The inaugural Nedbank Green Wine Awards have come about not a moment too soon in South Africa where organic farming has increasingly become a focus in the wine industry. Additionally, organic product has become increasingly popular with South African consumers.

WINE magazine and Nedbank wanted to commend and recognise wine growers that approach their farming in a more natural and environmentally friendly way for their positive work as well as to challenge the wine industry to become more conscious of its impact on the environment.

The Green Wine Awards are two pronged: Best Wine from Organically Grown Grapes, and Best Environmental Practices Award.

Best Wine from Organically Grown Grapes

Producers were asked to submit wines made from organically grown grapes together with valid organic certification. The wines were divided into categories according to grape variety or style and tasted blind (labels un-sighted) by a five-person panel appointed by WINE magazine.

One white and one red emerged a clear step above the competition, these being Lazanou Organic Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2008 and Laibach The Ladybird Red 2007 respectively.

The Lazanou Organic Vineyards Chenin Blanc was declared the overall winner.

Best Environmental Practices Award

The aim of incorporating a second category into the Nedbank Green Wine Awards was to recognise the effort being made amongst South African wineries to farm with a view to long term environmental sustainability.

Each producer was asked to provide comprehensive details on farming practices which were then judged according to guidelines set out by the Integrated Production of Wine (South Africa?s internationally recognised voluntary sustainability scheme established in 1998) and the Biodiversity & Wine Initiative.

The judges were Inge Kotze, project coordinator for the Biodiversity & Wine Initiative, Tom McLaughlin, good business journey specialist at Woolworths, and Lourens van Schoor, a registered soil and environmental scientist and director of environmental auditing firm Enviroscientific.

The winner was Oak Valley in Elgin which will receive an IPW audit worth R11 000 sponsored by Enviroscientific for both farm and cellar. The runner up was Waverly Hills.

For a full report, including interviews with the winning wineries get the December issue of WINE magazine available in stores at R 26.95.

Are organic wines here to stay and do they match the quality of other wines? Have your say in the Comments section below.