International wine writers full of praise for Cape Winemakers Guild wines

Wine writers who visited the tasting of the Cape Winemakers Guild were full of praise for South African wines.

The CWG has as its mission to simply advance South African winemaking to the highest possible levels of quality and international recognition. Membership is by invitation only (to be approved by a two-thirds margin) and all members must have been making “outstanding” wine for 5 years. Interestingly, membership resides with the individual winemaker, not with their current employer or estate. Executive director of winemaking at the company of wine people and Kumkani winemaker, Nicky Versfeld, was inducted in the CWG in 1999.

One of the writers from Vinography indicated that although no wine scored a perfect 10 on his scale, the general quality of the wine was good. The writer further indicated that he has a lot of enthusiasm for South African wines, and in particular for a number of the wines that was presented and tasted at the Cape Winemakers Guild. He stated that some of these wines were truly excellent.

One of the wines that were presented was the 2005 Kumkani “Cradle Hill” Cabernet Sauvignon, which won a gold medal at the prestigious Concours Mondial de Bruxelles earlier this year.

The writer gave this wine a score of 9 out of 10 and his tasting notes were as follows.

Medium to dark ruby in the glass, this wine has a deep nose of forest floor, black cherry, and tobacco aromas. In the mouth it is lean and clean with primary flavors of tobacco, espresso, and cherry, all of which meld and linger with faint tannins in a nice finish.

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