The Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Competition remains the most credible wine award in SA and this year’s winner, Bartho Eksteen, was a most popular champion who should have won when the category was white blends but was denied the victor’s laurels my monumental incompetence by the then (since fired) organizers. Anyway, fate would not be denied and Bartho romped home in fine style. I wrote about the competition and its legacy in Signature magazine.

Bartho Eksteen, Sage of Sauvignon Blanc

Happy 30th birthday CNN. Pioneers of 24 hour news reportage repeated on an hourly loop, CNN and imitators Sky, Fox, BBC and Al-Jazeera have revolutionized media in three decades, effectively destroying weekly news magazines like Time and Newsweek and daily newspapers in the process.

In the same way, the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year competition, which also celebrates its 30th birthday, has revolutionized the SA wine scene. Before Diners, people bought Kanu or Kanonkop. Now they buy a Teddy Hall or a Beyers Truter. Personality has trumped terroir and the cult of the winemaker was born. The Cape Winemakers Guild has taken the cult of celebrity winemaking to almost North Korean heights and detached some winemakers completely from the earth, where they float above the vinous landscape like giant helium filled papsakke.

Of course no single person ever made a wine. What about the viticulturalist who tended the grapes? Petrus and Kerneels who picked them? Standard Bank who provided the capital? But then everyone queues to be fed by the Naked Chef and no one cares who raised the pig which supplied the trotter or who picked the cabbage for the sauerkraut. Michelin stars are awarded to people, not places; culinary creativity maximizes with the chef while a winemaker plays the role of Bacchus incarnate.

Diners alumni constitute the most exclusive wine club in SA and some of the biggest names in SA wine are members. From the 1980s: Gunter Brözel who invented Nederburg Edelkeur, an international benchmark among dessert wines; from the 1990s: Gyles Webb who pioneered Banhoek as a quality appellation; from the 2000s: Marc Kent who did the same thing for Franschhoek.

“It’s a life changing experience” announced Pieter “bubbles” Ferreria (2004 laureate) before stripping down to his boxers and diving into the muddy fishpond at Santé Wellness Centre in Paarl where the awards lunch was held, shortly before it went bang.

Carl Schultz (2005 laureate) reported an even more persuasive motivation. “Turnover at Hartenberg increased 20% after I won.” Is the competition still relevant? 93 wines entered for this year’s competition reply in the affirmative. And a 30 year track record is a unique heritage in a rapidly changing industry.

If the past is another country, South Africa was Outer Mongolia back in 1981. Only one airline, a train service and a road with petrol restrictions and stringent speed limits. No petrol between lunch on Saturday and Monday morning and 100 kilometres per hour, strictly enforced.

John Platter’s annual Wine Guide was in its infancy and John was sole taster. Owners and winemakers were formally referred to as Mister or Doctor and there were no lady winemakers – but that was to change and Ronel Wiid became the first (and so far only) female Winemaker of the Year in 1999.

Wine has also changed. There was no Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc was as rare as rocking horse droppings, as was Gewürztraminer and Riesling (the German one). Merlot, Malbec, Grenache and Cabernet Franc had yet to make their debuts and barrel aging in small barrels was in its infancy. The first Bordeaux blends had made their quiet arrivals from Welgemeend Estate (1979) and Overgaauw Tria Corda (1979) before the much heralded Meerlust Rubicon arrived in 1980. Rosé was usually semi-sweet.

Tasting in Constantia was an afternoon’s diversion. After a leisurely lunch at the long lamented Cape Farm Stall on the bend, it was off to the only cellar, Groot Constantia, provided it was open that afternoon. About a dozen wines were available on long trestle tables. All purchases were either take-aways or delivered by the railways. Road transport was still some way off.

But several Constantia farms had already been purchased by visionaries – Klein Constantia was being replanted by the Jooste family and Buitenverwachting was also being renovated and replanted.

In 2010, Constantia requires serious logistics. Eight cellars are now open to the public and even more by appointment only. A day’s tasting comprises nearly 100 different wines depending on availability. No late starts or leisurely lunches any more, and a designated driver is essential.

Stellenbosch remains the centre of the industry. The number of producers has increased greatly. Many were not even a figment of the imagination of the then or future owners. Several now important producers were closed to the public as they had contracts with major wholesalers.

Stellenbosch boasted six co-operatives, all open to the public. Only two remain, Koelenhof and Stellenbosch Hills. Three now exist as Cowpee (The Company of Wine People) but one, Helderberg, was recently sold to Diners laureate Marc Kent’s Boekenhoutskloof. The fourth (Bottelary) was purchased by a Paarl Cellar.

Overgaauw wines were available on some afternoons with purchases made at the garage door by cheque or cash only (no credit cards or EFTs). For several months a year no stock was available. Vergenoegd had wine only available sometime in August, tastings were unusual, and if your order to purchase accompanied by a cheque arrived after the limited stock was sold out, it was returned with a roneod note of apology.

Tasting Stellenbosch is now a daunting proposition with well over 100 producers. Beyond Paarl there were few cellars; the industry was dominated by co-operatives who were warned by merchants that if their wine was sold by on- or off-licenses, they would no longer buy their wine in bulk. As co-ops bottled far less than 10% of the wine they produced, this was no idle threat. Few private producers bottled wine, and for those that did, quantities were limited.

Today producers need to sell their own products to remain afloat and are thus far more consumer orientated. Indeed, wine tourism is a valuable source of revenue for most and the publicity an award like the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year brings cannot be underestimated.

Timeline

The 1980s

The Finlayson brothers own the 80s. Walter scored an inaugural double with Zinfandel followed by Cabernet Sauvignon in 1982. Blaauwklippen still produce Zin, but the varietal never really caught on and it remains a Helderberg anomaly. Younger brother Peter closed the decade with a Pinot Noir, although he has now left Hamilton Russell and moved next door to Bouchard Finlayson. In the mid-eighties, Nederburg cellarmaster Gunter Brözel flexed his German muscles with another double in the shape of Teutonic twins Rhine Riesling and Gewürztraminer.

The 1990s

When Jeff Grier won with Sauvignon Blanc in 1997, the grassy green varietal comprised 4½% of the national vineyard. This year as the cultivar again becomes category, acreage has doubled to 9% and Sauvie is the most popular white tipple in SA.

The decade ended on a controversial note when UK wine authority Jancis Robinson led a panel which chose a Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon as winner of a new category: Cape Blends. Commentators shrieked at the choice of this quintessential Australian recipe. The result was widely seen as a slap in the face of Pinotage producers, who went on to establish SA’s unique red cultivar as the linchpin of the official Cape Blend.

The 2000s

Transparency of the selection process was the main innovation of the noughties with downside several public spats over winners and the way they were chosen. But then controversy is the hallmark of a vibrant industry, one which judges a Diners Club accolade well worth fighting for.

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