When the millennium dawned over South Africa there were only a few competitions and challenges, mostly judged by the people making the wines. Tasting panels comprised seven members - who were expressly forbidden from discussing the wines amongst themselves. The 20 point system held sway. There was no formal training for wine judges.
Wine Magazine – in those days a glossy monthly publication – hosted regular category tastings as well as the original Chenin Blanc challenge. The late Harold Eedes, as the magazine's publisher, welcomed the approach I made to him to create a wholly new style of wine competition. Those of us involved in creating and developing what became the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show were all intensely aware of the changing dynamic of the world of wine. In 1996 Australia crushed 85000 tons of shiraz, mainly from old vineyards with a proven track record for producing quality reds. Six years later, in 2002 – the launch year of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show – the Australian shiraz harvest had grown to a frightening 445000 tons.
The guiding principles of the new competition were simple enough: only three judges – one of whom had to be an international – for an entire class, results would be arrived at on a consensus-driven basis, and a show chairman would be mandated to resolve differences between panelists. Most importantly, the allocation of medals would follow the Olympic model, rather than the then ruling show system. In other words, very few gold medals, and not that many more silvers. Even a bronze medal – as one of the judges remarked at the time – was a worthy achievement. Trophies for best-in-class winners would only be awarded if the wine had attained a gold medal score of 90 points
Old Mutual responded immediately to the invitation to become the headline sponsor. A senior director at the time observed that discernment of future value defined the role Old Mutual played in the lives of South Africa's investment community and this should be the role the competition played for the country's wine enthusiasts. The judges at the launch competition included Oz Clarke, the late Tony Mossop, Gyles Webb and the late Tony Jordan, who headed Domaine Chandon in Australia. Over the next 17 years of the show the list of international judges reads a bit like a who's who of the world of fine wine: Jancis Robinson MW, James Halliday, Michel Bettane, Veronique Drouhin, Neal Martin, Lisa Perotti-Brown MW, Gerard Basset MW, MS and Brian Croser – to name but a few.
Within five years of the launch of the competition it became clear that South Africa needed an academy to develop the judging capacity needed – not only for this show, but for the growing number of competitions and challenges which by then were beginning to fill out the South African wine industry calendar. Out of this was born the Wine Judging Academy run in conjunction with the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business. This year, with the lockdown regulations rendering it impossible for the international contingent to travel to South Africa, almost the entire judging cohort was drawn from graduates of the Academy.
Notwithstanding the crisis the industry found itself in on account of Covid and the restrictions on the export, sale and distribution of wine, producers enthusiastically embraced the new dates of the show. Judging took place during the week of 31st August, with 747 wines on the tasting benches for the three days of primary judging. On the final day, all the judges assembled to award the trophies to the best-in-class gold medallists. Out of these deliberations emerged 21 trophy winners (including best red, best white and best producer), another 22 gold medalists, 131 silver medals and 412 bronzes. For wine drinkers who prefer to buy the quality of what is in the glass, rather than the marketing hype of those who sell labels, there's no better guarantee of quality and authenticity, of rigour and attention to detail, than an award won at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show.
