The non-award of the “5TH ANNUAL SOUTH AFRICAN WINE WRITERS AWARD” is a scandal with more legs than Oscar Pistorius. In spite of twenty entries received, including one from the 2012 Louis Roederer Wine Columnist of the Year – a prize presumably judged at least in part on his entry in this competition and not because he imports Louis Roderer bubbles into SA as some cynics maintain (thank heavens for blind judging!) – Solomons see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil (below) reached a “unanimous decision this year that not one of the entries lived up to the expected literary and technical qualities of wine writing” according to Franschhoek Literary Festival Director Jenny Hobbs. Up to a point, Lord Copper, up to a point.
All the previous winners entered and so the judges need to explain what went wrong this vintage. Exactly what are the “expected literary and technical qualities of wine writing” anyway? The whole tawdry affair needs to be aired as SA wine writers have been tarred with a very black brush indeed. It’s hard enough to make an honest crust in the SA wine spittoon with unfair competition from WOSA-funded foreign journalists who muscle in with expensive opinions on SA wine at every opportunity.
By making all local wine writers losers without supplying chapter and verse, the FLF damns local wine hackery and has seriously prejudiced their ability to make a living. It is an outrage and something for FLF identities to consider as they masticate their canapés and hi-five each other. SA wine writers are now the laughing stock of well-fed foodistas, pampered travel hacks, petrolheads and lifestyle luvvies. Well done, FLF, for hammering yet another nail into the coffin of SA wine opinion, already in a makeshift mortuary. Producers who collectively spend millions on attempting to get local media to cover their products are unlikely to be best pleased.
Perhaps the FLF should approach their sponsors for cash to cover expected legal costs, for the whole manner in which the affair has been handled is most unprofessional and brings disgrace to Franschhoek and sponsors of the FLF. Perhaps the 20 entrants should each send a letter of demand to the FLF for R25,000 – the value of the prize not awarded.
