With the Platter Guide now betrothed to Diners Club, two Platter pundits have hit the airwaves speculating that Marc Kent will join the elite of the elite and win the much sought after Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Award for a second time on Saturday night.
Cathy Marston blogged last night already “Surprise of the year has to be no 5 Stars for Boekenhoutskloof after their stellar year last year when they had three 5 Star wines, Superquaffer of the Year and were named Winery of the Year. Apparently there were nominations for 5 stars but the wines for some reason didnt make it through the blind tasting. Lets hope Marc Kent reaps consolation from the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year competition this weekend instead!”
Bet Marc is wishing the Platter five star process was blind to minimize such negative publicity. Heck, the last time he won Diners there was much media hysteria about seeded players and deus ex machinae bursting into the final from the heavens. It’s really not fair to tarnish awards with administrative snaffus. Marc and SA wine deserve better.
Christian Eedes, who presided over the biggest Diners scandal of them all in his brief reign at the late, lamented Wine magazine seems to concur with Cathy on a Whalecottage blog this morning “It would appear that Franschhoek’s reputation as the best wine destination in South Africa will receive another boost on Saturday, when it is likely that Marc Kent of Boekenhoutskloof will be announced as the 2012 Diner’s Club Winemaker of the Year, judging by the posters on lamp posts throughout the village, announcing that ‘Franschhoek home to the Diner’s Club Winemaker of the Year 2012‘, without mentioning his name. Kent is the only finalist from Franschhoek. Discussing this with Christian Eedes at the Platter function, he expressed his disappointment, in saying that it takes the ceremony out of the award evening if the result is known up front.”
Are these two Platter potentates whistling past the graveyard or do they know something we don’t? Not even those of us who judged the competition know the answer, such is the merit and towering beauty of blind tastings.
