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Seasonal madness is upon us. No, it’s not the festive season but rather the competition season. It seems that everyone in the winelands is scurrying about bottling and delivering wine samples to competition organisers or sitting on judging panels themselves.
By my count the last few weeks has seen the Platter Guide Five Star tasting taking place, the Young Wine Show, Michelangelo, South African Airways’ onboard selection, WINE magazine’s Best Value Guide judging and the Absa Top Ten Pinotage selection. Then there was the Cape Winemakers Guild Auction public tasting in Cape Town, followed by RMB Winex and right now The Mercury Wine Week is on in Durban.
In terms of results, Flagstone’s Semillon was announced as the winner of the coveted General Smuts Trophy for top honours at the Young Wine Show. None of the other events have announced results just yet. And the Platter Guide has departed from its usual form this year because there is no Five Star tasting in London. Usually that’s been a catalyst to revealing which of the 150 or so wines put forward for the Guide’s ultimate rating have made it. This year the results will be kept under wraps until Platter’s is printed and launched in November. Already there are some antsy winemakers out there…
There’s something so primal about the rock formations of the Cederberg. What was supposed to be a two hour walking trail turned into a three hour plus amble through the fynbos. But that’s the nice thing about long weekends away, your time is flexible. It just meant that lunch was a little bit later… Keeping a group of us entertained at virtually every turn was not only the unbelievable diversity of fynbos on display but the change in rock formations and also the rock art.
We found spots where it looked as though the rocks had melted, others where the faces had been scoured as smooth as glass by the prevailing winds and just a few metres away it was weathered into the most amazingly craggy, jagged and contorted shapes. There were still more showing distinct fault lines and areas of dip and scarp slopes. We marvelled at the impossibly precarious balancing act of piles of stones and rock, weighing tons – which had been there for thousands of years and would remain so for thousands more.
Driving back to Cape Town with snow-covered peaks on one side and rock faces running with water on the other was a special privilege. Seeing the Cederberg, usually quite dry, soaking up the sustenance was amazing. Even more impressive was to see vines not just surviving but thriving in this harsh environment, more than 1 000m above sea level. I reflected back to 2004 when I had to phone Dawid Niewoudt of Cederberg and subtly quiz him about his Shiraz. He didn’t know at the time that I was ferreting out information for an article in the ICONS guide since it had won the Trophy Wine Show award for best red wine on show as well as best shiraz! That 2002 vintage Cederberg Shiraz was only the second time he’d made a Shiraz and his vines were still just five years old. Dawid was the first to admit that he was still playing around and figuring out what worked. It was one of the first indications of the greater things to come from this high-lying winery.
On our way to the Cederberg, we’d driven the Katbakkies pass – and on our return we did the Piekenierskloof pass, both of which have wine related stories. The first is the name of a Chenin Blanc from grapes sourced in the area – and it’s a beautiful name meaning the reflection of a cat’s (in this case, leopard’s) face in one of the pools of water which form in the shallow rock. The tale attached to the second is that of Neil Ellis’ awesome Rodanos Grenache which swept all before it for the popular vote at last year’s Cape Winemakers Guild auction. Beautiful names, beautiful wines and a spectacular but very small part of the South African wine landscape.
Apologies to Lance Armstrong for somewhat contorting the title of his first book, but I thought it apt for this blog which is about Wellington winery, Diemersfontein celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Undoubtedly there are a few people who’ll automatically go: “So what? It’s a wine farm that turned 10. Big deal.” The fact of the matter is that it’s not “just another wine farm” celebrating a decade in business – and it is a big deal because it’s illustrative of a genuine sense of South African ubuntu. Owners David and Sue Sonnenberg have done so much more than just make wine for 10 years. Sonnenberg admits that they could have sat back and enjoyed the fruit of their 55 hectares of vines as the third generation on the land. They’d spent 20 years in the UK before returning, he as a clinical psychologist in London while Sue was involved in the arts and choral fraternity as a member of the London Philharmonic chorus. “We wanted to give back,” he said at their anniversary celebrations this past weekend.
Well, giving back entailed establishing a school for children whose parents either live or work on the estate, creating the Thokozani empowerment partnership, Excellence out of Africa – an arts trust and upliftment initiative as well as being a prime mover behind the growth of Wellington as a recognised quality wine area.
In less than 10 years Wellington Preparatory has grown from 20 children to 160. Sonnenberg recalls physically laying the bricks in what is now the school hall some 40 years ago. “It was built as a community hall for the farm workers.” The old labourer’s cottages have been transformed into classrooms for the children and the school is now at the point where it needs to consider whether to make the transition to offering secondary-level education. Around one quarter of all pupils can’t afford the fees (around R10 000 annually) so an educational trust was established to which the estate and private benefactors contribute. “No-one, other than the management committee, knows which children receive assistance,” said principal Mike Aubin. The next step is developing additional facilities – and the most tangible sign of that is the brand new soccer field. It would have cost R4 million to truck in the necessary earth and level it off but quite fortuitously developers were building a shopping centre nearby and Dimersfontein solved the problem of disposing of their backfill. “They even levelled it off beautifully for us,” said a delighted Sonnenberg. A great example of lateral thinking and one person’s problem becoming anothers’ solution!
The Thokozani empowerment initiative has a 100% buy in from all farm workers, along with external investors and the estate itself, and incorporates a range of wines which winemaker Brett Rightford says is not an afterthought. “Thokozani is made side-by-side with Diemersfontein. The wines must stand or fall on their own quality.” After just four years, Thokozani declared its first small dividend to shareholders this year. Again, it’s more than just wine… the conferencing and hospitality side of Diemersfontein – a highly sought-after wedding venue with four star accommodation – falls under Thokozani. Just one example of home-grown talent being identified and nurtured is in Jackie Pietbooi who started at Diemersfontein as a waitress and is now head of conferencing, the art and accommodation portfolio!
Music and art are obviously very close to Sue’s heart and her baby is the Excellence out of Africa programme supports rising South African operatic talent. At the 10th anniversary celebrations guests were treated to a performance by a few of the recipients of the programme’s support to date – Pretty Yende, Given Nkosi, July Zuma and Luthando Qave. Soprano Yende is a world-class talent who is wowing crowds and critics abroad, having already won the Montserrat Caballé international singing competition in Zaragoza, Spain, as well as sweeping the boards at a competition in Vienna last year, winning both the Opera and Operetta awards, the audience award and the critics prize too! She has spent the past season at La Scala in Milan while Baritone Luthando Qave is en route to the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera in New York.
And the Wellington wine route? Well, that wasn’t particularly highly regarded by consumers or critics alike. Nowadays it’s a different story with Wellington comfortably associated with good quality from innovative producers such as Diemersfontein, Schalk Burger & sons, Dunstone, Doolhof, Nabygelegen, Bosman Family Vineyards and more… As one guest pointed out, “Franschhoek and Stellenbosch producers can’t hide behind Wellington grapes anymore!”
After all that, there’s one more contribution which Diemersfontein has made to the South African vinous landscape – and probably the most significant of all. This is the winery which gave us coffee Pinotage! Consumers absolutely love it and there are any number of other producers which have jumped onto the bandwagon emulating its success…
Happy birthday Diemersfontein.
It has just been reported that Americans have posted yet another increase in wine consumption – for the 16th straight year! Their annual wine purchases for 2009 rose to 297 million cases, an increase of 0.08% on the previous year. But driving much of that increase was support for their domestic production – as imports declined by 2.2% to 74.3 million cases.
Clearly the American market is realising that it costs less to drink local – and is something South Africa would do well to ponder. The past week has seen seven judges blind tasting around 1 000 wines for WINE magazine’s upcoming Best Value Wine Guide. There’s a price ceiling of R60 for all wines – white, red, sparkling and fortified. With hand on heart, I have to admit (as did my fellow judges) that I don’t often drink wines at these sort of price points. I’m as guilty of label and reputation hunting or fashion following as anyone else. So it has been quite an eye-opener at just how many really decent, well-made and tasty wines are available for R60 or less.
Obviously, in some categories there is far more bang for your buck because of the input costs. Getting a really top notch red wine for R60 is not impossible but there are any number of seriously good varietal whites or white blends which offer more at the same price point. White blends, for example, had a hit rate of around 80% with some 40-odd wines of 54 which made it through to the final judging from the screening round being deemed good enough to make it into the Best Value Guide. Similarly, the muscadels had a high conversion rate – and why not when they are just so gorgeously charming in their ’sunshine and raisins in a bottle’ simplicity! Another category which did well was rosé – again because of its simplicity, drinkability and not trying too hard.
That’s the good news – but there’s also bad news. It was also apparent how many winemakers believe they can pull the wool over consumers’ eyes. Thin, acidic, dilute nothing wines – or blatantly faulty ones – were swiftly weeded out but with some consternation since these were all bottled, market ready wines! “What were they thinking?” was a common refrain during the screening round…
But on the whole, the annual Value judging once again produced a raft of appealing, well-made wines at pocket pleasing prices. The Best Value Guide should be on shelves in October, coinciding with the November issue of WINE magazine.
The past two weeks has seen the deaths of two men who made significant impacts on the South African wine fraternity, albeit in markedly different ways. Dr Julius Laszlo died in Stellenbosch, aged 83, while Graham Beck died in London after a long battle with cancer, aged 80.
Laszlo is credited with injecting the SA wine industry with a huge amount of viticultural and oenological knowledge at a time when the country continued to be the political polecat of the world. He and his family made their way to South Africa after leaving Romania as political refugees. Dr Laszlo arrived armed with a PhD in soil microbiology and years of experience as the head of Romania’s research institute for viticulture and oenology. Cellarmaster of The Bergkelder for many years until his retirement in 1989, Dr Laszlo introduced more modern methods of viticulture, new vine varietals to South Africa and also pioneered the use of small oak barrels at a time when large format old oak was the order of the day.
By way of contrast Graham Beck came to wine relatively late in life. He made a substantial fortune, initially in coal mining and exporting, but in a variety of international business ventures too and he divided his time between homes in the Cape, London and America. His first wine farm purchase was Madeba in Robertson in 1983 which was initially bought to indulge his love of horses and horseracing. Graham Beck Wines was expanded to incorporate the Franschhoek cellar and eventually Steenberg winery in Constantia too.
Beck was both a visionary and a hard taskmaster. He provided the resources for his talented staff but they had to perform and produce results in exchange for it! It wasn’t just about business or wine for him: he was a lover and collector of modern art; social upliftment of the workforce and local community were important, as was environmental preservation.
The local wine fraternity is poorer for their passing but richer for their participation and the roles they played. Rest in peace, gentlemen.
**(*) Stein Steen-based blend, semi-sweet, clean plain drinking. One of South Africa’s biggest selling wines; in top four, beside Bellingham Johannisberger, Nederburg Stein and Graça. Has 16gms/l sugar.
That vinous shorthand was what John Platter wrote about Grünberger Stein in the 1990 issue of his eponymous guide. The 2010 version of the same guide states the following: “Stein ** Gently rounded 08 blend Chenin & 10% sauv, ripe & waxy.”
How sad then, to find that this wine – once a massive seller in South Africa as evidenced by its top four status 20 years ago – is no longer made! I cut my teeth on this wine – so early I don’t even remember how old I was… My folks weren’t big drinkers, but in the ’70s when they had the occasional dinner party I can distinctly recall that rounded green bocksbeutel sitting on the table. I recall it well since it was quite a thing being allowed a sip out of mum’s glass!
Grünberger Stein was such a rock solid stand-by. It appealed to a range of tastes, it wasn’t fancy or pretentious, nor was it trying to be anything other than “clean plain drinking”, as Mr Platter wrote. It goes without saying that Distell have obviously culled this wine from the range because of its performance on the shelf – or lack thereof. Come to think of it, I’m part of the problem, not having drunk a glass of Grünberger Stein or ordered a bottle of it in a restaurant in easily 15 years!
As Bob Dylan sang, “times, they are a-changing”… and with changing times come changing fashions and tastes in wine. I’m sorry to see it go – and apologise for my role in its demise.
A light sprinkling of frost greeted the early media arrivals at the Nederburg pre-auction tasting in Paarl this week. It could have been a bit of a ho-hum affair, coming the day after the World Cup final when everyone realised the party in South Africa was officially over, but things soon heated up.
One of the first wines to provoke comment was a 1989 JC Le Roux Pinot Noir Methode Cap Classique. Served out of magnum and wonderfully evolved, it was a hit. It’s often used to fool folks in blind tastings, being frequently mistaken for an aged Champagne. One of the writers present wondered who had made it and, in spite of “Old Man Time” Dave Hughes being present, no-one could recall. It was later discovered that it would have been The Bergkelder’s Dr Pierre Marais.
Yesterday I congratulated him on how well the wine had held up and told him of its rapturous reception two days earlier. He immediately knew which wine I was talking about. “I got into a lot of trouble over that wine!” Turns out he was a new kid on the block at Distiller’s Corporation, having joined the company in 1988. No Pinot Noir was supposed to be made in 1989… but Marais was none the wiser and simply went ahead and made and bottled it. Because he and the wine were in disgrace, the magnums were shunted to one side (although he wasn’t – eventually retiring as the in-house technical winemaking guru). And that’s why there are 25 cases (six 1.5 litre magnums in each) available for sale at the Auction which is being held in Paarl on 3 and 4 September.
Something else that provoked comment was Chenin Blanc with three good examples set out for us to taste: Mountain Oaks Chenin Reserve 2005, Bellingham The Maverick 2006 and Stellenrust 2007. Irina von Holdt, the “Queen of Steen” as Hughes described her, made an astute comment about the styles of Chenin which received attention. Oaked Chenin, she said, should not taste like a cut-price Chardonnay. All too often SA winemakers oak it too heavily, masking its wonderful natural flavours. Her vote went to the Stellenrust 2007 for the simple reason that it showed admirable restraint in oaking. “This wine has an elegance that is remarkable. It’s beautifully soignée – so poised and elegant, with wonderful lime freshness from acidity. We need more wines like this.”
Perhaps one of the best expressions of local Chenin Blanc has been in noble late harvest guise – as Edelkeur under the Nederburg label. There are just two cases (12 x 375ml) of the 1977 available. It is gorgeous! All creamy, malty toffee with zippy fresh acidity. Its analysis shows that 146g/l of residual sugar is balanced beautifully by an acidity of 9,9g/l. Another unique treasure to fall under the gavel of new auctioneer, Anthony Barne of Bonhams, is the 1988 Nederburg Eminence – the last wine made by South Africa’s sweet wine pioneer, Gunther Brözel. Also only a few cases of that are available – five cases by 12, also 375ml bottles.
Based on the tasting of reds and whites dished out to the media this week – and replicated for the public too – the 2010 chapter of the Nederburg Auction should provoke renewed interest on the part of writers and buyers alike.
Sadly, the two games I’ve been fortunate enough to watch at the Cape Town stadium (and not the Greenpoint stadium as SkyNews insists on calling it!) have not produced the results fans would have wanted but I have not left unhappy.
It’s a spectacular stadium – and walking around the world-class arena, side-stepping thousands of English and Algerian football fans on Friday, I was really proud of what South Africa has achieved. It wasn’t just the facility, it was the hundreds of smiling policemen and women who welcomed ticketholders, it was the green-jacketed volunteers showing the way and it was the hostesses and staff in the hospitality suites who impressed.
Good humour and a genuinely warm reception were the order of the day. Making the chilly Cape Town night and disappointing result a little more bearable were a variety of liquid libations available. Amarula, South Africa’s unique cream liqueur (apparently second only to the ever-popular Bailey’s Irish Cream in the worldwide sales stakes), adopted FIFA sanction and branding. In the space of three hours in a hospitality suite I saw countless bottles opened and enjoyed. Similarly, the South African wines on offer also flew off the bar counter. Perhaps the real surprise for me – considering the sea of red shirts and St George crosses – was noting that the predominantly English supporters really enjoyed the local brandy. The surprise was that they were not – as many South Africans would have – adulterating the Van Ryn 12-year-old brandy with cola, but drinking it on the rocks and appreciating it for its own sake.
Years ago, when I was taking my baby steps in the SA wine writing fraternity, I was invited on a media jaunt to the Swartland. It was memorable for a number of things – being my first freebie to the Cape, meeting John Platter for the first time (I was in awe…), impressing my fellow hacks for knowing the Zulu words to Shosholoza, visiting the biggest producer in the southern hemisphere at the time, Swartland Co-op, and finally for the chairman of the Riebeek Co-op making a dramatic entrance to dinner by driving through a “wall”. The “wall” was of branded cardboard boxes but it was quite a stunt nonetheless.
Fast forward two decades or so and I was toasting Riebeek Cellars’ rejigged range this week. Their Riebeek Cellars Reserve Selection has made way for the premium Kasteelberg range. It was while sipping yet another glass of their delicious Kasteelberg Chardonnay bubbly that I ruminated on just how far the Swartland had come since then.
There is unqualified respect for the area’s terroir and the wines it produces. In its favour are ancient soils, old bush vines and interesting grapes – from Chenin Blanc, red and white Grenache to Clairette Blanche and Shiraz. And much of that respect is due to the efforts of two Swartland pioneers. No, I’m not talking about Eben Sadie and Adi Badenhorst… but rather about Neil Ellis and Charles Back. Neil Ellis this week threw open the doors of his new cellar on the slopes of the Helshoogte pass in Stellenbosch, having relocated from Jonkershoek where Stark-Condé has expanded substantially.
Sourcing grapes from different areas and blending them is so commonplace that folks forget this was unheard of – and officially unsanctioned – in the early nineties. Ellis was South Africa’s first negociant winemaker and a firm believer in the Swartland’s potential. The man has a lot of friends with surprisingly good pockets of fruit… in the Groenekloof area of Darling, for example, pioneering that area for cool climate Sauvignon Blanc. More recently it’s been the Piekenierskloof for Grenache that’s gone into his critically acclaimed Rodanos.
Similarly, the maverick Charles Back has added the new La Capra range to his string of wine labels. His daughter Bridget has joined the family business after studying marketing and this week could be found offering tastings of La Capra in a gaily-striped caravan, wearing gypsy skirts, with “fiddlers three”, meeting the wine press in typically unconventional and creatively inspired Back fashion in Cape Town.
Back had started Spice Route as a joint venture with John Platter, Gyles Webb of Thelema and Jabulani Ntshangase. He recalls that seeing and tasting the first trickles of juice from the maiden harvest of their Malmesbury fruit had him doing mental flic-flacs. “I got rid of my partners and took it all for myself…” he once quipped to me.
These guys put in the hard yards all those years ago and it’s fantastic to see a younger generation (yes, Sadie, Badenhorst, Mullineux et al) merely adding to the Swartland’s reputation.
It’s impossible to escape the fervour, fever and vuvuzelas that the 2010 FIFA World Cup has infected South Africa with. Noisy blasts can be heard, day and night – and it’s amazing how many of them come from non-South Africans! Italian, Paraguayan, Algerian, French, Portuguese, Korean and English fans have boosted sales of the plastic horns no end. English retailers notched up sales of 60 000 vuvuzelas in old Blighty during the first week alone…
What’s the point? Everyone’s having a blast! And it is not just in the major metropolitan centres where the effect of the World Cup is being felt. Stellenbosch was adopted by the Algerians ahead of their match against England – and the North African fans fell in love with the Eikestad, supporting pubs and restaurants and making friends with the locals.
And with Americans occupying second spot in the ticket sales stakes, they’ve been prominent too – particularly visiting top flight wine farms. They are not alone in being bowled over by the touristic offering. In the past week I’ve been exposed to Korean, English, Mexican and Venezuelan fans who are all uniform in their praise for the warmth of the people, the excellence of the cuisine, the quality of the wine and the sheer jaw-dropping beauty of the country.
While detractors may point out the number of guest houses and hotels not experiencing the bumper pay-days anticipated, all indications are that in the long term South Africa will score massively from the exposure granted during the tournament. Everyone needs to think tantrically rather than going for immediate gratification…
