Wine is a very complicated medium. Especially for the consumer who mostly is neither a Master of Wine nor an oenologist. He has to choose from ten thousands of wines of different countries, areas, varietals, styles, prices – and an award or medal on the bottle definitely helps. It helps the consumer to choose and the producer or distributor to sell.

Because it works we face in Europe an amazing inflation of awards and medals from all over the world.

This especially since the European Commission has banned their list of controlled and recognized awards.

Check the sales folder of European retailers or discount chains. It looks like the medal collection of the United States Olympic Team.

And who knows what is serious and what is not?

The International German Wine and Spirits Association BWSI tries to monitor the market in order to secure the legislation as well as the good practices of competition.

Recently they discovered a South African Sauvignon Blanc wine awarded with a Michelangelo silver medal in a discount chain at 6.99 EUR. Producer is a very well-known winery and Estate in the area of Durbanville.

The Association’s first routine control shows that this wine sold in Germany seems to be labelled differently than the producer’s awarded wine sold in South Africa. And it is of Origin Coastal Region, other than the awarded Sauvignon Blanc which seems to be of Origin Durbanville Hills.

Beginning of December 2009 the Association asked Michelangelo for clearing - without any substantial response so far.

Some producers might look at it as a kind of “petit crime” to use awards for batches which do not correspond 100% to the awarded lot. But there is no doubt:

It is fraud! And as any fraud it will be only a question of time until it will be discovered and then disclosed to the public.

This is like playing with fire next to a petrol tank.

Can anyone of you imagine what it would mean for the reputation of South African wine if the public press (and they love this kind of topic) picked it up?

Producers and distributors – in spite of all egoism – should not forget that they also carry a responsibility to protect the interest of a whole industry.

It is a fact: serious awards are and will only be such of organisations which are able and willing to control the transparency of the producer, the number of printed awards and medals and the identity of the tasted and labelled lots.

Yes, it is a lot of work, but it is the only way to long-term reliability and existence.

Guys who do not respect rules, laws and good practices of competition and therefore risk the reputation of awards as well as the reputation of the whole industry – no matter who they are – should be banned from tastings. That’s the only way to credibility and sustainability.

Christoph Mack, Vice President International German Wine and Spirits Association BWSI, Wiesbaden, Germany. www.wein-spirituosen-verband.de

Strictly to the law- if BLOT- registered it will harvest 2010 Shiraz from a appelation- let's say Stellenbosch- and Blot indeed runs the fermentations as you say, this is what will happen, in June 2010: inspector X will look at grapebook of Blot- see it harvested 10 tons of Shiraz Origin Stellenbosch- Blot states it produced 6000 liters- "show it to me" he/she does, 3 tanks X 2000 liters. Thanks cheers.

Because it is straight varietal wine- Blot never has to submit a blending form. stating from which container came what and went where: he can just get a WSB number for his 2010 Stellenbosch Shiraz- all 6000 liters on the same number- still stating T1&2&3 each has 2000 liters in it- as it has. Altough quite possible to technically keep all his Shiraz on one WSB card- as the rules never says the wine had to be in one container at any given stage- more likely Blot will ask for three seperate WSB's for each tank as there are differences between the wines- but at labeling time: use the exact same label for each- it's 2010/ Stellenbosch/ Shiraz/ made by Blot/ with Alc X- he makes no claim of being " Dry red wine" on the label so the 6 g RS is no problem- only thing seperating these three " same " wines are there " Bustickets" and lot numbers.

Tiaan: sorry if you thought I tried to directly equate murder with the issue at hand. I was merely comparing it with some other random issue that's also wrong, albeit in hyperbolic fashion.

I also realise that this issue will be complicated to solve (or at least to make it better), but the status quo is very wrong.

Hi Tim

In this case the difference is more pronounced than the standard practice so point well taken that this case is more problematic.

But - to make it worth the trouble for the producer, how many people (read paying consumers) would really be assisted by indicating different bottlings and surely it would be even more confusing to have 3 labels under one (Vineyard Selection) range for most. Most shoppers don’t  know or care what Wine Mag is.

What would the boundaries be to establish when different bottlings are not similar enough and require differentiating labels - nobody will be able to police this and we know you cant expect the producer to do the right thing - not if it will cost them extra money and time. And of course quality can and does vary even when the technical stat for a wine is similar.

But it would be sorted if KZ would take some more trouble to ensure less variation between bottlings – but Johan loves his batches.

 Kwispedoor - A bit of a stretch from murder to confusing customers with incomplete wine labelling. I know which I would prefer to eradicate. I can at least survive the occasional surprise of an off-dry wine opened for my grilled fish.

bottling at intervals are common and it is the exception to find complete bottling runs of a wine, unless small in volume ( relative to the cellars size ) both from logistics and cash flow point of view- although under the same label you can differentiate by the "busticket" number or lot number which by law has to be on the bottle in some way shape or form.

Bottling two or more different wines under the same label is a different matter altogether and strictly by SAWIS regulations a simple feat to accomplish- a cellar buying Chenin or any other grape from a designated area, let's say Stellenbosch gets issue one WS number that covers ALL the grapes regardless of which farm it comes from, or when it was picked- when audited they take stock of all these wines and see them as the same thing- which it is, a Stellenbosch Chenin blanc. When you go to bottling and a WSB number gets issued, the same thing happens, unless a partial amount are blended with another vintage or varietal- the whole lot become one wine in the eyes of regulation- so you can bottle a unwooded Chenin in April- a lightly wooded Chenin in August- a full malo- 16 month wooded chap in May the next year...... and it's all the same thing, just different "bustickets", but on the same WSB card.

There is no way to enforce a method where a specific wine can only match up with one label- as long as the cellar makes no claim on the label which can be disputed they are allowed to do as they see fit. I doubt there was any malice or trickery involved from KZ's side, it just complicates the consumers life in knowing which recommendations or competitions to trust.