Under the Parker spotlight

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

It was announced earlier this year that UK master of wine and wine writer Neal Martin would take over responsibility for reviewing South African wines for Robert Parker’s influential Wine Advocate and eRobert Parker.com.

At the time, I made contact with Martin, wanting to find out what his view on South African wine was. He declined to comment, saying that he’d not visited the country nor tasted enough South African wine to be able to form a proper judgement. I was impressed that he didn’t shoot from the hip and have a stock reply. That was back in April. In May he set foot on Boland soil for the first time, visiting to judge at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show as well as taste an extensive range of wines in the weeks that followed.

At the Trophy Wine Show feedback session he said he’d been impressed by two things in particular – and this was after just four days. Firstly, the older examples of South African wines – a Lanzerac Pinotage from the ’60s specifically. “That wine could stand shoulder to shoulder with any Bordeaux First Growth of similar vintage. Those are the wines that South Africa should be taking to the world to prove what you and the country are capable of.” Secondly, Chardonnay. “There were two in particular which impressed me in a large lineup of Chardonnay. I only had to nose them to know that they were world-class.” One of those was the ultimate multiple Trophy winner, the 2009 Chardonnay from Paul Cluver which not only took top honours as the best Chardonnay but also Best White Wine of the competition and the International Judges’ Trophy.

In an article in the 2011 Icons guide Martin wrote: “For this writer, wines at the pinnacle have to meet strict criteria. They must offer not so much an intensity of fruit, but an intensity of flavour. There must be a sense of completeness. There must be a sense of effortlessness, like a singer who merely needs to open her mouth to enrapture an audience.

“Without question, South Africa is well on its way to making truly world-class wines that belong at the pinnacle of appreciation.”

Well, Martin has now written a profile on South Africa entitled “Pour without Prejudice” detailing the results of his South African wine safari, describing his visit as “visceral”. South Africa offers exceptional quality for the price, he said, exhorting readers to try them, saying that incredible heights are being achieved by the greatest examples.

Some of those local wineries singled out for attention after he awarded them top (90+) Robert Parker/Wine Advocate scores are Mvemve Raats which notched up a 96 for the 2008 vintage of MR De Compostella Bordeaux blend, along with De Wetshof, Ken Forrester Wines, Klein Constantia, Morgenster, Rustenberg and Hartenberg.

Martin singled out the younger generation of winemakers for not being hidebound by convention nor following the practices of the previous generation. “They are the ones seeking more marginal terroirs and pockets of old vines, experimenting with grape varieties, keeping it simple but creating wines full of personality and full of stories that attract consumers.”