September 2007    by Graham Beck Wines

Graham Beck Wines’ 2007 Pheasant's Run Sauvignon Blanc has outrun competitors at the recent SA National Young Wine Show (SANYWS), with its being awarded the prestigious John McDonald Trophy for the Best Sauvignon Blanc. The annual SA National Young Wine Show affords wineries the opportunity to showcase their most recent vintages prior to blending and bottling. So often winning wines at the SANYWS end up in blends and are lost to the market in their winning guise. Not so with Graham Beck Wines’ 2007 Pheasants’ Run Sauvignon Blanc, which is to be released in its winning state later this year. 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.

Erika Obermeyer, Graham Beck Wines’ winemaker at their postmodern Franschhoek cellar, is passionate about Sauvignon Blanc and the fresh, vibrant and pure aromas found in top class examples of this wine. She zealously embraces the challenge of capturing the freshness of the fruit and encapsulating this in the wine. She has, without a doubt, succeeded in this endeavour with the 2007 Pheasants’ Run, which is a true expression of this varietal, showing intense tropical fruit and ripe fig with asparagus and tinned peas and great complexity, fruit intensity and elegance with a crispy freshness.

It is unsurprising that this superb wine, the 2007 Pheasants’ Run, has won this award, as its pedigree boasts a litany of awards to date, including: the same Trophy for Erika’s maiden 2005 vintage of the Pheasants’ Run Sauvignon Blanc at the 2005 SANYWS, and Double Golds at the 2005 Michelangelo International Wine Awards and Veritas Awards. And Erika has twice been a finalist at the SA Woman Wine Maker of the Year Awards, in 2005 and 2006, with the Graham Beck Wines’ Pheasants’ Run.

What makes the Pheasants’ Run Sauvignon such a winner? Winemaker Erika Obermeyer attributes this predominantly to her inextinguishable passion for Sauvignon Blanc, and what she elliptically alludes to as the “feeling or relationship between her and the vineyard”. Erika expounds that “There is no better way to get to know a wine than to listen to what the vineyard has to say, and listening ever-closer as ripening becomes more imminent.” Erika spends a significant amount of time in the vineyards during the ripening period, regularly tasting grapes to gauge optimal ripeness.

Notwithstanding the importance of sophisticated cellar techniques, attention to detail, the balance of the vine and the merits of analysis and capturing and maintaining the flavour until the wine is bottled; Erika’s approach is far more experiential than scientific and, for her, the challenge essentially lies in the timing and confidence that one has best captured the freshness of the fruit. “Because of the popularity of the Sauvignon Blanc category, it is a great privilege to walk away with this Trophy,” concludes an elated Erika Obermeyer.