Double gold for Zorgvliet maiden Petit Verdot vintage

Tuesday, 26 October, 2004
Peridot Communications
The Zorgvliet wine estate located in the beautiful Banhoek Valley outside Stellenbosch added another accolade to their rapidly growing collection when their maiden vintage 2003 Silver Myn Petit Verdot received a double gold at the prestigious Veritas Awards. This is only the second Petit Verdot to score a double gold in the 14-year history of the competition.

World-renowned wine experts evaluated more than 1500 entries at the 2004 Veritas Awards and only 47 double gold medals were awarded. A double gold Veritas medal is awarded only if a wine scores 17 or more out of twenty points.

In total Zorgvliet received eight medals, including a gold for the Silver Myn Cabernet Franc 2003, four silver and two bronze medals. According to Zorgvliet winemaker Bruwer Raats, they are delighted with this result as it once again shows the consistently high quality of Zorgvliet's wines.

"Petit Verdot is a particularly difficult cultivar and does not have a natural fruity finish. We had to add a bit of merlot to lift the fruit definition of the wine and were very happy with this elegant red. This was the first year that we used the grapes and we were satisfied that it was good enough to bottle the Petit Verdot. The wine has a huge intensity on the pallet with a finish that lasts forever," mentions Raats.

The Silver Myn range currently sports a screw cap and was the first Zorgvliet wines to be bottled with this type of closing mechanism. "I hope that the double gold will finally dispel the misconception that only poor quality wines are bottled with screw caps," mentions Raats.

For more information, visit our website on www.zorgvliet.com

Issued by PERIDOT COMMUNICATIONS
On behalf of THE ZORGVLIET GROUP OF COMPANIES

For further information, please contact Ronelda Visser on
083 2733984.