The mysterious discrepancy I noted in an addition to my last article between the analysis given for the Chenin Challenge winner in Wine mag and for the same wine on the Klein Zalze website is explained. They are not the same wine. There was no intention to deceive the competition organisers, but it's ... a pretty odd situation to say the least. If you bought the wine on its initial release you got an entirely different wine from the one that won the competition.
In fact there were three separate bottlings of Klein Zalze Vineyard Selection Chenin Blanc, all of them different, as explained by Kleine Zalze co-owner Kobus Basson (see his letter posted as a comment to the article).
July 2008 bottling: This came from grapes "picked before the early rain of the 2008 harvest". The residual sugar was 2.8 grams per litre, and the alcohol 14.65. (As per the website information, and the information that all the online dealers are quoting.) It amounted to about 30% of the eventual total production, and 80% of it was exported.
September 2008 bottling: This and the third batch were from a post-rain harvest. Clearly the grapes were very much higher in sugar now. This bottling has "an alcohol near to 15 and RS near 6" says Mr Basson.
October 2008 bottling: Alcohol 15.18, residual sugar 7.2g/l. This bottling constituted 5022 bottles out of the total 35 372.
That is, the wine that won the Challenge is a mere 14% of the wine bearing the label "Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Chenin Blanc 2008". Put the other way round, 86% of wines with that label are not the same as the winner. On the strength of that, are Kleine Zalze claiming that "Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Chenin Blanc 2008" won the Chenin Challenge?
Consumers can decide if this, presumably entirely legal, procedure is ethically acceptable.
I notice that the picture of the bottle in Wine mag shows a number of award stickers on it - including that of the International Wine Challenge. I wonder if this and the other awards were won with the same bottling that the picture relates to? I wonder if the bottles currently on the shelves carry those award stickers, and if they are the same wine that the stickers were won for. If not, that is a significant misrepresentation of the true situation.
If it is the case that the packaging misrepresents the awards, I'd say that it is more than regrettable practice by one of our leading producers. I can't say, anyway, that I think very highly of the idea of three very different bottlings being sold under essentially the same label either. If Kleine Zalze had been open about this procedure in the interview they gave to Wine mag, it would be less of a problem. In the absence of such an open explanation (that the winning wine was a very small percentage of the wine under this label), many winelovers will have been deceived.
Those winelovers can decide precisely how this all relates to the scandal over Wither Hills in 2006, when there were identically labelled but separate bottlings of their 2006 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. One blend, it seems, went to the public, the other to critics and competitions (see the Wine Spectator story on this). I don't think that this is anything like that, but the Wither Hills scandal should have warned Kleine Zalze about the dangers of separate bottlings of a wine going into public competitions where they will be closely scrutinised.
Submitted by Tim James on 20 January, 2010 - 17:09
See comments below......
Shenanigans at the Chenin Challenge
ReplyDeleteby: Cathy Marston
The pigs are flying and the vultures are circling around the Chenin Blanc Challenge
Hooray, hooray!! The pigs are flapping lazily past the treetops, Satan and all his little devils are practising their double axels on the ice and Neil Pendock is being nice to Tim James!! An exciting scandal is brewing yet again in the wine world, this time over the results of the Guala Closures Chenin Blanc Challenge and, with the normally opposing forces of Pendock (Sunday Times) and James (Grape Online) weighing in together for once, one wonders where it will go?
The scandal is an interesting one – is the wine which won, the same as the wine you can actually buy on the shelves? The analysis of the three wines offered under the same label differs in terms of residual sugar and alcohol, in the case of the sugar by as much as 157%! A reply from the owner of Kleine Zalze, the winery in question, explains that there have been different bottlings of the same wine and the one which actually entered the Chenin Challenge made up only about 14% of the total production.
The grapes were picked in different batches and the wine was made and bottled from each batch individually as it was picked, which, to be honest, is not how I expect a wine to be made. I think they should have either blended all the batches together to make one single, uniform wine or – if there really was so much difference, and one batch was so vastly superior to the others - then perhaps it should have been bottled under a separate label.
Let me just say that I have no problem with the actual bottle of wine which won – the Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection 2008 – it was utterly delicious and I am sure it was a worthy winner. But I can’t help feeling a little cheated on behalf of everyone else who has bought that bottle beforehand, in particular restaurateurs for whom consistency of product is absolutely crucial to success.
The upshot is yet more confusion for a grape variety which, frankly, cannot handle any extra confusion in the minds of the consumer. If this scandal runs and runs then consumers, restaurateurs, retailers are all likely to lose confidence in the competition and the winery which would be a pity on both counts. But at the end of the day, the biggest loser from all this, will be Chenin Blanc.
submitted by Angela Lloyd on 20 January, 2010 -18:44.
ReplyDeleteRe: Undrinkably good chenin
It's sad but apparently true that producers are at best playing unethically, at worst, plain cheating - think Diner's Club Winemaker of the Year Award x 3, a Wine mag Shiraz Challenge some years ago, also involving Kleine Zalze, Veritas double gold KWV doctored Sauvignon Blanc - and maybe others, undetected.
But surely those who run these competitions are aware of such deceipts and should be that much more careful in a) setting out the rules and regulations and b) checking the results thoroughly before announcing the winners. That said, I find it utterly depressing at the sleights of hand and the way the organisers try to talk their way out of trouble afterwards.
Submitted by rosssleet on 20 January, 2010 - 16:37.
ReplyDeleteKleine Zalze reply to comment
For and on behalf of Kobus Basson, Managing Director Kleine Zalze Wines
Dear Tim
Thank you for your email enquiry regarding the information on our website on our Vineyard Selection Chenin Blanc 2008.
The production details of our Vineyard Selection Chenin Blanc of the 2008 vintage are as follows:
• 10951 bottles were bottled in July 2008
• 19399 bottles were bottled in September 2008
• 5022 bottles were bottled on 31 October 2008
The first batch of the 2008 vintage which was bottled was made from a crop which was picked before the early rain of the 2008 harvest. This wine was fermented dry (RS 2.8 & Alc 14.65) and represented approximately 30% of our production selected for the Vineyard Selection Range. Approximately 80% of this bottling of the wine was exported soon after bottling and was predominantly sold in the On Trade.
The wine bottled with the second and third batches was made from grapes picked after the spell of rain which fell during the harvest. Due to the condition of the grapes, the wine underwent a much longer fermentation period than the wine made from the first batch of grapes which were harvested.
During September 2008 we ran out of the first batch and proceeded to bottle the next batch of wine. The analysis of the wine bottled in the second batch was similar to the third and last batch which was bottled later. (with an alcohol near to 15 and RS near 6)
The third and last batch was bottled on 31 October 2008 (Alc 15.18 and RS 7.2). The winemaking team believed that the wine from this last bottling would mature the best and it was held back for selling in the market until the previous batches were sold out. The wine bottled in the second batch was sold out by the middle of 2009 where after we released the wine bottled in the third and last batch.
The Chenin Blanc Challenge entry form (attached) was completed in November 2009.
In accordance with the rules of the competition, we reserved 200 cases, which rendered the 2008 vintage sold out. In fact we had to retrieve a few cases from the market in order to make up the 200 cases required. We then moved onto selling the 2009 vintage wines. The 200 cases held in reserve was thus the only wine of this vintage available at the time of entry to the competition.
The RS and alcohol levels published on our website are those of the first bottling done for the 2008 vintage. The wine submitted to the Chenin Blanc challenge was the final of three bottling runs done for this vintage. Due to an oversight our website information was not updated to reflect the analysis of the wine of the final bottling. This oversight will be rectified immediately. As indicated the correct analysis and information of the wine entered was supplied for purposes of the competition.
If you have any further questions in this regard then please feel free to contact me.
Best regards
Kobus Basson