Top three rosé wines crowned

5 Oct 2017

The winners of the Pinotage Association's inaugural Pinotage Rosé Competition have been announced. All of the country's major wine-producing areas were represented, with producers vying for the Award of Excellence honouring the top three entries.

Jeremy Borg (Painted Wolf Wines), Beyers Truter (Pinotage Association), Andre Scriven (Rooiberg), Johan van der Watt (Absa), Eric Saayman (Riebeek Cellars)

“This is a very exciting addition to the competitions focusing on the different expressions of Pinotage,” said De Wet Viljoen, vice-chair of the Pinotage Association. He added that: “The winning Rosé wines are refreshing and of great quality, reiterating the vision to incorporate and support various styles and market stakeholders.”

Johan Schwartz, marketing manager of the Pinotage Association, added that it is important to build on previous successes and to grow the brand-appeal by embracing new initiatives and wine styles to broaden the consumer base.

Recipients of the 2017 Pinotage Rosé Award of Excellence:

Painted Wolf The Den Pinotage Rosé 2017 - WO Paarl

Riebeek Cellars Pinotage Rosé 2017 - WO Swartland

Rooiberg Pinotage Rosé 2017 - WO Robertson

Images Supplied

The judges were Jacques Roux (experienced judge and marketing director of DGB), Fred Viljoen and Johan Malan (proprietors and cellarmasters at Viljoensdrift and Simonsig respectively), Susan Erasmus (previously winemaker at Vrede en Lust and now at Laffort SA), Brad Gold (Cape Wine Master and head of marketing at Oak Valley) and Marené de Beer (winemaker at Altydgedacht).