The top-tier Sauvignon Blanc from Stellenbosch winery Kleine Zalze Wines was the star of the show at this year's Michelangelo International Wine and Spirits Awards, winning the Southern Sun Grand Prix Trophy for the Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2022. This trophy is awarded to the competition's overall top-scoring wine out of the 1 388 wines entered into this year's Michelangelo Awards.
Besides delivering the best wine in the competition, Kleine Zalze also secured four Gold medals, one each for the winery's Vineyard Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2024, Vineyard Selection Chardonnay 2023, Cellar Selection Chardonnay 2024 and Family Reserve Syrah 2020.
A unique feature of the Michelangelo International Wine and Spirits Awards is that the majority of the judges are international drinks experts flown-in especially for the judging procedure. This year's panels comprised 17 international and seven local judges.
Kleine Zalze cellarmaster RJ Botha says the Southern Sun Grand Prix Trophy is the second major award his Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2022 has won this year, the other being the Grand Gold achieved by the same wine at this year's Concours Mondial de Bruxelles.
"It is gratifying to see that this wine is thus not a 'one-hit-wonder', something winemakers inevitably experience some-or-other-time when entering wine competitions," he says. "When the same wine wins two major awards in one year – as is the case with the Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2022 – the true value of wine competitions comes to the fore in underscoring our ability to consistently produce excellent wines."
As chairman of Sauvignon Blanc SA, the collective arm of South Africa's Sauvignon Blanc producers and an admitted Sauvignon Blanc acolyte, Botha describes the Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2022 as "a formidable wine".
"One could already see the potential of that vintage early in the vineyard growing season," he says. "Spring was wet and cool, and bud-break later than usual – but splendidly even. We did some leaf-plucking in December to ensure the ripening bunches were exposed to the correct degrees of sunlight needed for optimal phenolic ripeness."
For the Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2022 grapes were sourced from vineyards in two of the Cape's cool-climate regions, namely Darling and Durbanville, both areas being in close proximity to the bracing Atlantic Ocean.
"We handle the Sauvignon Blanc very reductively, starting with the use of dry ice in the vineyard during harvesting, right through to the fermentation vessels," he says. "50% of the grapes were crushed beneath a CO₂ blanket upon arriving at the cellar and given at least 12 hours skin contact. The other half of the grapes were whole-bunch pressed in the settling tanks. The portion that received skin contact was fermented in stainless steel tanks, while the "whole bunch" portion fermented in new 400l French oak barrels. The wine spent six months on the lees and in barrel before it was blended and bottled."
Botha says the two-year bottle-aging the Kleine Zalze Family Sauvignon Blanc 2022 has undergone would definitely have played a role in the judges' perception of the wine.
"While this wine is beautiful upon release, another year in bottle adds structure and complexity, and I am a firm believer in Sauvignon Blanc's ability to age gracefully, drawing deeper nuances into a mature, complex white wine," he says.
"The meticulous processes followed in the vineyard and in the cellar, as well as maturation in large oak barrels, make the Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2022 a wine for the long haul. While myself and the team are overwhelmed by the way it has performed at wine shows this year, one must just know that the best is yet to come."