We achieved excellent results at this year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, South Africa’s premier wine competition. The Mentors Semillon 2009 scooped a gold medal as well as the trophy for best Semillon overall! We asked winemaker Johan Fourie to comment on the achievement:

“Our cellar philosophy is to be innovative, fresh and bold enough to experiment. We’re also always looking for better vineyard sites and wine styles, all of this with the aim to produce the best wines possible. 2008 was our first go at using grapes from the alluvial plain where the Olifants River flows into the cold Atlantic Ocean, a unique vineyard site. The 2008 Semillon exceeded everyone’s expectations and resulted in our very first stand alone Semillon. 2009, an all round fantastic white wine season, has also produced another Semillon stunner.”

“A satisfying result for KWV at the 2010 trophy wine show is that both our white and red wines over a wide spectrum of varietals (blends and single varietal wines) performed well. Our success at this show wasn’t just a ‘one hit wonder’: our overall strong performance and medal acknowledgement of the other wines entered made KWV the 4th most successful winery of the show.”

KWV received the following awards:

Gold KWV The Mentors Semillon 2009
Silver KWV The Mentors Petit Verdot 2008
Silver KWV The Mentors Orchestra 2007
Silver KWV The Mentors Canvas 2008
Silver KWV Cathedral Cellar Sauvignon blanc 2009
Bronze KWV The Mentors Shiraz 2008
Bronze Cathedral Cellar Chardonnay 2008
Bronze KWV The Mentors Sauvignon blanc 2009
Bronze KWV The Mentors Viognier 2009
Bronze KWV The Mentors Sauvignon blanc/ Semillon 2009
Bronze Laborie Blanc de Blanc 2006

The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is judged by 50 wine experts from 40 nationalities. These include journalists and editors, wine makers, enologists, sommeliers and wine educators, giving the event a unique character.

A whopping total of 6 964 wines were entered, with only 2 042 being awarded. KWV The Mentors range was awarded 2 gold and 3 silver medals (wines had to receive at least 85.4 out of 100 to receive a silver).

KWV The Mentors Sauvignon Blanc 2009 – GOLD
KWV The Mentors Petit Verdot 2008 – GOLD
KWV The Mentors Sauvignon Blanc / Semillon 2009 – SILVER
KWV The Mentors Orchestra 2008 – SILVER
KWV The Mentors Canvas 2008 – SILVER

Our chief winemaker, Richard Rowe comments: “The international success we have achieved with the KWV The Mentors range is a reflection on our winemaking philosophy: we focus on selecting the right parcels of fruit and and using simple, sound winemaking practices to achieve better stylistic wines.

Our chief winemaker, Richard Rowe and viticulturist Unathi share their thoughts on the South African wine cultivar, Pinotage.

We’ve often wondered to ourselves what Viticulturists‘  actually do and how they come to be one, and why they would choose to spend all day wandering through the vineyards in the beautiful sunshine rather sit behind a desk…. To try and figure this out, we asked one of our experts, Unathi Mantshogo , one of the viticulturists at KWV Wines.

Me: How do you become a viticulturist?

Unathi: You need to obtain a formal qualification in the field from a recognised University or College. It is important not to miss this step as this is the base upon which you will sometimes defend your recommendations.

The vineyard is a perennial plant and so training in the vineyard over a couple of years will help you to gain the experience that is needed.

Me: What does your average day at work?

Unathi: This depends entirely on the season:

Post-harvest (April – June) you’ll find us both in the office with administration work and consulting in the vineyards.

Pruning season (June – September) we make recommendations of when to start pruning the vines.

Pre-season (September – January) we evaluate which canopy manipulation methods are most suitable for the grapes. We base these decisions on weather predictions and the stage of the fruit and cultivar.

And lastly during harvest season (End January – Begin April) we take samples in the vineyard to determine when would be best to harvest the grapes.

Me: What’s the worst part of your job?

Unathi: Sampling a vineyard at 14h00 in the afternoon during a heat wave.

Me: What is the best part of your job?

Unathi: Every season offers a new experience and so viticulture is not a monotonous job. Bearing the elements in mind, I have to decide when to harvest to produce an award winning wine. Finally tasting an award winning wine and knowing that I played a critical role in its production is the ultimate reward!

Me: So why did you choose to become a Viticulturist?

Unathi: I have a passion for nature and all things green so choosing this as a career was a simple choice for me. I also love the outdoors and being apart of a process with such rewarding results.

We recently visited the KWV Wines team and chatted to the wine team about the harvest to date, I have attached our video footage below for your enjoyment.

We, the KWV Wines bloggers have just received this harvest update from our wine team, Thys, Johann and Cobus. 

Overview: Cobus van Graan - KWV Viticulturist:  

Season was characterized by mild weather till the end of February. Mild daytime and cooler night temperatures were very favorable for slow ripening and the development of berry flavors. During this period we were truly able to harvest when we felt that the fruit was ripe and subsequently the white and red wines harvested in this period are showing well at this early stage. 

As from February 27th both day and night temperatures increased and the grape intake increased dramatically. The challenge was to harvest grapes at the optimum point and the producers and winery alike put in a fantastic effort to achieve this goal. 

The 2010 vintage will be smaller than predicted due to severe wind damage and high disease pressure early in the season. 

White wine: Johann Fourie - KWV Winemaker

The 2010 vintage was delayed quite a bit, even for white grapes. The first grapes that we received, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay display typical base wine characteristics and are destined for our Method Cap Classique Sparkling wines and might develop to be our highlight of the 2010 vintage. 

The intake of other grape varieties was inconsistent, making this a rather difficult harvest. Sauvignon blanc, Chenin blanc and Chardonnay show high potential in delivering unique wines with great characteristics. Fruity Chenin Blanc’s, elegant Chardonnay’s and a combination of grassy, tropical Sauvignon Blanc are expected. 

Red Wine: Thys Loubser - KWV Winemaker:

The quality of red grapes is very promising for the 2010 harvest. Yields are lower due to the cool conditions during November and December 2009. The heat wave during February impacted on the intake of grapes, as all varieties ripened simultaneously. Currently Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are still being received. Overall the grape quality is very good and displaying a good colour. Merlot is showing particular potential for this harvest.

We’ve returned from KWV with loads of pictures. We also had a quick catch up with the winemaker’s assistants, lovely ladies with bucket loads of useful information.

So the morning started pretty early to try and get to KWV Wines in time for the “tipping of the grapes.” This is when the trucks arrive from all over the Western Cape with a container load of grapes and literally tip the grapes in through a shoot into the de-stemmer.

Truck tipping red grapes at KWV Wines

Grapes tipped!

Grapes rushing through the destemmer.

Enzymes are then added to aid the fermentation process and we met with Jenash Topher who is the official enzyme mixer, he also assists with the grapes as they enter the cellar.

After the grapes are destemmed, they travel though a cooling pipe into enormous vats which hold between 20 000 – 60 000L of wine.

I took a quick snap of the view from the KWV Wines’ cellar of Paarl rock while I was feeling creatively inspired, if I were I winemaker this would be the kind of view I would insist upon!

After rushing through the cellar, following the journey of the grapes and meeting new people, we had a chance to catch up with the winemakers’ assistants about the harvest, in a nutshell this is what they had to say:

KWV Wines has completed harvesting the Pinotage and Chenin grapes. Both winemakers feel that despite the erratic weather conditions Cape Town and Paarl has been experiencing, 2010 looks like a promising year, especially for Sauvignon Blanc and Pinotage. The KWV Wines harvest is estimated to end during the first week of April.

More on this soon though, we’ll be uploading our video footage within the next few days so watch this space!

For more photos on the 2010 harvest, visit our Facebook gallery here.

Meet Richard Rowe, our Australian born chief winemaker at KWV. Richard joined KWV as chief winemaker in October 2008 and has since has shared his experience, uncompromising sense of quality and attention to detail. This is what he has to say:

The 2010 harvest is proving to be slightly tricky because our Western Cape weather is just not playing along nicely. Today for example, was hot and muggy and the heavens have just opened so the rain is pouring down. Not ideal weather for a harvesting season. As a result we haven’t managed to take more photos of the harvest, because the grapes are coming in quite slowly. But in the meantime we have chatted to (a rather busy) Thys, our red winemaker about the harvest, this is what he had to say: 

“So far we received Pinotage, Merlot and Shiraz grapes. We are almost finished with the Pinotage and we’ll start on the Merlot shortly. The grapes are definitely coming in later than in 2009 because of the cool weather and today’s weather has made things challenging…. However, the quality of the Pinotage that has come in is amazing and from the Merlot grapes that we have seen, KWV Wines is expecting a good vintage from this year’s crop too.

Congratulations Gordon Todan and thank you for entering our global dinner party competition! We’ll be in contact shortly to arrange for delivery of our fantastic Shane Sauvage cookbook (our favorite South African chef). 

Just to recap, we’re running a global competition, 3 winning couples from around the world will be flown to South Africa to enjoy a dinner together in Paarl at KWV in November. All you need to do to enter is send us a photograph of your own dinner party, to enter click here. Each month the best picture will entry will receive a cookbook (and of course still stand a chance to win the main prize). 

Gordon enjoyed the KWV Reserve Chardonnay at his wedding and spoke about, how crazy the day was, how good the drinks were (of course) and hoping it would never end!