On Thursday afternoon we were invited to attend the annual presentation of the results of the fourth Christian Eedes Cabernet Sauvignon Report, held at Burrata at an unusual 15h30 start time.  Thirteen wines were scored at 90 or more points out of 100, and Waterford Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 was rated the top, out of 60 invited entries.

We were welcomed with a glass of water, and jokingly Christian Eedes opened the proceedings with an explanation for the tableclothless tables, the water we were served, and the pizzas to come.  His former sponsor Sanlam had dropped him, he explained, and hence the austerity of the event.  Having written about this, fan and follower of Christian’s wine evaluations Derek Prout-Jones (DPJ) offered to sponsor the event. DPJ previously worked at Rand Merchant Bank, and handled the bank’s involvement with the WineX Rand Merchant Bank Wine Festival.  DPJ said that South Africa is making world-class wines at competitive prices.

Christian explained that the methodology was similar to that used in the past years, in that the producers of 60 top Cabernet Sauvignon wines were invited to submit their wines for blind evaluation by judges Christian, James Pietersen, and Roland Peens.  One major change was to evaluate the wines on a 100-score scale, instead of selecting the Top 10, as had been done in previous years.  All wines scoring 90 and over were announced a winner, and received a certificate, with the opportunity to buy bottle stickers with the score.

In presenting an overview of the Report, Christian said that grapes for ten of the thirteen top-scoring wines came from Stellenbosch.  Wines of the 2012 vintage did particularly well.  The top 13 wines scoring 90 and more points of 100 were the following:

93 points

Waterford Estate 2012

92 points

Le Riche 2012

91 points

De Trafford 2012

Graham Beck The Coffeestone 2013

Laibach The Widow’s Block 2012

Nederburg II Centuries 2010

Oldenburg 2012

Rust en Vrede Single Vineyard 2012

Vergelegen V 2011

90 points

La Bri Limited Release 2012

Spier Woolworths Reserve 2012

Stark-Conde 2012

Warwick Blue Lady 2012.

I had a good laugh with Nederburg cellar master Razvan Macici, and always tease him about his latest Nederburg TV commercials, with him throwing a number of glasses of wine on the cellar floor in them not being good enough.  Due to feedback received about wastefulness, they have cut out the section of the commercial in which he throws the glasses, and now one just sees him trying one glassful after the other, until he tastes the perfect wine. He demonstrated the movements of grabbing the glasses and then throwing them on the floor. He also told me that there will be no future filming of MasterChef SA at Nederburg, their three-year contract having come to an end.

Chef Stephen du Bruyn, now in charge of the Burrata kitchen, and his team prepared a strong chili Salccia pizza, and on request a non-chili one too, as well as Arancini risotto balls.

We apologise for the poor quality of some of the photographs, it having been a grey wintry day, not helped by Burrata not having very good lighting for photography, especially in the late afternoon.

Christian Eedes Cabernet Sauvignon Report 2015, Twitter: @ChristianEedes @Winemag

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage  Facebook:  click here