Andrea Freeborough takes honours at the 2010 taste off

Stellenbosch, South Africa, Tuesday 20 July: Andrea Freeborough, cellar master at the Bergkelder in Stellenbosch, clinched the coveted 2010 Landbouweekblad SA Woman Winemaker of the year title with her 2009 Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest.

Fleur du Cap, home of Fleur du Cap’s wines is one of South Africa’s most established and celebrated wine labels and belongs to the Distell group.

Andrea was born and raised in the Eastern Cape. She says that she knew winemaking was her career of choice after a holiday on a wine farm in the Helderberg when she was only fourteen years old.

Andrea studied at the University of Stellenbosch, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture, specialising in Viticulture and Oenology. She continued her studies and was awarded an honours degree in both viticulture and oenology in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Shortly thereafter Andrea packed her bags to work a vintage in Australia, but before her departure was offered the assistant winemaking position at Neethlingshof. From there she joined Nederburg where she took on the responsibility for white wine production.

"I love what I do, every vintage brings with it its own challenges and opportunities and I enjoy the fact that there is not a lot of predictability when you make wine. You work with what nature gives you, and my aim is to make wines that will appeal to social wine lovers, as well as wine experts alike" says Andrea.

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Andrea wowed the judges with her 2009 Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest, a wine made from 90% Chenin Blanc, 6% Semillon and 4% Weisser Reisling. Andrea’s win was no lucky coincidence as the wine that scored the second highest mark was also made by her: a 2009 Unfiltered Fleur du Cap Chardonnay.

She beat 77 wine entries from 32 woman winemakers across South Africa in this year’s competition, which is sponsored by Landbouweekblad, the country’s leading agriculture and agri-business publication. The competition took place for the seventh time this year and entries showed a marked increase from the 2009 competition where 64 wines from 28 winemakers were tasted.

The 2010 competition was judged in one round only as the interview leg of the judging had been done away with.

The decision was taken because nowadays all winemakers are expected to be more than a winemaker, but an ambassador for their winery and ultimately South Africa. Whereas the second round of judging (personal interviews with the judges) in the past was aimed at finding an ambassador and role model from the top entrants, "that seems somewhat redundant now," says Lorraine Immelman, founder of the competition.

According to Marilyn Cooper, head of the Cape Wine Academy and president of the judging panel, it was definitely a year for white wines to shine as the judging panel was extremely impressed with the quality of the white wines that were entered. She also remarked that there was a substantial increase in the number of Cap Classique entries. “As judges we are delighted to reward and recognise the importance of women in the world of wine, this competition is a celebration, not only of world class wines, but world class woman winemakers representing South Africa.”

Apart from Cooper, the panel included, Ntsiki Biyela, last year’s winner and winemaker at Stellekaya; Jo-Anne Mettler, wine judge and PRO at L’Ormarins; Cathy Marston, wine writer from the UK and Cathy van Zyl, a British master of wine, and wine judge.

The winning winemaker wins a cash prize of R25 000 and the Landbouweekblad Woman Winemaker of the Year Trophy.

Previous winners are: Ivy du Toit-Oates from Jason's Hill Private Cellar, Debbie Thompson from Simonsig, Eleonor Visser, formerly from Winecorp, Susan Wessels from Vrede en Lust, Erika Obermeyer from Graham Beck wines in Franschhoek and Ntsiki Biyela from Stellekaya.

The winner’s labels are printed and supplied by international label printing company, Collotype, which has its South African subsidiary based in Paarl.

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