Backsberg

So, I just got back from a trip to the US of A and I am frantically catching up on all the news. Naturally, all the good news breaks when I am away! There are a couple of items definitely worth mentioning: we picked up a Winemakers’ Choice Diamond award for our Klein Babylonstoren 2005, a Michelangelo Gold medal for our John Martin Sauvignon Blanc 2009 and for the second year in a row we picked up a Mail and Guardian Greening the Future award, this year for Agriculture (to read more about it click here). Okay, enough naked self-promotion.

The Winemakers’ Choice Awards, as you might guess, are judged exclusively by winemakers. In that respect, I think it’s quite a novel wine competition with much merit. That being said, there isn’t always a straight line between what winemakers judge to be worthy of an award and what consumers enjoy. And yet interestingly, the organisers have added on a consumers’ section to the awards this year as well. As far as I can see, that is going to be a function of value for money after the winemaker filter. This should be an interesting result.

The Michelangelo International Wine Awards heads off in a different direction by having almost exclusively foreign judges on the tasting panels. The thinking is to provide not only an indication of top wines, but also wines which should fare well in international markets.

On the green front there seems to have been something of a proliferation of green-related awards of late, but I reckon the Mail and Guardian Greening the Future Awards are one of the most rigorous, both in terms of the entry and the judging.

I hope the above explanation was useful. Please do come out to the farm and taste for yourself. You can see the full results of each of the competitions here, here and here. Congrats to all those that did well. SB

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This post was written by:

Simon Back- who has written 51 posts on the Back Chat Blog. After finishing up studying economics at UCT in 2007, Simon has joined his family wine farm, Backsberg. When he is not trying to figure out what marketing wine means, he is authoring his blog, Back Chat.

Author's web site: Backsberg

Read more in Environment, Featured, Wine.

Last 3 posts by Simon Back

• Backsberg wins Sustainability Award at The Drinks Business Green Awards - February 28th, 2010
• Ship direct to Europe- affordably! - February 28th, 2010
• 10 questions for the man in charge of the Sydney Back Brandy - January 28th, 2010