Maiden vintage scoops big award
2008-11-20
A MAIDEN vintage of the La Vigne wine estate in Franschhoek has scooped the 2008 Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year award in the dry red category. La Vigne is one of the lesser known wineries in Franschhoek, its volumes are relatively small and its label may raise an eyebrow or two. The award went to Ossie Sauermann, whose La Vigne Single Vineyard Shiraz 2007 earned him top honours this year. Bartho van der Westhuizen’s Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 was placed second and Ruani Visser’s Hildenbrand Shiraz 2007 in third place. The winning wine is from the first harvest of three-year-old vines. Producing it was very labour intensive, says Sauermann. Much attention was given to the vines before the grapes were handpicked to produce 3 500 litres, matured in French, Bulgarian and American oak barrels. Intriguingly, La Vigne believes playing music to the wines while in barrel can affect their maturation “in a harmonic way” - the influence, no doubt, of Norwegian owner Robert Jorgensen, a sound engineer - and thus classical music can be heard playing loudly in the cellar 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This also explains the image of a music conductor on the wine’s label. “The Young Winemaker of the Year Award encourages young winemakers to express their individuality and develop their skills, in so doing adding to the innovative and future quality of South African wines,” commented Jane Ledger, Diners Club International’s Regional Manager: Western Cape, on their sponsorship of the annual event. “Ossie Sauermann’s ‘musical wine’ is evidence of this and we congratulate him on winning the Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year Award.” Until recently La Vigne’s total production was sold overseas, mostly to Norway. Now the wines are becoming more widely available on the local market, with the Single Vineyard Shiraz 2007 selling for R185 a bottle. La Vigne’s winning wine was one of 14 Shirazes among the total of 46 entries. The balance comprised of 13 red blends (the majority Bordeaux-style), 6 Pinotages, 3 Cabernet Sauvignons and Grenache. .
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