Double honours for Fleur du Cap Merlot abroad
Friday, 8 December, 2000
Jackie Thirion
Success in Canada.
Fleur du Cap Merlot has won top honours in two prestigious wine competitions abroad: the Intervin and Ottawa Food and Wine Show. Both these competitions are held annually in Canada.
Fleur du Cap Merlot 1997 won Gold at the Intervin Competition, which annually attracts entries from the foremost wine producers across the globe.
The wines are subjected to stringent tests and to quality for a Gold Medal, a wine must attain a minimum of 90 points out of a possible 100. FDC was one of only three South African wines to achieve this feat.
Hot on the heels of this came news of more glory for Merlot. At the Ottawa Wine and Food Show, FDC Merlot 1998 was awarded Gold - the only South African entry to win a medal in this competition, in which top wine-producers from all over the world participate. The panel consisted of no less than 30 experts, who judged 437 wines, ports and whiskies entered. Fleur du Cap Merlot 1988 evidently pleased the experts and won Gold in its category.
Behind every successful there is, of course, a winemaker. And the winemaker, in this case, is clearly on a roll. Coenie Snyman, by harvesting yet two more Golds has now brought his personal tally to three this year, having already won Gold for his Fleur du Cap Cabernet Sauvignon. This is an unfiltered wine and part of a unique range of white and red unfiltered wines produced by The Bergkelder.