Plettenberg Bay’s Newstead Wines takes Best Producer Award at Amorim Cap Classique Challenge for 2nd Time
Plettenberg Bay winery Newstead Wines has been
crowned overall winner of the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge for
the second time in four years, this year winning the award for
Best Overall Producer with the Newstead Blanc de Blanc Cap
Classique 2017. The same wine also won the competition’s trophy
for best wine in the Extended Aging Class for Cap Classique
wines seven years and older.
Newstead Wines was crowned Best Overall
Producer at the same competition in 2020 with the Newstead
Blanc de Blanc 2015, becoming the first winery from outside
the traditional Cape winelands to achieve this top Cap
Classique accolade.
This is the 23rd consecutive year the Amorim
Cap Classique Challenge was held, an event sponsored from
the outset by the synonymous cork producer that has been
crafting cork stoppers for the international wine industry
for over 150 years. Some 131 Cap Classiques were entered for
this year's competition.
Newstead Wines, one of the pioneers of the
Plettenberg Bay winelands on the Cape South Coast some 520km
east of Cape Town, was founded by Doug and Sue Lund in 2006,
with their first wines being made in 2012. This year's
second award going to Newstead as overall winner of the
Amorim Cap Classique Challenge has firmly established
Plettenberg Bay as one of the country’s leading Cap
Classique regions.
In the other categories, the Amorim Cap
Classique Challenge Trophy for best scoring Brut Blend went
to Cap Classique stalwart producer Villiera in Stellenbosch
for the Villiera Monro Brut Cap Classique 2017. Best Rosé
was the Graham Beck Pinot Noir Rosé Cap Classique 2018,
while De Wetshof Estate in Robertson took the trophy for
Best Blanc de Blancs with its De Wetshof Blanc de Blancs
2021. The trophy for Nectar (demi-sec) style was awarded to
Simonsig Estate, the pioneers of the Cap Classique industry,
for Simonsig Satin Royale Cap Classique n/v.
The category for Brut Blends received the
most entries in this year’s Amorim Challenge (36), followed
by Blanc de Blancs (35), Rosé (33) Nectar (15) and Extended
Lees Aging (12).
Speaking at this year’s Amorim Cap
Classique Challenge awards ceremony, Joaquim Sá, MD of
Amorim Cork SA, said the Cap Classique Challenge is more
than a competition. “It truly is an annual celebration of
the wonderful wine category Cap Classique has become since
first made in Stellenbosch by Simonsig in 1971,” he said.
“The competition is one where we celebrate the
legacy of this category, we honour the quality of the
product and its exceptional producers and share a joint
vision for the path into the future, which I am sure will be
as sparklingly successful as the past has been.”
Sá
said that if there is one factor leading him to believe that
Cap Classique is one of the strongest categories of
traditionally made sparkling wine in the world, it is the
diversity of regional terroir expressed throughout the
spectrum of Cap Classique wines shown by South Africa’s
producers.
“Where many other wines made in a similar
style in other countries are limited to using grapes
originating from defined areas, Cap Classique producers have
access to fruit from a broad palette of terroirs with which
to paint their canvas.
“Therefore, in one wine one
can find grapes from diverse regions such as Darling,
Robertson and Stellenbosch, while another may be made from
fruit originating from Elgin, Durbanville and Paarl. By
blending the unique flavour profiles offered by these
various regions, Cap Classique producers are able to put
dynamically crafted products onto the shelf showcasing the
wide-ranging diversity of Cape winelands terroir. And in the
restless pursuit of uniqueness in Cap Classique, new regions
are continuously discovered, as is the case with Newstead
Wines’ achievement over the past few years where they have
ensured Plettenberg Bay becoming recognised as a major
region for Cap Classique excellence.
“Amorim remains
committed to this category of South African wine and
believes that its integral quality, as underscored each year
in the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge, has made it one of
the country’s most successful sectors, the quality of which
is gaining increasing traction among South African and
international consumers.”
The Double Gold
(95pts-plus) winners in the year’s Amorim Cap Classique
Challenge were:
Blanc de Blancs
De
Wetshof Estate Blanc de Blancs 2021
Louisvale Brut Cap
Classique NV
Colmant Blanc de Blancs Reserve NV
Brut Blends
Villiera Monro Brut Cap
Classique 2017
Villiera Tradition Brut Cap Classique NV
Quoin Rock Black Series Cap Classique 2018
Extended Lees Aging
Newstead Brut Blanc de
Blancs Cap Classique 2017
L’Ormarins Private Cuvée Cap
Classique 2015
Kay & Monty Champu Blanc de Blanc Cap
Classique 2017
Rosé/Blanc de Noir
Graham Beck Pinot Noir Rosé Cap Classique 2018
Nectar (Gold medal, 93pt-95pt)
Simonsig
Satin Royale Cap Classique NV
Click
HERE to download the complete list of
winners.
