Yonder Hill Scores Pole Position in Top12wines.com

Yonder Hill Merlot 2008 was given the chequered flag by an independent wine tasting panel from top12wines.com.
Top12.wines.com was founded by Frank Dasse who puts together an amateur wine enthusiast panel who partake in tastings of wines in different categories. Merlot was the most recent tasting and Dasse feels that the results of these tastings are a better perception of what the public enjoy and purchase. “I’m happy that people go on the website to check the current results and as we have more and more tastings of the same category, then one can see the temporary overall ranking. On top of that, it is about wines we are passionate about. I find it fun to follow, a little bit like Formula One”, comments Dasse.

For more information visit www.yonderhill.co.za and www.top12wines.com

67 MINUTES

Today Yonder Hill visited the ACVV Bright Light Shelter Somerset West which houses 28 boys and feeds over 30 children and 8 adults daily. This is a government owned shelter and is in desperate need of food, children’s clothes, sanitary products, educational toys and, more importantly, people who want to assist in making a difference to the shelter. Yonder Hill spent their 67minutes wisely today by feeding the inhabitants of ACVV with boerewors rolls and playing games with the children. Today`s visit made us realise that there is a big need for these future young leaders of South Africa and we want to make a notable difference in these children’s lives, even if it is by making a small monthly donation in any form. Let’s make every day a Madiba Day! Stand up and do your part! As Nelson Madela said: “We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right”.

We are donating 67 bottles of Yonder Hill wines valued at R2500.00 to be raffled.  All money will be donated to the Bright Light Shelter.  To buy a ticket in the raffle,  contact Susan / Carmen on 021 8551008.  Tickets will be on sale from 19/07 - 19/08.  Ticket price R5.00 each.

For any queries on how to donate contact Bettie / Andre at ACVV Bright Light Shelter Somerset West:
STREET ADDRESS: 15 Edgar Street, Somerset West
TELEPHONE: 021 851 2414
FAX: 021 851 2414
EMAIL: acvvbright@telkomsa.net


The ladies looking after the children

SOME OF THE CHILDREN 

 PS: TO ALL THE PEOPLE TAKING CARE OF THESE CHILDREN, WE SALUTE YOU!!!

Working on merlot

Submitted by Michael Fridjhon on 27 June, 2011 - 08:08

http://www.grape.co.za/users/michael_fridjhon/blog/2011-06-27-working_merlot.html

In the world of South African wine buffs Merlot has assumed the polecat position previously occupied by Pinotage. For most of the past two decades a seat on the Pinotage tasting panel was the official short straw for a local wine judge. While the overseas panellists frequently sought the Pinotage slot (because of its exotic-for-foreigners status), the South Africans squawked as if they had been condemned to a line-up of Egyptian Shiraz.

At the time, there were sound grounds for the brace-yourself-Sheila attitude of the rent-a-palates: too many Pinotage producers valued tradition above cellar hygiene, and tannin above flavour. Real men, so the subtext went, considered the acetone, green and chunky textures of unevenly ripened and poorly made Pinotage the most delicate thing to have crossed their lips since their last baboon tartare, scraped fresh off the cow-bar of the bakkie.



It took a lot to change this. Leadership came from within, from the persuasive example of people such as Beyers Truter - at Kanonkop and then at Beyerskloof - rather than from the flying winemakers. (They showed it could be done but were as welcome as Teddy Kennedy lecturing the apartheid regime on the importance of morality in government.) In the past five years Pinotage has provided some of the most exciting new style wines - with established cellars (Kanonkop and Lanzerac) sharing the limelight with relative newcomers like Manley, Tokara, Painted Wolf and Rijks.



Meanwhile Merlot filled the slot of ugliest sister at the dance. Partly this is because incompetent Pinotage producers don't have a monopoly on sloppy winemaking. When you work with an unforgiving variety, whatever you do badly is dramatically magnified. Uneven ripeness is harder to hide, unevolved tannins greener and more evident. On a scrawny beast all flesh seems angular.



The planting material has also been problematic. Many of the vineyards were established with an Italian clone which fails to deliver the textures ordinarily associated with Merlot in Bordeaux (and in the US). The wines seem to pass from under- ripe to Porty without achieving an intermediate stage of juicy. Then there is the question of location. It was assumed that, like other more versatile varieties, Merlot would flourish wherever there was soil, sunlight and water. This is obviously not true for any cultivar of which high quality, fine wine is expected. Still, it seems that Merlot is a picky princess, ready to make you suffer for not treating her properly.



Happily the Merlot producers have been more proactive than many in addressing the problems associated with their chosen variety. Led by Luca Bein (of Bein Vineyards in Stellenbosch) they have been looking at what can be done to optimise wine quality from existing vineyards, and how to improve the quality of the plantings. There are now signs suggesting some sites consistently perform better than others - though whether this is a result of geology, or the aptitude of the producer is not always clear. For example, the latest vintage of Shannon Vineyard's Mount Bullet - the 2008 earned a five-star award in Platter - looks pretty good. Is this because of the clone, the location, or the skills of the viticulturist and the winemaker?



Hillcrest, in Durbanville, which in 2007 won the Merlot Trophy at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, this year got a gold medal for the 2009 and the trophy for the 2008. This is very much a product of a single location, improved clonal material and dedicated work in the vineyard. (Winemaker Graeme Read only produces eight barrels from the site.)



Yonder Hill, Meerlust, Nederburg, Marklew and Meerendal are all performing well at the moment. In some cases there appears to be a pattern (many of the vineyards enjoy a distinct maritime influence, for example). But whether this is causal or coincidental is not yet clear: in short, there's still plenty of work to be done by the Merlot think-tank.



From Business Day, 24 June 2011