Hamilton Russell Vineyards was announced as the “top achiever” and “Wine Cellar of the Year” for 2012 at the South African Wine Index (“SAWi”) wine awards held on August 22nd in Cape Town.
We are particularly proud of this award given that the South African Wine Index reviews 44 different national and international competitions over a three year period to compile a score for a particular wine. This generates a performance indicator for a wine which is much closer to what we would term “the collective wisdom of the marketplace” than a score given at a single tasting at a particular point in time.
In addition to winning Wine Cellar of the Year, our winemaker Hannes Storm won “Winemaker of the Year”, our viticulturist Johan Montgomery won “Viticulturist of the Year” and our supervisor Colin Jonkers won “Vineyard Supervisor of the Year”, in recognition of the extremely powerful team we have dedicated to wine quality.
Both our wines (our only wines) the Hamilton Russell Vineyards Pinot noir and Hamilton Russell Vineyards Chardonnay achieved “Platinum Awards”, the highest possible award requiring a score of 95/100 and above, while our Chardonnay was awarded “White Wine of the Year”.
(At another competition, the UK’s International Wine Challenge, our Chardonnay won the South African Chardonnay Trophy.)
I am extremely grateful for the sustained very hard work our team puts into growing and making exceptional Pinot noir and Chardonnay year after year and it has been wonderful to see this so clearly recognised. I am also extremely grateful for the ongoing enthusiasm our customers have shown for our wines.