It’s payback time
It’s payback time. Sometimes you it just feels good when you get paid back! And the only real way of “payback” beside of a big happy customer smile is an award for all your hard work over the years. It needs to have years of experience in the vineyards [the right pruning, general maintenance, irrigation etc.] and in the cellar [harvesting at the perfect time, condition as well the right fermentation and maturation process] to achieve what you had in mind. You need to speak the language of wine to be able to work as a team together.
Over the last period of time we recently received three awards. The third one is not the type of honor that you just stick on the bottle and put it on shelve. It is slightly different. Why is different? Because it is the only award, that leaves thousands of miles behind it and meets another thousands of people from all over the globe on a daily bases without actually leaving South African territory. Well, I suppose you got my point. Let’s make a long story short. Our Seidelberg Rose 2009 is flying at the Business Class section at South African Airlines Company. The wine is a blend of Red Muscadel and Malbec. The grapes received 12 hours skin contact to extract some of the Muscat character before pressing and settling. The different components were blended during the last week of March 2009, after which the wine was stabilized prior to bottling. Delicate rose pink in colour with light orange reflection. A bouquet of raspberry and wild strawberries with some spicy undertones and Muscat flavours, full bodied and a taste of honey with a harmonious long refreshing aftertaste.
The second awards is not new for our local wine drinkers, but new for our overseas wine lovers and it wasn’t spread out to the Blog community yet. So here we go, Seidelberg is extremely excited to announce that our SB Chenin Blanc 2009 won 1ST place at this year’s Shiraz/Chenin Challenge. This success follows our 1st place at last year’s competition for our Roland’s Reserve Syrah 2006. The wine is the result of a fantastic 2009 harvest. I will be honest with you our Chenin Blanc 2009 is in my opinion better compared to one of the older vintages, which has got also a lot to do with the different climate conditions that the vineyards were influenced by. The grapes come from the oldest producing vineyard on the farm. Reasonably cool ripening conditions allowed us to pick very ripe and resulted in a very expressive nose of pineapple and guava. It also has some good length and body on the palate.10% of this wine was fermented in new hogshead French oak barrels and another 10% in second fill barrels. You have to try the 2009 vintage as soon as it will be released over in Europe. I will let you know when the first containers will arrive, so you can straight go for a Chenin ride and some delicious freshly grilled tiger prawns topped on garden greens with a mango and pineapple salsa and freshly sliced avocados. Doesn’t this just sound yummy? Oh yeah, it does! … I suppose December is going to be the “Chenin” month overseas.
Who of you loyal Blog-followers had tried the Roland’s Reserve Pinotage or/and the Rolands Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon already? That leads us to the last awards – the Mundus Vini awards. Seidelberg took part in the 2009 MUNDUSvini Great International Wine Awards. It is the most important wine competition in Germany. Over 5700 wines from 44 countries were judged by the international jury. Roland’s Reserve Pinotage 2007 was awarded with a gold medal and the Rolands Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 with a silver. As a result of a fantastic harvest from both vintages, the wines are made from our own selected vineyards parcels, each with a unique character and carefully managed during the growing season. This allowed us to pick very ripe berries and to produce these complex wines. The Pinotage and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were made only from the best Pinotage grapes of the 2006 and 2007 vintage. The vineyards are monitored throughout the growing season to see which will produce the best quality for the Reserve range. 60% of the grapes were fermented in open fermentation tanks and 40% in normal tanks. The Pinotage and the Cabernet Sauvignon spent 18 months in 300 liter barrels.
Well guys, you know what popped up in my mind just now as well beside our award winning wines, do you usually go for awards in general? Let’s be very honest about it and imagine one scenario. You’re standing in front of a shelve in a wine store and first of all you don’t have a clue about the wine, second the only light-object that catches your intention are some silver, gold shining awards. Do you go for it?
November 24th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Congratulations to your awards. I will try to taste the Pinotage this weekend. Maybe I can send some notes even though I am not good at it.
Regarding my buying decisions, I have to admit that I do not even know all these awards e.g. Meininger? The only award/poinnts that are known to me are Parker Points. Unfortunately I seldom can afford these wines and this guy also doesn´t judge all wine countries.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I agree with you, Robert.
You are right, if you say, that an award on a bottle wine in a store with a huge offering is a decisive factor to buy it. If you have no idea about it, it could be really important to have a little “recommondation”…
It is the best instore advertising for you!
I am very excited to try the CB 2009! It sounds yummy!
November 25th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Wow, congratulation for your “three” awards. I’m sure, that the Gold and Silver medals are really reflecting your hard work and your enthusiasm you putting in your wine. And they will encourage you to work even harder next year as the runner-ups will also try to catch the first places next year.
But personally I think the wine on the plane this is a really great thing. It will be served to thousands of people every day traveling from here to there and for sure they will love what they get to comfort their trip.
Regarding your question about buying wines with silver medal stickers on it, I have to give you a twofold answer yes and no: yes when I’m shopping in an unknown wine or liquor store, I rather look for award winning wines instead of asking someone I don’t know, and no, if I shop local at my wine store, where I knew the guy and his recommendations.
November 26th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Hey Robert,
It’s great to hear about the awards. I know with anything, but I can imagine especially in the field of wine and winemaker, where so much time and effort from the fields to the cellar is invested in a wine, that once you are recognized in such a special way, it is always a great feeling…And always an inspiration to do better!
Your new wines sound really great. Although I can’t see myself flying to S.A. in business class in the near future, I will definitely keep my eyes open for it on the shelfs here! The Rolands Reserve Cabernet and Chenin Blanc sounds particularly delicious!
Keep up the good work!….
November 26th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Hi Robert,
Congratulations! The combination of red muscadel and malbec sounds delicious. I don’t think there could be a better combination for a rose wine!
I havn’t had the opportunity to really get to know Chenin Blanc, but now that you mention it, it will be first on my list!
Regarding the medals, It is definitely something that i use in picking out a wine in which i don’t know about.
November 29th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Ich wünsche euch weiterhin viel Erfolg bei den Awards, auch wenn mich die Qualität eurer Weine sowieso überzeugt !
November 29th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Oh, what a pity, I forgotten to say, CONGRATULATIONS!!
Sorry… its really fantastic that you won these awards!
Keet at it!
November 30th, 2009 at 11:42 am
@Robert: I agree Robert, award play a very important role on people’s choice at the first sight. But it depends on the situation. If I know the winery I do not really pay attention to the blink blink medals. I guess everyone of us has an individual opinion on that.
Anyway: Keep up doing a fantastic work!:-)
December 1st, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Hi there! I am one of loyal Blog followers who have indeed tried the Roland’s Reserve Pinotage and can only verify that it truely earns the awards…
Notably I have recently discovered a great book: “Wein” by André Dominé, a 928 pages wine guide to all (really all!) wine regions in the world and guess what…In the South Africa section (page 771), Seidelberg is one of the few recommended winemakers of the region, and not surprisingly, Roland’s Reserve Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage are the author’s favourites:)
By the way for any other wine lovers out there, the book is fantastic in particular for people like me, namely wine lovers who are not experts. The book has an introduction chapter on history and wine making before introducing the specials for each country…
December 1st, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Heya Robert, congrats!! It seems you are getting the recognition from both ends - the exclusive wine experts at wine tastings - and a global business trying to satisfy thousands of thirsty customers every day
Just one question, what the heck does it mean “the grapes received 12 hours of skin contact”? Isn’t that going a bit too far in preparing fine vintage?
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Hey, great to hear! Good job!
….Mango and Pineapple…..that sounds like a winning combo of aromas in a wine! I can’t wait!
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Wow, thats cool that your wines won above all those thousands of others at that competition in Germany. Respect!
Are these wines available in the US?
Thanks
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I’m wondering if you got any respond from plane passengers, who enjoyed your wine? I will definitely ask the stewardess for the winery the next time I enjoy a wine in the sky
cheers
December 4th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Hi guys, I just had a look at the results of mundus Vini, is the Pinotage really at 135 €/bottle ? If this is the case, I have to wait a bit longer for drinking it one day at a really special occasion.
http://database.meininger.de/database/mundusvini/wein_expertise.php?ind=172212&SID=6f1622e5943cbf1db698de3db5f4f75c
December 6th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I did not taste the award winning wines mentioned above but i drank the Reserve Shiraz 06 today for lunch. There is also a gold medal of the michelangelo awards added to the label. i do not know whether this Michelangelo award is relevant to any wine specialist , but the wine is great. Sweet flavours of cherry and dark berries , some fresh hints of menthol? all in all long finish.
December 8th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Where can I get this Reserve Shiraz 2006!?
@ Martina: “Wein” is a wonderful book for wine lovers and André Dominés recommendations are always fantastic. And the best thing is, it costs only about 30 euros.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
hi robert,
the rolands reserve cabernet sauvignon 2006 is really a winning experience in every respect. one can taste all the efforts that have been made to create this exceptional wine - i fully agree. but please don’t take it personal that i really disagree about december becoming high season for chenin blanc here in germany. now that the temperature is falling finally, my general demand for a fine red wine such as the rolands reserve is rising reciprocally. but i’m sure that there will be still enough occasions to open a bottle of excellent white wine such as the highly awarded sb chenin blanc. even if you consider that all ingredients of your food recommendation taste sooo much better in south africa. what a pitty that tiger prawns still do not grow in the baltic sea!
anyway, i’m looking forward to give the seidelberg chenin blanc 2009 a warm welcome in germany!
@paul:
are you thinking about robert having a 12-hour-bath with the grapes?
keep up doing your great work at seidelberg - and you will certainly harvest even more awards!
December 9th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
@Martina: I have to say that “Wine” from A. Dominé is also one of my favorite wine books. Its very thorough, and gives great descriptions of the great wine world. It was through this book that i was also able to learn more about South African wines, and discover more about Seidelberg and their wines. Definitely a recommendation!
December 11th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
reading about those wine books.
Are there other books around, maybe focusing on South African wine?
December 12th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
@Dirk: A really fantastic book is “South African Wines” written by Wendy Toerien. If you have no wishes for Christmas, put this book on your list. It will be worth for you!
December 16th, 2009 at 10:21 am
hey robert, congrats! Going to try the Roland’s Reserve Pinotage 2007 in the next couple of weeks. Greatings from hamburg