The superiority of BYO was confirmed by the results of the Tops at Spar Top Ten Sauvignon Blanc Competition announced last week. When the Good Value Guru and I hit the highway at the end of June, our favourite Sauvy was Adam Mason’s intense Perdeblokke 2007 from Klein Constantia. As we said at the time: “Sauvignon Blanc doubters should push aside their Woolies lasagnas and hasten to Klein Constantia for the Perdeblokke Sauvignon Blanc 2007: capsicum city with green peas and mint on the side and an impressive citrus line someone else called ‘the line of beauty.’ Awesome and affordable at R120. Only less impressive and certainly less expensive at R48 is the KC Sauvignon Blanc 2008.” Alas neither of them made the Spar Top Ten or indeed seem to have even been among the 186 wines entered for the competition.

Could it be the new R200 entry fee caused resistance? It certainly raised eyebrows as Ray Edward’s corporate largesse is rumoured to match his status as liquor executive of the largest liquor retail chain in the land. Was this the reason Abrie Bruwer withheld his duo of benchmarks, the Springfield Life from Stone and Special Cuvée? And where was Pinocchio’s juice – Gottfried Mocke’s wonderful barrel fermented Chamonix Sauvignon was as invisible as Niel Groenewald’s Maverick while Karl Lambour’s fashionable Constantia Glen is fast acquiring the reputation of a Loch Ness Monster – much talked about but rarely seen.

Our other favourite, the Oak Valley 2007, was indeed submitted but languished at 2 stars along with the Nitida 2008 and a brace of Vergelegens. Looks like our comment that the “Oak Valley in Elgin boasts a surprisingly tropical 2007 Sauvignon Blanc with an impressive mineral character, fair value at R69” was a sentiment not shared by the Tops judges. Or were they on a Green Mission? They also didn’t like the Lomond 2008 which US wine importer Taylor Kim and I thought was a stunner after a recent helicopter flip down to Groot Bos but at Tops it languished with a single star. Taylor liked it so much, he bought a few palates so perhaps it would feature if a Sauvignon Safari Six Pack was to be assembled for the export market.