Filming in my Pendock Wine Gallery @ Taj this morning with a TV production company turned into a blind tasting audition for an international TV series to be shot later this year. As the cameraman papped, I was poured a glass of white from a green bottle wrapped in brown paper. Feeling like a Company Garden bergie, my opinion:

dry
some age
either wooded or a lot of lees contact
either Chenin or Chardonnay
if from Stellenbosch, then made from bought in grapes
good quality

The wine turned out to be a 2010 Orange River Chardonnay. Quite a curved ball.

Unlike most SA wine critics, I taste a lot of Orange River whites as I’m on the screening panel for the Tops at Spar Orange River Winery of the Year competition but they’re invariably current vintage whites and reds i.e. 2013 tasted in 2013. I quite possibly tasted the 2010 Chardonnay four years ago but when it comes to mature Orange River wines, I’m a novice. But after this morning, I’ll be laying some down as they age beautifully.

What was also sobering was the way I automatically assumed the producer would have sourced a Stellenbosch wine. Confirming that Oak City has a higher prior probability for this taster at least. Well done Orange River Cellars, an appellation and producer to be under-estimated at your peril.