According to Johann de Wet, CEO of De Wetshof Estate, winning the trophy for National Champion Chardonnay at the Young Wine Show for a wooded Chardonnay is never an easy task as the wines are judged after only five months in the barrel.
“De Wetshof enters the Young Wine Show due to competition’s legacy of playing an important role in the South African wine industry and to see how our wines from the current vintage match-up to those of our peers,” says De Wet.
“Being awarded the trophy for National Champion Chardonnay for a young wooded Chardonnay is a great surprise, and now that it has sunk in, a proud achievement for us,” he says.
“South Africa is making some of the best Chardonnays in our history and to come out tops among such revered competition is indeed an honour. More importantly, though, is that in general I’d like to see top quality South African Chardonnays from this vintage as this category is of the utmost importance to the image of the industry. A country that can make fine Chardonnay does not have to explain itself in the international market-place. The wine – made from the greatest white grape in the world – does the explaining for you.”
The 2018 vintage, from which the wines entering the Young Wine Show were judged, was known as being one of the driest in decades as it followed on the four-year drought in the Cape Winelands.
“The harvest period itself was surprisingly mild temperature wise, but the vines had taken a hammering due to the ongoing drought,” says De Wet. “It was a true winemaker’s vintage with much skill required in the cellar to get balanced acids and solid pH levels. This award for this wine is hopefully and indication of a quality vintage, although the final product will only be bottled over the next few months.
“Congratulations on all the other producers who were fortunate to collect trophies or wine gold at this year’s Young Wine Show.”
De Wetshof makes five different Chardonnays, each from a vineyard displaying the unique features of a specific site on the estate’s Robertson terroir.