Dave Hughes honoured by Port Producers
Monday, 13 June, 2011
SAPPA
Wine legend, wine writer and wine ambassador Dave Hughes has been honoured by the South African Port Producers' Association (SAPPA) for his contribution to building the image of Port in South Africa and internationally.
The Chairman of SAPPA, Carel Nel, presented Dave Hughes with a certificate of honour at the AGM of SAPPA in Stellenbosch on Thursday, June 2nd and said that Dave is one of the most special people in the South African wine fraternity. “We decided to honour Dave in recognition for his work and commitment to the South African Port Producers’ Association” Carel said.
Accepting this accolade from SAPPA Dave said there is no doubt that the ports made in South Africa have gone from being very good fifteen to twenty years ago to being outstanding and of World class over the past half dozen years or more.
Dave Hughes has been chairman of the tasting panel of the annual SAPPA Port Challenge for many years and has presented South African ports at many tastings overseas.
Dave says that our vintage port wines are accepted as being very good but that our tawnies are considered to be outstanding and many believe them to be better that most commercial Portuguese tawnies.
“The quality of the top producers is now consistently good and probably that consistency cannot be matched by the Portuguese! It is encouraging to note that more and more people are making better ports along the guidelines of the SAPPA”.
“Judging year by year at the SAPPA Championships always fills me full of pride with the ever increasing quality of Vintage and Tawny while rubies are always of great character” Dave added.
SAPPA was formed in 1993 with their main aim to set out guidelines to assist in the definition of the various styles of port. It included what sort of varieties should be used as well as for sugar contents and to what levels fortification should be taken.