Just over 45 years ago, on May 24th 1976, a young Steven Spurrier, proprietor of the Cave de la Madeleine in Paris and the founder of L’Académie du Vin, hosted a tasting which was to change the way the world thought about fine wine. Almost frivolously, and as much to celebrate the American Bicentennial as to promote his business, Spurrier conceived of a tasting which would pit the best Californian wines against their greatest French counterparts. The judges included Aubert de Villaine, owner of the Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Odette Khan, editor of La Revue du Vin de France, Pierre Bréjoux, Inspector Générale of the Appellation d’Origine Controlée and a couple of sommeliers from the most famous three-Michelin-star restaurants in Paris. The American judges were a group of top Napa winemakers who had come to France to tour the French wine-producing areas, amongst them André Tchelistcheff and Chateau Montelena’s Bo Barrett.
As we now all know, Spurrier’s “Judgment of Paris” tasting, in which the California wines trumped the French, opened the world of fine wine from a narrow club of Old World producers to the universe we recognise today. He went on to become one of the great and universally admired figures in the world of wine. He was a judge at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show on two occasions, most recently in 2015. In his autobiography A Life in Wine, he describes his impressions. “This tasting was conceived and chaired by the country’s leading wine authority Michael Fridjhon, and the rigour of the judging and the reputation of the results is such that the show attracts the best wines from the top producers....In his [Fridjhon’s] opinion judging wine is ’an approval rating that quantifies how successfully the winemaker achieved what he set out to do.’” Briefing the Decanter judges a little after his last visit to South Africa, he made the point that “only by listening very carefully to what the wine is saying can one judge it correctly.”
The Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show has just completed its 20th judging. Over the two decades of its existence, it has reviewed a little over 19000 wines. From this number a mere 347 have won trophies. There have been 590 gold medal winners and 1907 silver medals. Over the two decades of its existence, half the wines entered have won no medal at all. As past judge Jancis Robinson famously observed: the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show is “possibly the toughest competition in the world.” This is as it should be: the purpose of the show is to serve consumers, rather than to make producers feel good.
From 31st May to 3rd June the wines entered in the 2021 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show spoke, and the judges – to the best of their ability – listened. Now the time has arrived for wine enthusiasts to discover what the judging panels thought about the wines - many from the country’s best known and most reputable wineries - which comprised the final submissions for this year’s competition. Wines are scored on the International 100 point system, where 85 – 89 equals a bronze medal, 90 – 94 earns a silver medal, and 95 (and above) a gold medal. These thresholds correlate to Platter 4, 4.5 and 5 start ratings respectively. It should come as no surprise to them to discover that there are only 32 gold medal winners – of which 16 were elevated to trophy as Best in Class – a mere 111 silver medals and 355 bronze.
