Everywhere I look, I encounter experienced wine lovers who seem comprehensively averse to wine stickers. I’m trying to understand this.
Now I acknowledge that a handful of judging panels and a few pieces of foil will never fully capture all the excellence that is out there to be lauded. They can be prone to flights of fancy, foul moods, or hormonal imbalances. I also acknowledge that entering competitions can be prohibitively expensive, and that some of the most exciting producers may feel completely excluded by a system that demands cash up front with no promise of any sort of marketing value whatsoever. BUT I still can’t get my head around a mindset that actively avoids wines with stickers on them.
South Africa produces roughly 9000 wines. The consumer really needs all the help it can get to find the goodies.
Also South Africa’s middle upper class wine buying market is tiny. So wine producers looking to sell locally need all the help that they can get. Surely medal stickers are, at their worst, unreliable (as many opinions are), and, in a best case scenario, a guiding light for the aspiring wine explorer.

Wine Sticker haters, what am I missing here? Is this an appeal to the Law of Small Numbers? Help me, Obi Wans. You’re my only hope.
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