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KZN's first WO Sauvignon Blanc wins Swiss
Airline award
Nottingham Road - KwaZulu-Natal’s
first certified Sauvignon Blanc hit the headlines on the weekend by scooping
a bronze medal at the Swiss Airlines International Gourmet festival, less
than a week after it received it’s official certification as the first white
wine made from grapes grown in the province.
Only two of the 29 Sauvignon Blanc’s received awards from the panel of nine
judges, the majority of which were international wine experts. The other
Sauvignon Blanc to get the nod from the judges came from the Backsberg
Estate.
“We are thrilled to bits!’ said The Stables winemaker Tiny Van Niekerk.
“This recognition against an entry that includes a lot of very big name
Western Cape wine estates makes it a red letter day for the KZN wine
industry.”
“It has been a labour of love to get this Sauvignon Blanc to certification,
and to get an award less than a week after it was certified as a KZN Wine of
Origin is a dream come true,” Van Niekerk added.
The Stables Sauvignon Blanc goes against the popular trend in creating this
popular wine as it is unfiltered and unfined, which results in a distinctive
cloudiness to the wine.
“We were thrilled to hear that a comparison was made to the classic “Cloudy
Bay” Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough in New Zealand,” said Van Niekerk. “We
feel passionately about making our Sauvignon in this style, as it is in line
with our philosophy of making truly natural and unprocessed wines.”
At the award ceremony The Stables scooped two further awards for their range
of Sharks wines, at the same time as the Sharks were beating the Stormers
less than two kilometres away from the banquet function. The Sharks Raggie
Red Blend, which is 97% Pinotage, won a Seal of Approval, while the popular
Zambezi Pink rose won a bronze medal.
The Stables Shiraz won a Seal of Approval at last year’s Swiss Airlines
awards, the first award for the fledgling winery outside Nottingham Road.
However, the Sauvignon Blanc medal is an even larger milestone, as it is the
first award for a wholly KwaZulu-Natal grown and made wine, as the early
vintages of wine from The Stables were made using grapes grown in the Cape,
while their own vines were establishing at their farms in Nottingham Road
and Greytown.
Around 300 of the 600 wines entered for the prestigious Swiss Airline awards
were awarded medals by the nine judges. “The Swiss Airline awards are a truly international showcase for
our wines,” Van Niekerk added. “It is a blind tasting by a panel of
international experts that is able to judge each wine on it’s merits. There
were also a number of wine buyers from abroad there as well.”
The Stables made history last year when their Pinotage Clariet Blanc de Noir
won the certification as the KwaZulu-Natal’s first Wine of Origin, a year
after KwaZulu-Natal was recognised as a wine growing region by the South
African Wine Information Service (SAWIS).
For more information please contact
Judy or Ty on 033 266 6781 or by email on
info@stableswine.co.za
ENDS
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