Celebrating 40 years of Platter's Guides and 5 star wines

2020 sees 40 years of the Platter Guide, started in 1980 by John and Erica Platter, then bought by Andrew MacDowall and for the last few years under the stewardship of Diners Club, driven by Jean-Pierre Rossouw. Hat's off to editor Philip van Zyl for more than 20 years service to Platter's.

The very first copy sold for a mere R6.95 for the 1250 wines listed and contained only one chardonnnay. It is now selling for R295, containing a whopping 8000+ wines and of course plenty of chardonnays!

This year there were 125 5-star winners - with the newcomer of the year being Pieter Ferreira's private MCC Pieter Ferreira label. Has he finally reached the perfect bubble?

Winery of the year goes to Mullineux Wines, and Editors Award to Boekenhoutskloof - who have consistently produced top quality wines at great volume, with their Chocolate Block doing 100 000+ cases annually.

I am not a fan of sighted tastings and I was very aware that there were virtually no winners from 'Bo-die-Berg' - Breedekloof and Robertson. The first wave of tastings are done sighted and the same taster does the same winery for 2 years at least. So partiality is bound to happen, even though the 2nd round of tastings for 5-star contenders is then done blind.

Notwithstanding my reservations on the sighted tastings, it is still a valuable guide of note and congrats to all the contributors and award-winners.

The launch of the 2020 edition and 5-star tasting took place on Friday 8th Nov at The Table Bay Hotel in the Waterfront. 
We do love to support the V&A Waterfront, but please can this event be held in the winelands next time?