Johannesburg — THE Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Award is one of SA's longest running wine competitions. Established in about 1980 by Hugh Peatling, then CEO of Diners Club, and the late Peter Devereux, it sought to identify the best wine in a different category each year, and thus reward the winemaker who produced it.

In many ways, the competition reflected the era. The spirit of hype that had just entered the South African wine industry tempted the organisers into the misnomer with which the event has since been burdened. The name implies -- clearly incorrectly -- that the laureate is the country's best winemaker, rather than simply a category winner. The focus on the winemaker, rather on the place, or the role of the viticulturist, also places it squarely in that age. Still, Peter Devereux came from the advertising industry and he knew that to sell the concept, and the marketability of the show, he needed to keep it simple. The single-minded focus on a champion was the obvious way to go. For more than the first decade of its existence the competition made no mention even of a runner-up, or a top 10.

Still, over the years the Diners Club award has enjoyed good credibility and garnered great publicity for its sponsor. I judged it for most of the first 15 years or so -- while Peter Devereux was still running the event. I lived with the arcane regulations he put in place to keep judges from influencing each other and to protect those who entered (but didn't win) from the downside of not having been identified as the Cape's best. I can say that even the panellists had no idea (on most occasions) who might appear at the awards function as the winning winemaker -- but by and large we were gratified by the evidence of our perspicacity when the champion made his (or her) entrance.

To judge from the laureates over the years, the competition succeeds in identifying the widely regarded frontrunners of a particular class. No more so than this year, when the team picked out Boekenhoutskloof's 2005 Syrah and Marc Kent as SA's top shiraz producer. Kent has consistently made some of the country's best shiraz since his maiden vintage 1997. Incidentally, I tasted this wine last year alongside the best known of the cult offerings. It stood head and shoulders above a wine which sells for nearly R500 a bottle.

While there are those who argue that his first release may have been his best wine (mainly because he had access to an old vineyard which was then immediately replanted) no one can gainsay his achievements over the years. A string of John Platter five-star awards -- some for cabernet, admittedly, but also for shiraz -- have been the most tangible measure of the recognition accorded him. At a blind tasting of South African, French and Australian shirazes earlier this year, his wine topped the local ratings, sharing the podium with a French wine made by the overseas judge who came out to join the Diner s Club panel in October.

Since there are now -- in the post-Devereux era -- no secrets about the other contenders for the crown, the line-up of top-rated wines is revealed. It shows the panel did a pretty good job. The Boschendal Reserve 2004, Hartenberg's The Stork 2004 and La Motte's Pierneef Shiraz Viognier 2005 all have awards or high ratings from other panels. Spier, Stellenzicht, Rijk's, Thelema and Vergelegen need no introduction to wine lovers. Fort Simon and Groot Constantia have bags of medals between them while Black Pearl and Tamboerskloof both have cult followings.

The Diners Club award has seen its share of brand proliferation. The success of the Winemaker of the Year award spawned a Wine List of the Year Award -- a good start which, until it rates wine stewardship, stemware and the establishment's wine-friendliness, has limited usefulness.

More recently there is the Young Winemaker of the Year Award -- which rewards the under-30-year-old cellarmasters. Allowing for the fact that many of the country's best winemakers now fall into this age group, at least this prize has the virtue of nurturing talent.

This year's winner was Steenberg's Ruth Penfold for her 2007 Semillon. Other contenders for this crown included Uva Mira's Matthew van Heerden and Cape Point's Duncan Savage.