In the old SA, after a blind tasting of 98 Sauvignon Blancs as happened yesterday, the tasting report would conclude that the six “best” wines were
Bouchard Finalyson Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2010 R117.00 17.60
Jordan Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R81.50 17.10
First Sighting Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R64.00 17.00
Tierhoek Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R60.00 16.90
Secret Cellar Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R33.00 16.90
Chamonix Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R70.00 16.80
with the wine listed followed by the retail price and average judges’ score out of 20. A case of the best would set you back R425.50 or about the price of a bottle of Cloudy Bay from New Zealand.
And while its boaters off to Peter Finlayson and the team at Bouchard Finlayson, the feature that attracts this consumers eye is that the Secret Cellar wine is one quarter of the price and only 0.7 “worse.” So if we sort the prices from R28 to R185 and do ditto with the scores from 12 to 17.6, we can read the value of a wine in Rands from the graphs below.
The value case then become
Secret Cellar Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R33.00 16.90
Darling Cellars Reserve Bushvine Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R31.95 16.50
Slanghoek Private Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R34.50 16.50
First Sighting Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R64.00 17.00
Rooiberg Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R32.50 16.50
Tierhoek Sauvignon Blanc 2013 R60.00 16.90
At a total cost of R255.95 or half the price of six of the best.
The Secret Cellar sells for R33 a bottle, but has a quality value of R136 so it is trading at an incredible discount of R103. Something Ultra Liquors might like to advertise as this wine is their own label and only Mark Norrish knows for sure what is inside. Not that the Bouchard Finlayson is not a good buy – it may cost R117 a bottle but it’s worth R171 based on the competition.
Of course these quality values are as good as the judging panel (above), which in this case was chaired by Winnie Bowman, ably assisted by Karin Visser who used to run the French Toast wine bar in the Bo Kaap and sommelier Tom Magara. As a check on consistency, wine #2 reappeared as #51 and the scores were 15.6 and 15.8 respectively. An incredible performance denied Platter as they taste with the labels in full view in order to get the “right answer.”
First Sighting and Secret Cellar appear in both lists and look like the wines to go for.
Imagine a Secret Cellar wine getting five Platter puttonyos! Never mind the veil of the temple being rent in two and darkness passing over the land, anoraks would shred into smithereens and the wailing would be heard from Pinelands to Claremont. “Let it come down” as the first murderer said to Banquo.
