A young champion from South Africa

If you crave something new to amaze and amuse your friends, the recent South Africa National Young Wine Show (SANYWS) results might offer some helpful suggestions.

The annual event gives SA wineries a chance to showcase their most recent vintages prior to blending and bottling. Thus, winners often are subsumed in blends. However, one of this year's major winners caught my eye because it will be released in its winning state later this year.

Graham Beck Wines’ 2007 Pheasants’ Run Sauvignon Blanc won the prestigious John McDonald Trophy for the Best Sauvignon Blanc.

The victory is no fluke. Beck winemaker Erika Obermeyer (left) won the same tropy for her 2005 vintage at that year's SDANYWS as well as double golds at the 2005 Michelangelo International Wine Awards and Veritas Awards. She twice has been a finalist at the SA Woman Wine Maker of the Year Awards, in 2005 and 2006, with the Graham Beck Wines’ Pheasants’ Run.

According to the winery, "Earlier vintages of this wine were made from grapes grown at a high-quality vineyard in Durbanville, from which the name Pheasants’ Run is derived (the original farm’s name is Fisante Kraal, the Afrikaans phrase for ‘The Gathering of the Pheasants’). The 2007 vintage, however, was made from grapes sourced at Graham Beck Wines’ best coastal vineyard in Firgrove, near Stellenbosch as well as Durbanville and Darling vineyards."

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