The sponsors of this year’s Chenin Blanc Challenge, a leading screwcap provider to the wine industry, could not have had a more subtle sales point made: a corked champion.

While the South African sauvignon blanc posse (very sussed as to the quick-consumption link to cash-flow, according to a bright spark at our table) has embraced the screwcap as closure, most of the serious chenin blanc crowd is sticking to cork (and heavy bottles). Oye!

At the award lunch this past week, there was mild amusement when a bottle of the five-star winner, Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection chenin blanc 2008, already bedecked in award bling by the time it reached our table, turned out to be corked. To underscore the point, it was the winery’s ebullient winemaker, Bertho van der Westhuizen, who had to call for another bottle from the stock room at George Jardine’s new eatery at Jordan winery where the party took place.

The follow-up bottle was in perfect nick, and a shimmering showcase for the enticing attributes of the winner (out of 134 entries). (Although, with its high alcohol, sugar and concentration, it takes a strong constitution to drink more than a glass at a hot summer lunch.)

The first bottle was not badly corked. On the nose it may have been just slightly less bright. The colour too seemed deeper and duller than it ought. But it was on the mid-palate where the cardboardy TCA-infection showed. As usual, this is the real problem with cork-taint: when it is as slight as this, it’s the real troublemaker. An ordinary wine lover will simply think the wine is not very nice - and certainly not be living up to the acclaim of a Challenge champion.

Whether anyone told the sponsors of this year’s competition, Guala Closures, about this little promotional sales drama on the side, one doubts, but this Italian company - it’s been around since 1954 - is certainly in on the right business. Last year, it launched a screwcap called ‘Moss’ for sparkling wine.

* The February Wine magazine, which runs the annual Chenin blanc Challenge, also reports on a tasting of previous winners. It’s a fascinating report, indicating how well our chenins age. The Kanu Wooded 2002, which won in 2004 with four and a half stars, was upgraded to a full five in the ‘retrospective’ tasting. Mazeltov!