Green Wine Awards

green wine awards

I have been fortunate enough to be asked to seat on the bloggers panel of the 2014 Nedbank Green Wine Awards that starts tomorrow 28th July 2014 at 9 am. The entire panel is set to taste more than 150 wines over three days from producers (or sites) that are either certified Organic or Biodiversity & Wine Initiative members and champions. The competition looks to celebration the substantial in roads said producers are making in both conservation and the quality of wines they are serving up the public. I’m rather excited!!

However, before seating on any panel, it has become my ritual to read up on the variety or style that I’m intended to judge on, to ensure I am on top of my game with regards to the level of quality I should be looking for.

Naturally, this time around I started reading up on Organic wine and BWI. You can find out more about the former in my previous posts here. The later is the brain child between the conservation sector and the South African wine industry where producers are expected to preserve natural habitats by farming sustainably, expressing the advantages of the Cape’s abundant diversity in their wines, and guaranteeing a hectare of natural vegetation is committed to conservation for every hectare under vine. Currently, over 140,000 hectares of natural area have been conserved by BWI producers since the projects inception, surpassing the close to 100,000 hectares of vineyards in the country (SAWI, 2013). Well done Ladies and Gentlemen. (Read more on BWI here.)

BWI Logo

So what does this mean about the wines I should be expecting? For one they shall come in all shapes and sizes (read grape varieties and styles) from all over the Cape. And two, their quality shall be right up there with all other top producers of the world!

And as I will be helping select a bloggers choice winning wine, I shall be looking for an outstander that encapsulates the following criteria: good varietal or style expression, balance and finesse, complexity and a particular quirky character that will give me material to write about on an upcoming post.

In the mean time, feel free to check out www.greenwineawards.com, where you can see all the impressive past winners. Good luck to all wines that were entered. Winners shall be announced on 16th October 2014.

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