Top image caption: Lisa Kollmar, Rolf Zeitvogel and Cathy Lankers
The German wine club, Weinnasen from Rindchen’s Weinkontor Uhlenhorst – Germany did it again in the battle of the blends outsmarting and out-blending 71 other wine clubs to be crowned winner of the annual Blaauwklippen Blending Competition, one of the oldest wine competitions in South Africa now in its 33rd year.
This year received 72 entries in total of which 8 were international and 11 newcomers. Wine clubs were challenged to produce an easy drinking, fruity wine of medium complexity.
This is the first time ever in the 33-year history of the competition that an international wine club wins the competition for the second time with a second time entry!
The battle between the last four standing wine clubs, Business Time from the Western Cape, Howling Wolves from Gauteng, Loerie Wine Gurglers from Mpumalanga and the German Weinnasen from Rindchen’s Weinkontor Uhlenhorst was tougher than ever.
The winning blend of 31% Malbec, 5% Merlot, 37% Shiraz and 27% Zinfandel was announced on 9 September 2016, during a lunch prize giving ceremony at Blaauwklippen Vineyards. The winning blend will be bottled under the Blaauwklippen Barouche label and recognition will be given to the successful wine club on the back label. The label for the winning blend is based on a rare artwork by well-known Stellenbosch artist Frans Groenewald, especially commissioned for this competition. The wine is sold in Magnum bottles from selected retail outlets, the farm’s Tasting Room and online via www.blaauwklippen.com at R159 per bottle.
An additional award, the Newcomer Trophy, was introduced in 2008 by Blaauwklippen to encourage new entries and wine enthusiasts to the competition. This trophy goes to the highest scoring wine of a wine club which has never entered the competition before and this year the honours went to Western Cape wine club, Business Time.
“This triumph by Weinnasen” from Rindchen’s Weinkontor Uhlenhorst – Germany once again gives the Blaauwklippen Blending Competition an international flavour and lends prestige to this hugely popular wine competition,” says Rolf Zeitvogel, MD and cellar master at Blaauwklippen. “Each year we are surprised by the popularity of this battle we created for amateur wine tasters and lovers. I truly believe the art of tasting and blending wines with this mixture of local and international wine lovers takes the stakes even higher. And Blaauwklippen is part of elevating the knowledge and skills of wine lovers across the globe.”
Judges for this year’s competition were Blaauwklippen’ s winemaking team, Rolf Zeitvogel and Narina Cloete, seasoned wine judge and wine buyer for Ultra Liquors, Mark Norrish, popular breakfast DJ Guy Mc Donald, tour guide and wine lover Ligia de Coito and wine judge and journalist Karen Glanfield.
Weinnasen from Rindchen’s Weinkontor Uhlenhorst – Germany won various prizes, including wine, not return airfare- that’s only for domestic flights and accommodation at the Protea Hotel by Marriott Stellenbosch for the weekend of the prize giving, as well as glassware from Vitria.
