South Africa’s Breede River Valley Du Toitskloof Winery last week treated wine lovers and collectors to a wine tasting experience at the Phakalane Golf Estate.
The wine tasting event had two white wines, four wine and dessert wines. Du Toitskloof winery has about 11 years of branding wines and producing approximately 12 million bottles of wines a year.
Wine lovers were basically assessing the wine’s unique colour, aroma and flavours, describing and recording each wine they had. The guests also shared their thoughts and humour on each wine.
The wines offered a cascade of tastes and styles, all with a distinctive sense of place.
Du Toitskloof wine Production Manager, Shawn Thomson, said their wines have always been around for their quality and affordability. He revealed that they have won three gold medals at the Michecalangelo wine awards in 2010. He said white Sauvignon Blanc has been doing well in the market and got two gold medals in Germany for best imported white wine.
Thomson stated that they produce 14 000 tonnes of grapes for wine in a year of which sixty percent are white grapes and forty are red grapes. He said red pinotage wine is put inside wine wood for four to six months before being bottled while merlot is put in the wood for eight to twelve months.
“We aim to keep the flavour of the wine not the taste of the wood,” said Thomson.
He added that they started 11 years ago, focusing on selling in South Africa and added that Du Toitskloof is one of the top 10 wines in South Africa. He said it is also exported to the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Germany. Thomson stated that they keep ahead of competition because of being open to new ideas and also because of a team of experienced long-time employees.
“Quality must be above price and fruit must be above wood,” said Thomson.
The tasting session started with both red and white younger wines and ended with more mature ones.
Marketing Manager, Nico Smith, took wine tasters through a variety of steps on how best to enjoy their wines. He said a description of different types of wine begins with classification, stating that more recent white wines are much tastier while young red wines are bitter.
Smith said different wines are taken for enjoyment on their own, at any formal occasion, at the poolside, around a convivial dinner table or braai.
