Issue 24   October – December 2004

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The metal price

The high (and sometimes hidden) costs of trying to win medals

Myrna Robins overheard a couple of new, young and enthusiastic winemakers discussing the cost of entering their wines into competitions and shows. They were bandying about some horrific figures, which sounded hugely exaggerated. To an extent, they were just that – but it is clear some wineries are spending a lot of money on such things (which might be cheaper and more effective than advertising if the wines do well, but of course the customer is paying anyway).

Curious to know what it does in fact cost (directly and indirectly) to compete, Myrna asked the organisers.

In the listings below we have not considered the costs of travelling and accom-modation to promotional tastings and award ceremonies or to attend overseas contests, nor the costs of delivering wines – clearly substantial in the case of the three overseas competitions used as examples here.

bullet Absa Bank Top Ten Pinotage Competition

Owned/organised by: Pinotage Producers' Association (sponsored)
Fee per wine: R320 (PPA members) or R800 (others)
Samples required: 6 bottles (but if wine also entered for Veritas, those samples can be used by both judging panels)

bulletCap Classique Challenge

Owned/organised by: Wine magazine (sponsored)
Fee per wine: R200
Samples required: 3 bottles
Other requirements: 12 additional bottles for the award function and promotion

bulletChenin Blanc Challenge

Owned/organised by: Wine magazine (sponsored)
Fee per wine: R175
Samples required: 4 bottles.

bulletClassic Wine Trophy

Owned/organised by: Jean-Vincent Ridon (sponsored)
Fee per wine: R250
Samples required: 6 bottles

bulletDiners Club Winemaker of the Year

Owned/organised by: Diners Club
Fee per wine: none
Samples required: 4 bottles
Other requirements: Winner to donate 36 bottles for the Awards function

bulletDiners Club Young Winemaker of the Year

Owned/organised by: Diners Club
Fee per wine: none
Samples required: 4 bottles
Other requirements: Winner to donate 36 bottles for the Awards function

bulletFairbairn Capital Trophy Wine Show

Owned/organised by: Wine magazine and Michael Fridjhon (sponsored)
Fee per wine: R484.50
Samples required: 4 bottles
Other: 18 bottles available for tastings and 25 cases available to the show organisers at trade price

bulletJuliet Cullinan Cape Wine Masters Awards

Owned/organised by: Juliet Cullinan (sponsored)
Fee per wine: none (for participants at the Juliet Cullinan Wine festival)
Samples required: 4 bottles
Other: additional for the public tasting event

bulletMichelangelo International Wine Awards

Owned/organised by: Lorraine Immelman-Steyn (sponsored)
Fee per wine: R380
Samples required: 6 bottles
Other: A minimum of 288 bottles of award-winning wines are required for tastings

bulletPeter Schulz Excellence Awards

Owned/organised by: Port Producers' Association / Wine magazine
Fee per wine: none
Samples required: 3 bottles

bulletSAA Wine Selection

Owned/organised by: South African Airways
Fee per wine: R200 (goes to help disadvantaged oenology students)

bulletSA Young Wine Show

Owned/organised by: SA National Wine Show Association
Fee per wine: R153.90
Samples required: 3

bulletShiraz Challenge

Owned/organised by: Wine magazine (sponsored)
Held for the first time in 2004. No entry fee.

bulletSwiss International Air Lines Wine Awards

Owned/organised by: Swiss International Air Lines and Christine Cashmore
Fee per wine: R300 (waived for exhibitors at the Cape Gourmet Festival's Good Food & Wine Show)

bulletVeritas Awards

Owned/organised by: SA National Wine Show Association (sponsored)
Fee per wine: R581.40
Samples required: 6 bottles (750ml; different requirements for other sizes)

bulletWine Magazine's Best Value Wines Awards

Owned/organised by: Wine magazine
Fee per wine: R114
Samples required: 4 bottles

 

Three foreign competitions frequently entered by SA wineries

bulletInternational Wine and Spirit Competition

Fee per wine: £120
Samples required: 3 bottles (delivered to UK)

bulletInternational Wine Challenge

Owned/organised by: Wine International magazine
Fee per wine: £80
Samples required: 6 bottles (delivered to UK)

bulletConcours Mondial de Bruxelles

Fee per wine: 135 euros (scaling down to 98 euros for more than 10 wines)
Samples required: 4 bottles (delivered to Belgium)

 
THE CASE OF VERGELEGEN

Some wineries clearly spend a great deal of money entering competitions; on the other hand, there are small ones which claim they cannot easily afford to enter. To get an idea of costs to a winery, we asked Eddie Turner, marketing manager of Vergelegen, what they spend each year on entering competitions. For a fairly limited number of competitions entered, Vergelegen's basic bill is around R45 000 annually – about R1 for each case of wine they produce. This is put into perspective, incidentally, by Vergelegen's budget for exhibition fees in 2004: approximately R100 000 – and that is just for space and stand, excluding the costs of travel, acommodation, wine, etc.