Neethlingshof, Simonsig… and I tasted the Simonsig Red Hill last week with the Good Value Guru and we agreed that its intense small berry flavours made it a benchmark. How wrong can you be?

Fairview made the Top Ten with the “simplest” (and cheapest) wine in their line-up of three, from vintage 2009, the same age as Etienne Louw’s wine Altydgedacht, also a Top Ten Triumph. Which Confirmed owner Ollo Parker’s contention that he has much more competition success with young fruity wines than his older, more mature and complex offerings. In fact when the stunning 2003 vintage Pinotage was slow to move, he declassified it down to dry red rather than let it mature and become an older wine with a more subtle appeal.

Ollo Parker

My bet (based on video testimony) is that foreign judge David Molyneux-Berry, groovy British Master of Wine with a pigtail, persuaded the panel to reward young and fruity wines like Wilhem de Vries’ Koelenbosch 2008 – a steal at R42 – and the three Top Twenty wines made in the Diemersdal cellar of Thys Louw, including the magnificent Maastricht, a wine the European parliament should love. The bright red cherry flavour profile of Durbanville seems to be far more popular with Dave and his fellow diviners than the blackberry and prune flavours of Stellenbosch.

Best quote of the day came from Pietman Retief who quoted winemaking legend Giorgio Dalla Cia on the observation that he has now lived in SA for longer than he lived in Italy. “In England, you are what you are. In SA, you is what you is.”

Hats off to Rooiberg Winery winemaker André Scriven, the only person to pick the same Top Ten lineup as Dave and his Diviners out of the Top Twenty lineup. His own wine did not make the cut, so for the first time in history, a winemaker did not vote for his own wine in a sighted tasting. Saying something about sighted tastings, but after several bottles of excellent Pinotage, I am not sure what.

André Scriven

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