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Platinum Club Award
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The innovative
and highly popular Wine of the Month club recently presented a
luncheon at the Meerendal Wine Farm where a special guest
performance by Evita Bezuidenhout was enjoyed by all. The event was
organised to recognise the best wines in various classes as voted
for by the club. De Toren Fusion V was amongst those, and was
selected for the Platinum Club, with 15 cases of our sought after
wine being allocated. The Platinum Club is described as "for those
customers who are seeking the very best that South Africa has to
offer, and are on limited supply." Naturally we were extremely
pleased to be in such auspicious company, including that of Evita!
Thai Collard, Managing Director of the club handed out certificates to all the recipients at the event on 22 July 2005. |
| De Toren Newsletter August 2005
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Another Gold Medal from the IWSC for De Toren | |
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It has just been announced that De Toren's Fusion V 2001 has been awarded a gold medal at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in London. The IWSC is widely regarded as the most important drinks competition in the world. This is fundamentally because of the quality of the judges, the strict judging parameters and the respect the competition holds in the industry. All wines, spirits and liqueurs that enter are blind-tasted against their peers; divided by variety, region and vintage. Dave Hughes, international wine authority and judge at the IWSC, points out that the judges taste no more than 60 wines in a day, well below other competitions' tiring regimen of 100 or more. Medal winners are also all scientifically tested for purity to ensure that they are only what they claim to be – no shortcuts or embellishments are allowed, and any contaminated products are disqualified. With these strict para- |
meters, and as numerous as the global entries
are, winning a Gold medal at the IWSC is a great
achievement. The judges' tasting notes of the 2001 De Toren Fusion V
read: “Deep purple with bright rim. Rich
blackcurrant fruit on the nose with ripe plum, cherry and sweet
spice. Floral notes of violet and dark rose fill in at the back with
vanilla and cinnamon. Big, full mouth loaded with ripe berry fruits
and sweet spice all in fine order with good acidity and soft, supple
tannins. Beautifully balanced with great elegance. Ripe fruit
continues into long finish where supple tannins give good grip.
Accessible now yet will reward further with aging.”
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Diversity and Fusion competing
well with the Goliaths from Bordeaux
During June Dale and myself toured Europe to visit our distributors and offer support to their marketing efforts. In Germany we appointed new distributors during 2004 and they wanted to use this opportunity to introduce our wines to the Sommelliers of Berlin. During 3 days at the Grand Westin Hotel in Berlin, we invited Sommelliers from the top rated restaurants and hotels to experience a tasting with a difference. We dubbed it David and Goliath. During the first two sessions De Toren Fusion V and Diversity were tasted in a blind line up with 2001 Chateau Lynch Bages; 2001 Chateau Cos d'Estournel, 2001 Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron; 2001 Chateau Du Cru Beaucaillou; 2000 Chateau Cantermerle and 2000 Alter Ego de Palmer. The last session had the big guns - 2001 Chateau Lafite Rothschild; Chateau Mouton Rothschild; 1998 Chateaux Margeaux; 1999 Italian Great - Sassicaia; American Icon 2000 Opus One and 1997 Chateau Ausone. Not only were some French wines selected as South African, but no one identified the wine from De Toren as New World. Furthermore the two wines from De Toren were rated in the top 3 of the wines tasted by the panels. To really bring the point home, the prices were revealed and this is really where De Toren was the David under amongst the perceived Goliaths. The other wines tasted were between two and 12 times the price of De Toren Fusion V 2002! |
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formats
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To celebrate the launch of the 2003 Vintages from De Toren, we decided to bottle some large format bottles. Unfortunately all these wines have been sold en primeur. We have bottled 10 x 3 litre bottles though these have not been pre-sold. These will only be available directly from the farm. With the really neat packaging we believe this to be a great way of commemorating a special event! |
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Also new for the restaurant trade is our new half bottle. The demand for this packaging came from Europe where the legal alcohol limit for driving has been reduced once again. |
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| Fusion V 2003 Pre-Released and already Best in Class at IWSC | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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The De Toren Fusion V 2003 will be released later on this year and already it has received recognition at a very young and tender age at the highly respected International Wine and Spirits competition. This exceptional vintage has given us the classic red fruit flavours and retains the distinctive Fusion V nose. The wine is young and powerful and will age for at least 15 years. (See the IWSC Judges notes above) |
DECANTING:
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Secrets of Our Success
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Albie Koch has a special photograph in his office
with a caption "You make a bad wine. You drink it
yourself". He is so petrified with this concept that
he sometimes does not even want to blend Fusion and Diversity. For
this reason he has cunningly shifted the responsibility and
assembled 3 panels to help us with the blending selection.
During the year Albie, Emil and Ernest taste the various batches of
the wines in the barrels at least once a month. We do this to track
the development of the individual wines and to begin selecting the
batches that will be allocated to Fusion V and Diversity and
thereafter those that do not make the grade and will be sold off in
bulk. |
After all, it is the consumer who must drink the wine, and not just us. Our panels consist of selected consumers, wine judges, the press, distributors, wine masters and ourselves. During these sessions, where 10 possible variants are evaluated, discussions will usually take place that will influence the next line up. At the end of the period and after some 30 possibilities are evaluated, the final decision is made. It is amazing what a difference of just 1 or 2 percent of a certain varietal can make in a blend! Nevertheless, and not surprisingly there has always been strong consensus as to the winner. |
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An auctioneering | |
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A stunning charity auction was recently held at the picturesque Nova Constantia in support of the Ikhwezi Langomso Trust (the stars of tomorrow), which teaches painting and reading to children in the New Crossroads township. Items donated on the evening included fine works of art, stunning holiday destinations, restaurant dinners and a once-off signed 6L bottle of De Toren FusionV 2000 Director's Reserve, recently voted one of the 5 best wines in the world at a challenge in Switzerland. Wine enthusiast Rick Garratt was the successful bidder at R20000, and looked greatly pleased with his purchase. |
The Ikhwezi Langomso Trust currently supports 14 children and will follow them for the next 8 to 10 years, ideally creating scholarships for each child and creating tertiary education opportunities. It's a small focus group which will have a strong impact on the community of New Crossroads.
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