Beaumont Winemaking Challenge

Sebastian and Jayne Beaumont of Beaumont Wines in Bot Rivier have been instrumental in arranging a winemaking competition between Cellar Rats Wine Tasting Club and their old - excuse the pun - adversaries, VATS.  Each year 80-100 kilograms of grapes are trucked up from Beaumont for each team. Beaumont supplies each team with a bag of goodies including 2 yeasts, SO2 , yeast nutrient, and tartaric acid.  If desired, the wine may be wooded using oak chips (also supplied). Each team is to submit 50 bottles of wine for judging. Judging takes place in Sept/Oct.

Beaumont Challenge Past Years' Winners 2009 - Not yet judged 2008 - Cellar Rats Shiraz 2007 - VATS Shiraz 2006 - VATS Shiraz 2005 - Cellar Rats Pinotage 2004 - Cellar Rats Pinotage 2003 - Cellar Rats Pinotage 2002 - VATS Pinotage 2001 - Cellar Rats Pinotage 2000 - VATS Pinotage 1999 - VATS Pinotage 1998 - VATS Pinotage

The 2010 Vintage

Once again we descended on Rudi's house to make wine. A brief but frenetic destalking took place and all the grapes were soon being crushed underfoot. A few whole bunches were kept back and crushed separately. The juice started at 24B and fermentation took place immediately we added the yeast. The grapes were in jolly good condition (thanks to the Beaumont's for supplying them and to VATS for arranging delivery!). We hope we don't let the fruit down!

The 2009 Vintage

Thanks to Rudi for letting us abuse his hospitality during the winemaking this weekend. Everything went well and a great time was had by all, with most people getting involved in the destalking & crushing of the grapes.

According to Rudi the Kakhuis Syrah 2009 is “fermenting like a steam train”, which is great news.

Thanks to all of you who came along and participated!

Click to see the pics

The 2008 Vintage

1.      Beaumont 2004 Shiraz (“palate cleanser”)

2.      2008 Kakhuis Syrah (CELLAR RATS) – 14.6 ave

3.      2008 Vulture Peak Shiraz (VATS) – 13.3 ave

4.      2007 Temerity Shiraz – 13.1 ave

5.      2007 Vulture Peak Shiraz (VATS) – 14.0 ave

6.      2008 Luddite Shiraz – 15.0 ave

7.      2008 Beaumont Shiraz – 14.4 ave

8.      2008 Gabriels Kloof Shiraz – 15.9 ave

The fact that our average scores for the “local” wines have climbed out of the 12’s and into the 13’s/14’s indicates how far we have come with our winemaking. Roll on the 2009 season!

Click on a pic below for a larger image

The 2007 Vintage

Thanks to Sebastian Beaumont for a wonderful evening. As always, he went to an enormous amount of effort to put together a tasting of seven 2007 Shiraz, ranging from co-op to boutique.

The Rats "Siberian Hamster Shiraz" and the VATS "Vulture Peak Shiraz" were included in the blind tasting but were spotted quite easily amongst their more pedigreed peers.

Having said that, the VATS wine was quite drinkable, especially towards the end of the evening ;~)

Although Sebastian awarded both club wines the same score (13 points), the Rats wine was too acidic and showed acetone on the nose, so the VATS wine was declared the winner (and quite rightly so!)

Thanks to Ian for all his hard work preparing and cooking a 100 burgers; no mean feat! They were delicious, and went well with the wine that flowed after the tasting.

Finally, thanks to everyone who helped with the Rats winemaking effort. We're getting better, but we still have some way to go.

Congratulations VATS! - Here's looking forward to next year!

The 2006 Vintage

VATS won this year's Beaumont Winemaking Challenge, making the score 5-4 in their favor.

A great evening was had by all, as can be seen from the pics
(www.vats.co.za/images/Shiraz Competition 2006 - Thanks to Mike Stokes).

Adam Jephson, a local winemaker and "sometimes-Rat" did rather well with his informal entry. His Shiraz, made from grapes grown near Fourways, received the second highest score of all the 2006 Shirazes tasted, being beaten only by the 2006 Beaumont Shiraz.

Unfortunately, despite the TLC provided by our budding winemakers (mainly Sarah & Ian), our wine was badly oxidized. If you could get it past your nose it did have good structure, but getting it past your nose was difficult. Sebastian Beaumont was kind enough to spend an hour chatting to us, pointing out where we went wrong this time. Thanks to Ian & Claire for allowing us to abuse their house during the whole winemaking process!

Thanks to Reinhold & Dave from VATS for cooking up some lovely Prego rolls ... Much appreciated!

And of course, a HUGE thanks to the good folk from Beaumont - Sebastian, Ariane, Jayne & Raoul - for allowing us this great opportunity to attempt to make wine again!

Thanks also to all the Cellar Rats and assorted hangers-on who pitched in to help with the destalking, crushing, cooking & drinking that marks the beginning of the "harvest".

Finally, a big "thank you" to Sophi who designed our fantastic label; this is our most professional label to date!

Here's to the 2007 vintage!
 

The 2005 Vintage  (We won!!! ... Again)

The 2004 Vintage  (We won!!!)

Click to download the Pinotage Tasting Notes

The grapes arrived on Thursday 18 March and were in excellent condition, with no powdery or downy mildew. On Sun 21 March, despite the brooding rain clouds, approx. 25 Cellar Rats arrived for the wine making party. As usual, the tedious process of destalking the berries was lubricated with small but frequent sips of wine, and soon we were ready for the first pressing.

Everyone took a turn at pressing the grapes underfoot, including big Mike Burke who could only fit one of his size-13's into the barrel at a time, and Laura who was one toenail shy of a sock-full but still pressed on monopedally.

Soon we had about 90 litres of juice and skins, which was then divvied up between 4 barrels to begin the fermentation process. Sarah and Alex inoculated with the yeast supplied and stirred each barrel.

Lids were applied to the barrels and the serious task of braaing & jacuzzi'ing began in earnest. More wine, port & muscadel flowed, and any fears of South Africa's wine lake bursting it's banks was temporarily allayed. As has become the custom, the last few Rats had to be removed from the jacuzzi with a crowbar around midnight.

Fermentation started slowly due to the cool temperatures (it had rained much of the night) ,but as of today (Tues 23rd) the barrels are happily gurgling away.

The wine will undergo fermentation for the next few days, after which it will be racked (skins, pips, pulp and dead yeast cells removed) and allowed to stand until the bottling.

For those who are interested, the analysis of the grapes & must follows:

• Hygrometer Reading of the juice – 1.088
• Grapes were picked at 23,6º Balling
• Grape acid was ph 3,56 with TA of 4,25 g/L

Thanks to everyone who arrived to help us ... without you all it would be no fun at all!

Click to download the Pinotage Tasting Notes

The 2003 Vintage

This year's grape-crushing went extremely well, despite the rain which tried to dampen our spirits. The rain kept the fickle & faint-hearted away so we were short 15 people or so, but no matter ... more space in the Jacuzzi later! The 20 or so who arrived did a fantastic job and had great fun plucking the Pinotage berries from the bunches and rolling up trouser legs to crush the grapes underfoot in the age-old tradition.

The day began at 11h00 with the committee getting together to wash and sterilize all the buckets and implements .... Thanks to Keith for arriving early and pitching in. While this was going on Sarah mixed the SO₂ solution to be poured on the grapes, whilst Alexandra cheered on her yeast culture.

Once the crowd, who had trickled in, had enough berries in buckets we began the sticky but enjoyable task of turning grapes into grape juice by foot. Despite much bleating by the bigger-footed members, they still managed to squeeze into the moderately sized bucket and churn out a few litres.

This year it was decided to crush only 2/3 of the grapes and allow the rest to ferment al la "maceration carbonique", a technique used in Beaujolais Nouveau, which has the berries bursting from within as fermentation takes hold. This will hopefully give the wine a softer and fruitier character and make it more accessible during the taste-off.

The juice from crush, whole berries and skins from crush were divided amongst four buckets and the yeast culture was mixed in. Within hours fermentation had set in and has since been going on rather splendidly.

Once fermentation has completed we will rack the wine off of the lees and send out another report on it's progress.

Until then ...

Cheers!

Racking & Bottling the 2003

Ian & Sarah washing the bottles
Keith rinses the bottles whilst the rest of us dry them with hot air
Geoff and Rudi doing what they do best ...	Sarah & Ian mix the SO2 brew
Odin guards the workers while they rest hard
Sarah and Ian again ... Did they do ALL the work? Here they do the final racking of the wine	Past vintages L-R: 2002, 2001, 200, 1999
The booty ... now it's time to have a drink!   Well folks, it's about time .... Rats won this year!   Well done to the winemakers, Sarah, Alex, Geoff, and all their helpers ... as they say, "many feet make light work" (or some thing to that effect!)   Thanks to Sebastian Beaumont and Beaumont Wines, without whom there would be no winemaking for us. They go to a tremendous effort during harvest each year to get 200kg of fresh Pinotage grapes up to Cellar Rats & VATS each year ... no mean feat considering all the other challenges they are dealing with at the time.   Sebastian put a wonderful selection of six 2003 Pinotages together ... with the 2002 & 2003 vintages from Rats & VATS we had a flight of 10 wines to be tasted blind.   The "club-made" wines were easily discernible from the commercial wines, which means we still have a long way to go. Sebastian made some valuable suggestions which should help the 2004 wine making teams produce better wines, and maybe we can narrow the gap.   Mike Stokes, VATS' "scoring fascist", recorded scores and accurately calculated the averages - A thankless but very necessary chore - Thanks Mike!   Scores follow: 1. Cape Bay Pinotage 2003 (SA Export to UK) - 14.7 ave 2. Warwick 2003 Bush Vine Pinotage - 15.5 ave 3. VATS 2003 Pinotage - 11.0 ave 4. Fairview Primo Pinotage 2003 - ave 15.7 5. Cellar Rats 2002 Pinotage - ave 12.2 6. Beaumont 2003 Pinotage - ave 15.0 7. Cellar Rats 2003 Pinotage - ave 11.9 8. VATS 2002 Pinotage - ave 12.8 9. Southern Right 2003 Pinotage - ave 15.6 10. Diemersfontein 2003 Pinotage - ave 15.6   Whilst the wines were being revealed, Ian & Claire popped outside and fired up the griller - From the hissing made by the griller we now know what they've done with the redundant Concorde motors ... supersonic sausage cookers!   The cheese-gorillas were brilliant but unfortunately, due to an administrative error, "16 fried onions" became 16kg of fried onions ... Well, no-one complained and we managed to make a huge dent in the pile (remember, fried onions are natures way of saying "For God's sake, open a window!").   Thanks to everyone from Rats & VATS who supported this event ... It was an excellent adventure and we look forward to doing it all again next year!

The 2002 Vintage

Once again the grapes arrived in very good condition ... in fact, in excellent condition. Due to circumstances the grapes had to be stored in Geoffs coolroom (at 2 deg C) for a week until we could all get together to do the pressing.

On Sunday 18 March 31 Rats arrived and made short work of the destalking. A 75ppm Sulphur Dioxide solution (metabisulphide dissolved in a little warm water) a was added to the berries prior to the pressing, which went equally quickly (the only complaint being that of cold feet!).

Approx. 45 litres of juice & skins was then put into 4 x 25 litre buckets. The French yeast culture (WE372) was then added and by early Monday morning fermentation had taken off. 

During the afternoon a few bottles of the 1999 & 2000 vintages ("Naxos Ninety-Nine Pinotage" and "Millenium Mousewine") were opened. Most preferred the Millenium Mousewine, however there were comments that the fruit had developed on the palate of the Naxos Ninety Nine. In short, many, many bottles of wine were consumed, the party finally winding down around 8pm.

Making the 2002 Pinotage ...

Starting Hygrometer Reading of juice - 1.116
Finishing Hygrometer Reading of wine - 0.992

1. Grapes in excellent condition, no powdery or downy mildew. Berries extremely sweet (Niels said 28 Balling)
2. On Sat 02 March 23 Rats destalked and sorted the berries,
3. Crushed by foot.
4. Sulphur added to a little warm water at 75ppm (1/2 measuring teaspoon per 50 l final juice). This was sprinkled over the grapes in the barrel.
5. Got approx. 80 litres of juice & skins.
6. Put juice into 4 x 25 litre buckets and added skins.
7. We inoculated with the Anchor yeast (WE 372 ) and stirred each barrel.
8. By 8pm that night fermentation had set in.
9. The barrels were stored in the pantry as the temperature of the pantry was quite stable.
10. The cap was punched approximately every 4hrs throughout the day.
11. The temperature of the fermentation was monitored to ensure it remained between 28-32 deg C.
12. Fermentation was rapid for approx. 3 days and then slowed, appearing to stop.
13. The wine was left on the lees & skins until 17 March (total 15 days) before racking to remove the juice.
14. The wine was racked but not filtered or fined. Since there was enough juice the skins were not pressed but were allowed to drain naturally for a few minutes.
15. Aprrox. 48 litres of wine was split between two "maturation" barrels. Each barrel had approx. 70ppm SO2 added to it.
16. Once again it was felt that the enormous fruit combined with the grape tannins negated the need for wooding. We also hoped this would allow the up-front fruit to show during the early stages of maturation and especially during the taste-off.
 

Picking & Pressing

[click pic for larger image]

The Beaumont Pinotage grapes arrive Adding a protective dose of SO2 to the grapes prior to pressing Claire, mark & Bruce press grapes the traditional way Terry tries not to fall over whilst pressing the Pinotage Four buckets of fermenting must head for the cellar

Mark & Ian toast the wine-to-be Phil & Loren talk up a storm Sarah, Claire & Frigga pick grapes Shelley, Debs, Phil, & Jeanette picking grapes Odin takes a well earned break while Sarah & Claire pummel on More grape picking Sarah & Bruce ham it up for the camera     Photos courtesy of Gail Mingard

Racking the wine (below) ...
[click pic for larger image]

The Committee (and Rudi) Bottle the Wine
(L-R, Back:  Geoff Carter, Sarah Newton, Ian grant, Alexandra McConville, Jeanette Odgers)
(Front: Rudi Hiestermann, Terry Odgers, Christopher Cosgrove, Claire Grant)

(Report of results below by Bern of VATS)

On the 28th of October on a Monday and a very wine filled week with WineX looming, RATS and VATS clashed taste buds in a stunning tasting hosted by Niels Verburg of Beaumont at the Morningside Country Club. The competition is sponsored by Beaumont every year so that us wineys in Gauteng can see just how hard it really is to make fine wine. Niels sends both clubs 100Kg's of grapes and wine yeasts. As soon as the grapes arrive the wine making teams get into gear, to show their metal, wits and guts, manly feet in the beginning (you have no idea of the pleasure of grapes exploding underfoot, with wine mush running all over, better than sSSSX).

Wine making teams over the year change their secret ways of wine making, ask the experts at shows, get everything they can to make their Pinotage the best it can be. RATS previously (last year) has only had the pleasure of wining this trophy once. You will see shortly who won this year. But first we have to tell you how the tasting runs. Two bottles from a minimum of 50 bottles (without the 50 you don't get to enter) are selected from both teams. These are sampled by Niels to check that there are no faults and then entered into a blind tasting of some of the finest and newest Pinotages the country has to offer. The rules are simple the best (highest scoring) Gauteng wine wins. The interesting part is to find the home made or garage wines.
The tasting went as follows:

1. Southern Right 2002
New wood, Al 15%.
Score- 14.8

2. RATS 2001
Score- 12.8

3. Swartland 2002
Score- 14.6

4. VATS 2002
Score- 12.9

5. Beaumont 2002
25% American and 75% French, barrel sample still in wood.
Score- 16

6. VATS 2001
Score- 13.4

7. Beyerskloof 2002
Score- 14.4

8. RATS 2002
Score pushed up by a few individuals, scores below 10 not accepted, most people were below 10.
Score- 12.5

9. L'Avenir 2002
Bush vines (8 and 30 year old), 8 months new wood, harvest 26 degrees baling, undergone malolactic fermentation.
Score- 16.1

10. Kaapzicht 2002
RS 2.4g/l, TA 5.4g/l.
Score- 15

So there you have it VATS scores another win! Did you notice that the 2001, which lost last year kicked RATS butt one year later with a 13.4 vs. a 12.8.
So it was better in the long run that the RATS wine.

Thanks to Niels, Jane and especially Beaumont for their sponsorship. We learn so much each year and have so much fun, without the team at Beaumont our year would be much the poorer. Thanks guys we really do appreciate what you do for us and we will spread the word Beaumont is tops!!!

Next year promises to be better. Both teams have agreed to have a joint stomp party to crush the grapes, where participants will have to follow the instructions of the head winemakers, we will party and wine make initially together. Niels has rightly stated that more in VATS should become involved.
We in the committee agree. So we will try and strive to make next years wine making fun filled and more especially make an even better Pinotage to blow your socks off in 2003. Next year all VATS participants will get a Winemakers T-shirt.

So here is an competition about to be opened, for the best T-shirt design.
Prizes to be won, fun to be had, design a wine making T-shirt for VATS and win good wine!!!

Thats all for this stint. More exciting features to follow, of past tastings.
Shots cheers all
Bernd
 

The 2001 Vintage

Front label

Back label

Once again the grapes arrived in very good condition ... in fact, in excellent condition. Due to circumstances the grapes had to be stored in Geoffs coolroom (at 2 deg C) for a week until we could all get together to do the pressing.

On Sunday 18 March 31 Rats arrived and made short work of the destalking. A 75ppm Sulphur Dioxide solution (metabisulphide dissolved in a little warm water) a was added to the berries prior to the pressing, which went equally quickly (the only complaint being that of cold feet!).

Approx. 45 litres of juice & skins was then put into 4 x 25 litre buckets. The French yeast culture (WE372) was then added and by early Monday morning fermentation had taken off. 

During the afternoon a few bottles of the 1999 & 2000 vintages ("Naxos Ninety-Nine Pinotage" and "Millenium Mousewine") were opened. Most preferred the Millenium Mousewine, however there were comments that the fruit had developed on the palate of the Naxos Ninety Nine. In short, many, many bottles of wine were consumed, the party finally winding down around 8pm.

How we made the 2001 wine
1. Grapes in excellent condition, even beter than 2000 vintage
2. 31 Rats destalked and sorted the berries, getting rid of the few berries with white powder and the "raisiny" berries.
3. Crushed by foot.
4. Sulphur added to a little warm water at 75ppm. This was sprinkled over the grapes in the barrel.
5. Got approx. 45-50 litres of juice & skins.
6. Put juice into 4 x 25 litre buckets and added skins.
7. The grapes had been stored in a cool room at 2 deg C for 7 days so the pressed juice was still quite cold.
8. We inoculated with the French yeast (WE 372 ) and stirred each barrel.
9. The juice was left to come up to room temperature naturally and by 8am the following morning fermentation had set in.
10. The barrels were moved from the bath to a warm corner of the house to ensure that fermentation took off rapidly.
11. The cap was punched approximately every 4hrs throughout the day.
12. The weather at the end of the first day was quite chilly and the one barrel hadn't taken quite as well as the others, so the wine was quarantined in the bathroom with the heater on for a while. After a few hours all 4 barrels were bubbling vigorously.
13. A check of the fermentation temperature each time the cap was punched showed an average fermentation temperature of 28 deg C (ambient temp around 22 deg C).
14. Fermentation was rapid for approx. 3 days and then slowed for another3-4 days.
15. The wine was racked and the skins gently pressed.
16. Aprrox. 42-43 litres of wine was split between two insulated "maturation" barrels. Each barrel had approx. 40ppm SO2 added to it.
17. The wine was left unwooded as Geoff & I felt that there was sufficient grape tannin to allow the wine to develop fully. We also hoped this would allow the up-front fruit to show during the early stages of maturation and especially during the taste-off.
18. The wine was allowed to mature until Sat 7 July when it was bottled. We bottled early to avoid any bottle-shock during the taste-off. On bottling the wine was showing good ripe dark-berry fruit with jammy overtones. It had a good acid structure and firm fruit tannins. In total we had 52 bottles.

Pressing the Grapes

Judgment Day

Niels Verburg (winemaker) & Sebastian Beaumont (viticulturalist) with the 10 wines to be tasted blind	Niels outlines the procedure for the tasting	Athol (VATS) looks confused while Timna (RATS) does ballet - Amazing stuff this wine!
Dave Moss (VATS) installs his wine-tasting applet while Mark Davis (RATS) has a "palate cleansing ale"	The VATS team bow their heads in defeat	Chris Cosgrove (RT) has just tasted the VATS entry. Paul Linton has just tasted the Cellar Rats entry. The expression says it all!
John Neale (RATS) gives his summary of the evenings' wines	... as does Dave Moss (VATS). Mark Davis takes a tactical nap.	Mike Stokes (VATS) and Niels have a good laugh at the VATS wine.
Mike Stokes' MTN Abacus fascinates Beth (RATS)	The moment of truth ... Paul Linton celebrates like Homer Simpson whilst the VATS team looks on dejectedly	Terry (RATS) receives the trophy from Niels & Sebastian on behalf of the Cellar Rats team
The All-Conquering VAT-Humbling Kick-Ass Pinotage-Making Cellar Rats team L-R (From Back): Sebastian Beaumont, Steve McCullough, Keith Bowen, Brett Russell Claire Grant, Maureen Carr, Ken Bruyns, Mark Davis, Chris Cosgrove, Timna Russell, Sarah Newton, Karen Ginsberg, Ian Grant Niels Verburg, John Neale, Daphne Raymer, Debbie McCormick, Alexandra McConville, Terry Odgers, Paul Linton, Geoff Carter (Some of the original members were not able to attend)

[Click any of the pictures above for the full-size image]

The 2000 Vintage

The Winemaking

The grapes arrived in very good condition and were stored in Geoff's coolroom overnight. Approx. 20 people arrived to help destalk, sort and crush the berries. Plenty wine was consumed. Where possible the berries having mealie-bug (white "powder") were removed. The berries were crushed by foot and 75ppm Sulphur Dioxide (dissolved in a little warm water) a was added to juice.

Approx. 45 litres of juice & skins was then put into 4 x 25 litre buckets. The buckets were placed in a bath of tepid water to raise the temperature to around 25 deg C (the grapes had been stored in a cool room overnight and were quite cold).

The South African yeast culture (rehydrated the evening before) was then added and by 10pm that evening fermentation had taken off vigorously. The cap was punched approximately every 4hrs throughout the fermentation, which lasted approximately 4 days. Immediately after fermentation the juice was racked from the skins and the skins were pressed using two sticks through knots in the end of a cheese-cloth bag. (A hygrometer reading indicated a SG of very close to 1.0).

Approximately 45 litres of juice, lees, flesh & pips were retained. This was then put into two 25 litre buckets and fined using ½ egg-white per barrel. The wine was then allowed to stand for 24 hours before being racked into 2 litre bottles which had been prepped with 2g/l wood chips (the chips had been washed in boiling water for approx 5 minutes).

The wine was allowed to mature for 8 weeks to ensure malolactic fermentation had taken place. On tasting we noticed a slight pettilance which was put down to CO2 from the malolactic fermentation. The wine tasted fresh, if a little rough.

A small sample was sent to a friend's lab for analysis. Results follow:
a. Free SO2 - None !
b. TA - 6.8g/l

On receiving the results (approximately 1 week after sending the wine for analysis) we racked the wine into buckets and added SO2 to 75ppm. During this process, on tasting the wine we decided there was sufficient wood so we washed the bottles, removing the wood chips and re-bottled into two litre bottles.

On 26 Aug we had a bottling party, at which we managed to bottle 47 bottles of Cellar Rats Millenium Mousewine .... and unbottle approximately 47 bottles of assorted commercial wines!

Results - 25 Sep

The judging for the 3rd annual Beaumont Pinotage Challenge took place on 25 Sept 2000 at Dave Moss' house. The judging was attended by 8 Cellar Rats members, 13 VATS members, and was conducted by Niels Verburg, winemaker at Beaumont.

The entire judging was done blind, with Niels throwing 6 tank/barrel sample Pinotages into the lineup, along with the Rats/VATS entries. The bottles were bagged and numbered pseudo-randomly, so that even Niels was not aware which bag contained which wine.

The first four wines were tasted without comment or score to ensure an even benchmark. At the end of the first flight of four the four wines were discussed but scores were not revealed.

The balance of the wines were tasted in flights of two. On completion of the eight wines, scores were noted and Mike Stokes and his digital abacus calculated the average scores. The wines were then revealed. Scores follow:

1. Southern Right - 15.1
2. Swartland Co-Op - 13.8
3. Wildekrans - 13.2
4. Berry Bros. (made for Woolworths by Beaumont) - 14.0
5. VATS Vulture Peak - 14.5
6. Beaumont - 16.3
7. Cellar Rats Millennium Mousewine - 14.0
8. Groot Constantia - 15.5

Congratulations to VATS who retain the trophy for the third time running!

The good news for Rats is that we placed ahead of the Swartland & Wildekrans wines, although I suspect the quality of the fruit had much to do with that.

Niels commented that, for the first time, there was no great difference in quality between the Rats & VATS wines (he scored them equal). He also added that our winemaking techniques were definitely improving.

Thanks again to Dave for letting us use his house, and especially to Niels and Beaumont for showing such unflagging commitment to the wines clubs in "the big smoke"! - We look forward to next years competition!

The 1999 label

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