The launch of the Franschhoek Artisan Food Route, which is first of its kind in the Cape winelands, was a brilliant way to sidestep the Monday workload.  First stop on this balmy blue-skied autumn day was Babylonstoren for a garden tour (held at 10am daily), led by garden curator Liesl van der Walt, which included picking and eating biologically grown fruit en route to the tasting centre to sample freshly baked bread, made in the wood-fired oven by Karen Pretorius, who starts her baking shift at 5am each morning. These were served with the farm’s own extra virgin olive oil and various jams, including one made from shiraz grapes, which apparently works well with the Babylonstoren Shiraz, although this time it was paired with a refreshing cordial. Delicious herbed yogurt cheese and charcuterie, also made by Karen, completed the tasting. Interestingly, she’s making porcini mushroom biltong suitable for vegetarians. The garden provides constant inspiration with what’s in season, from pumpkins for pickling and roasting to olives for curing and pressing.

Then it was off to The Jam Jar where most of Jill Pienaar’s products are made from organic fruit and include an unusual berry and lavender jam as well as a yummy roasted chilli jam. Cotage Fromage Deli & Restaurant at Vrede en Lust Wine Farm was the next destination and chef Willie Mostert provided olive oils, including a stand-out smoked version, cheese, homemade free-range duck liver pate and spicy condiments, which paired well with the farm’s Artisan Chenin Blanc 2012, to taste.

Then it was back down the Simondium Road (R45) to Dalewood Fromage, owned and run by Rob and Petrina Visser. She thoughtfully partnered a selection of their pasture-to-product cheese with Villiera Starlight, a low-alcohol MCC. The tasting started with their unique Winelands camembert and culminated in a sampling of the six-month-matured Huguenot, South Africa’s Dairy Championships Product of the Year for 2013, as well as a complex and nutty version aged for 12 months. (The estate cheese shop is open Monday to Friday 9am–4pm and in season on Saturdays too, 9am–3pm.)

Last stop was American family-owned Noble Hill for a visit to their chilli garden, where a variety of peppers, from habanero to Serrano, tabasco and Thai are grown for use in the Latin-American inspired Cosecha Restaurant, and an olive oil tasting in the wine tasting room, from the pungent and peppery green-tinged unfiltered extra virgin olive oil to ones flavoured with chilli, curry and peri-peri. The day ended with a late picnic lunch at the dam which included a tasty black bean and grilled corn salad, fresh chunky avocado guacamole (with homemade tortilla chips) and a seasonal garden salad, all attractively presented in glass bottles, and a charcuterie board.

An enjoyable day spent sampling handcrafted food and tasting wine, and we’d only covered a third of the route. There are 22 producers in total featured on the map, which ends at the top of the Franschhoek Valley.  You can pop in to taste what’s on offer on the day but if you want a specialised tasting it’s best to phone ahead, find out what’s available and book in advance.  For more info, visit www.franschhoek.org.za.

Lindsaye Mc Gregor

The Nederburg auction is approaching its 40^th anniversary and ahead of that milestone the organisers are keen to change the mix of things slightly. There’s renewed energy and a keen desire to restore the auction to its place as one of the country’s most significant annual wine events.

When it was started in 1975 its primary aim was to showcase older South African wine and to convince the country’s wine drinkers that local wines could age, gain in complexity and benefit from cellaring.

Last month a tasting panel, which included renowned UK wine blogger Jamie Goode (www.wineanorak.com) and South African born Master of Wine Greg Sherwood, tasted a range of older wines which have been stored in ideal conditions in the Tabernacle, Distell’s ‘holy of holies’ for the past few decades.

The panel was charged with tasting a range of wines to assess whether they should be added to the catalogue for the 2013 Nederburg Auction which takes place during the first weekend in September.

Lined up before us were Oude Libertas Pinot Noir, Cinsaut, Tinta Barocca and Cabernet Sauvignon – vintages from 1971 to 1979; Lanzerac Pinotage – select vintages from 1963 to 1975, some in half bottles; Zonnebloem Cabernet Sauvignon 1963, 1973 and 1980; and Chateau Libertas 1940, 1965 and 1982.

Even as a wordsmith I found myself unable to do the wines justice. It was a genuinely rare pleasure to taste these wines and sample South African vinous history. They were all impressive. Some had aged a little less spectacularly than others but the panel was genuinely impressed by the quality of what would have been quite humble wines.

And that ostensible modesty of the 1940 Chateau Libertas which is now touching on greatness is even more remarkable when one thinks of how it would have been made. There would have been no fancy whole bunch pressings, no cold soakings or extended macerations, no special first-, second- and third-fill large or small volume barrels earmarked for its maturation… Even the grapes which went into making it were not all noble or destined for greatness.

This is a wine which would have been made as simply as possible – picked around 20 or 21 degrees Balling, made in large volumes, containing a significant proportion of Cinsaut (next to Chenin Blanc, the other workhorse of the South African wine industry…) and having probably had acid added and not too much attention given to the oak it received, probably ancient stukvate or 1000ℓ vats which had more than a few vintages under their belts!

I had a moment where I paused and thought about all the headaches winemakers have nowadays – about ripeness levels, different blocks of different clones of grapes, noting the varied soils the vines are grown in, different harvest dates, the yeasts and various enzymes used to aid colour extraction and fermentation, the smorgasbord of ageing vessels available to them – from 225ℓ to 500ℓ or more and even French, American, Hungarian or Russian oak… And what about Nomblot eggs which are the winemaker’s foefie du jour?

Things were so much simpler in the 40s – and the wine is triumphant 70 years later. Can – and will – the same be said about the wines from our decade when they’ve aged the same length of time? Only time will tell – but fans of wine history will have a fantastic opportunity to bid on some very rare bottles come Nederburg Auction 2013!

Fiona McDonald

There’s a short cut into the Hemel-en-Aarde valley: the Karwyderskraal road – a graded gravel road that cuts out about a 20km round trip. And on this road, a stone’s throw away from the dam which supplies Hermanus’ water, is a farm called De Bos. It belongs to the Bosman family who are more well known for their Lelienfontein vine nursery in Wellington and, increasingly, for their Adama and Bosman Family Wines.

Planted in meticulously ordered – and monitored – rows are 47 different vines. Marsanne, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Morio Muscat, Grenache Blanc, Tannat, Tinta Amarela and then hosts of different clones of Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and more.

It’s the tail end of a long season and many of the bunches on the vines are showing signs of rot or over-ripeness but that’s purely because there’s been a lot of rain this year and the vines haven’t been harvested in places in order to monitor their cropping levels.

Nearby De Bos is one of Tokara’s other vine sources, a vineyard called Siberia – and for good reason because it is consistently cooler there than on its Helshoogte vineyards in Stellenbosch and at the Elgin farm. An idle comment about the previous day’s temperature – just shy of 40 degrees in Cape Town and Stellenbosch – had farm manager Pieter Carstens commenting that if the mercury climbed to 28 degrees at De Bos they were sweltering!

Viticultural consultant Dirk Bosman and Marco Blom of the Wellington operation have a wealth of experience between them. “The first thing any farmer asks me,” said Blom, “is what tonnage per hectare the vine carries. If you tell him this particular clone of Merlot crops at 20 tons a hectare, he’s happy. The second thing is then how many stokkies (vine cuttings) I can deliver!”

Crop levels and disease resistance are the two main factors of interest to them and it was fascinating listening to the two men chat about the merits of different clones of Chenin Blanc, for example. Clone 24 doesn’t rot, said one – even in the wettest or most humid areas. But then the other pointed out that there had been a few problems with millerandange or uneven berry and bunch development in some places.

Blom described Chenin clone 1064 as “die kar-perd kloon” or good ole faithful. “It’s the rock solid pillar which gives you everything you need. It’s been around for ages and is still very popular because it bears well, it’s disease resistant and the quality of the fruit is good.”

Then there was a whole discussion about the withdrawal of the 99 clone of Shiraz from South Africa because of the huge prevalence of Shiraz decline disease – but that clone 300 had been planted at De Bos for five years without showing any symptoms of the same problem which was significant because it was “from the same family as clone 99”.

Standing next to a row of Roobernet, a crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and Pontac, it was obvious to see why the vine is growing in popularity. There’s no doubt that it can deliver abundant fruit as bunches hung heavy in the fruiting zone, comfortably over 10 tons per hectare, but it has good Cabernet character as well as beautifully dark juice. “Lots of guys use Roobernet to stretch their Cabs or add it to a blend to fill out colour,” said Bosman. “The problem with Roobernet is that it can give too much of a herbaceous or green character if not farmed properly.”

One of the most interesting things was the huge demand for Muscat. “We can’t keep up,” said Blom. Bosman recounted that the American market in particular does not necessarily want Muscat or Muscadel wines – but they want wines that offer the ripe, honeyed and perfumed character that muscat grapes contribute. So Morio Muscat, the Muscat clone of Chenin Blanc, Hanepoot and other Muscat varieties are all high on farmers’ wish list for future plantings.

Also walking through the vineyards, secateurs in hand was world-renowned photographer Alain Proust. He was collecting suitably photogenic bunches of all the different grape varieties he could. “It’s for Graham Knox’s new book, an Atlas of South African grapes,” he said.

Fiona Mc Donald

Dear Janine Gibson

Both the writer and your headline editor deceive Guardian readers (South African Farmworkers Sacked…) by omitting, among other exculpatory facts, the total compensation that South African ag laborers already enjoy. That they are already some of the highest-compensated ag laborers in the world just doesn’t fit with the simplistic sensational narrative of oppression your omissions cleverly imply.

South African apple farmers are competing against highly mechanized enterprises in New Zealand, Washington State and against much lower wage and total compensation rates among workers in Chile and China This aggregate compensation, wages plus lodging in private bungalows, plus utilities and frequently meals to extended families, medical care, pension contributions, transportation (which Ms. Smith graciously alludes to in a toss-off line) are more generous, comprehensive and costly to the enterprise, than anything I am aware of in any ag sector of California.

Think about it, South African farmers are providing more costly and comprehensive social services to their laborers, while Ms. Smith sanctimoniously portrays them as cruel, heartless, overlords.

The Wine Farmers, especially, have consistently treated their workers well, shouldered massive monthly costs of a safety net provided elsewhere by State institutions, raised living standards for tens of thousands in high-quality bungalows. For this you ring the bell to boycott their goods?

The Human Rights Watch report extrapolated a few instances of deplorable conditions into an untrue, unfounded generalization of widespread abuse. That was further stretched into an unjustifiable accusation against Wine Farmers, and further inflamed by fact-slanting journalists. As a grapegrower in California, with business contacts in South Africa, I can personally guarantee that many vineyard workers in the US would gladly trade up to the lodging and total compensation already provided to their South African brethren, in a nanosecond.

Try looking inside a few shacks in South African townships, like Khayelitsha, then compare to some tidy, whitewashed bungalows in scenic surroundings on any wine farm, and tell me where the human rights abuses are occurring, and who (ANC?) should be shocked and appalled.

South African Wine Farmers especially, and most South African farmers generally, are to be commended, not castigated by the likes of Ms. Smith. Commended for humanely, ethically, diligently providing their workers a costly range of social services in higher quality housing than that available to millions of South Africans, and countless millions more around the world.

This sad, complex and ultimately uplifting truth contrasts vividly with the deceit of omission, the shrill shallowness of your uninformed freelancer. and your editorial complicity.

Edward Schulz
International Sales Manager
Premier Wine Cask ed@premierwinecask.com
Ofc: +1-707-257-0714, Cell: +1-707-477-2305, Fax: +1-707-257-0742
NEXTEL Direct: 117*205516*1

Tonnellerie Dargaud & Jaegle
Marcel Cadet

Barrel Associates–DeepToast, Water Bent, Fire Bent
1710 Soscol Ave, Suite 5, Napa, CA 94559 USA

Read the full article at: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/24/truckloads-south-african-farmworkers-sacked

The 2012 harvest is emerging as a particularly good one, both in terms of quality and volume, for the South African wine industry.

Inland wine growing areas recorded some of the best crops ever, while dwindling water supplies in the coastal region caused a systematic decrease in the anticipated crop over the season. The consequences of flood damage in the Orange River region in 2011 are still evident.

Crop size: The 2012 wine grape harvest amounts to 1 395 158 tons according to figures released by the SA Wine Industry Information and Systems (Sawis) on 29 August. This exceeds the 2011 crop by 7.1% and is only 2% smaller than the overall record crop of 2008.

The 2012 wine harvest – including juice and concentrate for non-alcoholic purposes, wine for brandy and distilling wine – is expected to amount to 1 083.5 million litres, calculated at an average recovery of 777 litres per ton of grapes.

2011/12 growing season: According to industry advisory body VinPro, the 2011 winter was particularly cold, ideal for vine dormancy. Conditions were however drier than usual with a negative effect on the water tables.

With August generally warmer than usual, bud burst was a week early in some blocks. Vineyards initially showed good growth at the start of the new growing season, but abnormally cold and rainy conditions later on resulted in uneven flowering and berry set with high disease pressure, which producers managed to control satisfactorily.

Weather conditions were back to normal in December, and less wind than usual resulted in less damage to grapevines than previous years. January was exceptionally hot, with heat waves resulting in sunburn damage in some instances. Dryland vineyards which already had little soil water resources were under particular pressure.

The ripening period in February and March was characterised by cool weather conditions for slow ripening, resulting in good colour and flavour development in red varieites especially, harvest typically delayed by two to three weeks. In addition, there was little rainfall which contributed to healthy grapes and the absence of diseases and rot.

In general, there is much excitement about the 2012 vintage, a specific characteristic being optimal ripeness levels achieved at lower sugars, this in turn leading to lower alcohol levels.

2012 winter: The 2012 winter was very cold with almost double the long-term average of cold units in some areas (a cold unit defined as one hour where the temperature stays within the range of 2.5⁰C and 9.1⁰C). Vineyards need a certain amount of cold during winter in order to make a definitive break out of dormancy and begin even growth in Spring (which ultimately goes towards even berry development and ripening) and 2013 therefore again looks set to be a particularly good harvest

Ol Man River is one of the songs from the 1927 musical Showboat that has been sung by a variety of performers over the years, including Frank Sinatra. (You can check a young and beautiful Blue Eyes doing his version on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTnw_MmVptQ – in 1946, and already it’s had more than 600 000 views).

Which is a long way of getting around to introducing Dave Hughes, South Africa’s Ol Man Wine… Maybe it’s just because of his snowy white head of hair and luxuriant bushy Father Christmas beard that make us think he’s been around longer than he has. He often has to put up with jokes about having been around so long that he welcomed Jan van Riebeeck to our shores…

But Hughes is having the last – and sweetest – laugh because he is renowned the wine world over. He was in London judging spirits at the International Wine & Spirits competition a few weeks ago when he had dinner with an old friend, David Nathan-Maister, former owner and proprietor of the Devon Valley Hotel.

He casually let slip that Nathan-Maister had acquired 12 bottles of Constantia Wine at auction, dated at circa 1820 – and they’d had some with dinner. “I have no idea what Nathan-Maister paid for them but I know he sold one for thousands of pounds – because one of the Russian gentleman we were dining with bought one!”

The provenance of the Vin de Constance was that it was acquired from a British cellar and then shipped to France. “It was rebottled from the original little bottles into larger, more modern bottles of about 700ml capacity – and that was in 1880 – because the original bottles were smaller and somewhat fragile.”

Hughes said the wine was really special – it was evolved with beautiful sweetness and a rich nuttiness and long, lingering finish – and that tasting it was “historic”.

As if those hearing the tale were not already green enough with envy, he then revealed they enjoyed an 1880 Tokay and then a 100-year-old Jamaican rum to finish off the evening.

“The rum was really quite special,” Hughes recounted. “Made in about 1860 it, too, was only bottled in 1880. Nathan-Maister got hold of it because a lot of it used to be sold in the Army & Navy stores up until the end of World War II. He bought rather a lot of these old stocks last year – and it is just gorgeous!”

Chenin Blanc took another step towards being hailed asSouth Africa’s premier calling card.

The ever energetic Chenin Blanc Association hosted a tasting of ‘winter wines’ at the spectacularly located Delaire Graff wine farm this week.

“We called it the winter wines tasting because we are aware of media deadlines and also because these are wines made in the richer, riper style,” said Chenin Blanc Association kingpin Ken Forrester.

In the lineup were 25 still wines, whittled down by an Association tasting panel from more than 55, and four spectacular dessert wines. Vintages on display ranged from 2011 to 2006. It was interesting to see how remarkably different the wines were. Levels of perceived acidity, fruit spectrum and expression, residual sugar and sweetness varied with the most noticeable element of all being the wooding.

Naturally, as richer, riper styled wines these have had greater exposure to oak but the subtlety of the wooding and the resultant impact on the final wine was fascinating. For some it was very apparent not just in terms of its contribution to flavour – vanilla/butterscotch/creaminess – but also with regard to mouthfeel, texture and resultant size of the wine.

While the tasting demonstrated the massive strides that this humble grape has taken in the past 15 years it was over lunch that its versatility was truly showcased.

Indochine restaurant is attached to the luxury boutique hotel at Delaire Graff and sports markedly different views to the main restaurant and patio area. It looks northwest, over Stellenbosch with the Simonsberg on the right flank while the latter peers down the valley to the east, with the Simonsberg on the left and the craggy rockfaces of the Drakenstein mountains on the right.

As the name indicates, Indochine takes its influence fromAsia– and the five-course meal was superb. People were free to match the wines tasted earlier to the various dishes – a deliciously fiery tom yum goong soup, red duck breast curry, seafood medley redolent with green and red chillies and fennel with a delicate sweet/sour balance and a wasabi and lime panacotta which had all sorts of zingy flavour elements – like passionfruit jelly.

No other grape variety could have done justice to these assertive flavours. Our table ran through an assortment wines and rejected them because they are just not capable of adapting.

Versatility and flavour set Chenin Blanc apart.

Chardonnay has fallen in and out of favour many times. Of late though, it’s been getting a lot of positive press. Many commentators, local and international, are of the opinion that South Africa’s white wines offer more than the reds – and nowhere is this more obvious than with Chardonnay.

The recent Cape Winemakers Guild auction held in Stellenbosch realised a total of R5 286 700, up R1.4million on the previous year’s sale – although it must be said that there were more six-bottle cases of wine on offer (2956 vs 2298 in 2010).

Bidding on red wines was predictably brisk with the top performers on the day being Boekenhoutskloof Syrah Auction Reserve 2009 which sold for an average R5 000 a case – or almost R1 000 a bottle; with Kanonkop’s CWG Pinotage 2009 and Hartenberg Estate Auction Shiraz 2009 realising an average R3 842 and R3 264 respectively – or R716.67 a bottle (when divided by the number of cases sold – 70 and 50).

In 2010 there were just two Chardonnays at the CWG auction – the Paul Cluver Wagon Trail Chardonnay 2009 and the Jordan Chardonnay Reserve 2009. This year there were four with the same two producers joined by Ataraxia 2010 and Edgbaston’s Tête du Ciel Chardonnay 2009 that were knocked down for average six-bottle case prices of R1 174.44 and R1 385 respectively.

Interestingly, the Cluver was the same vintage/wine as previously – and went for an average of R2 100, up from last year’s R1 613. But there were just 26 cases available.

The Jordan realised an average price of R2 285 per case for the 80 cases which went under the auctioneer’s hammer. It was the highest individual price attained by a white wine at the 2011 auction and meant that the bottle price was R416.67! That’s a better average than Jordan’s Sophia red blend which sold for R2 067.50, or R400 a bottle…

Looking at the average bottle prices, the Cluver Wagon Trail went for R366.67, Ataraxia R300 and Edgbaston R316.67.

Chardonnay has come a long way since the 80′s when the first cuttings were planted. There’s a distinct maturity in terms of both viticulture and winemaking. That bottles of Chardonnay could attain prices of R300 and R400+ would have been almost unthinkable 10 years ago. Yet this is a demonstration of both the market and the producer appreciating the value and quality of what is available locally.

Adding more food for thought is what eRobertParker.com’s Neal Martin recently wrote in his summary of the state of South Africa’s vinous nation, after judging at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, along with additional independent tastings before and after the judging. (Titled Pour without Prejudice his report was accompanied by an extensive list of tasting notes and ratings. For a copy of the article and tasting notes, visit http://wosa.co.za/sa/award_int_article.php?id=1517 )

“Then there is Chardonnay, which currently represents 8% of total plantings. Let me be facetious and remind South African winemakers that a: Chardonnay is comparatively easy to cultivate; b: a great Chardonnay tastes delicious and therefore: c: it is comparatively easy to sell. Ignore all this ‘Anything but Chardonnay’ clamour! A blind tasting of nearly 100 South African Chardonnay proved that this is South Africa’s most consistent white grape variety, and like Chenin Blanc, its greatest exponents produce world-class wines, I would suggest more Burgundy in style than Napa Valley. The biggest change here is patently less reliance upon new oak. The big, buttery, creamy styles of a decade ago are being replaced by crisp, terroir-driven, mineral-rich Chardonnays that are both more intellectual and delicious. Bring it on!”

South Africa’s winemaking future is in safe hands.

The evidence to prove it took the form of a preview of the wines which will go under the hammer at the Cape Winemakers Guild auction at Spier on October 1. The aim of the Guild which was established 29 years ago was to try and produce wines of world-beating standard. Membership remains by invitation only and while there are a few of the country’s hottest oenological prospects who don’t require validation by belonging, the fact remains that arguably South Africa’s best and brightest belong to this august guild.

Just 39 wines of the 58 items (there is a potstill brandy on offer too) were tasted informally at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Obviously, impressions of the wines on offer differ but there were a few standouts for me. Neil Ellis’ Rodanos 2007 blend of Syrah and Grenache is a stupendous wine. It’s been auctioned before in 2009 and the wine has only benefitted from additional time in bottle. Ellis may describe himself as one of the “old farts” but there’s no doubt that he can show the youngsters a thing or two about respecting fruit and sympathetic oak maturation.

Saronsberg’s Dewaldt Heyns quipped that with his Die Erf Grenache 2010 he proves that he can make wine with an alcohol less than 15% and that it’s also possible for him to re-use barrels and not rely on brand-new oak! “These Grenache vines are only seven or eight years old and should start peaking from now onwards,” he said, expressing excitement and anticipation at forthcoming fruit off them.

Merlot has copped a lot of flak of late. Carl Schultz of Hartenberg showed the Loam Hill Merlot 2009 that defies criticism of the grape as being green, vegetal and unforgiving. The wine is rich, elegant and classic. Complex and refined with beautiful harmony between the fruit and oak, Schultz said fruit had come off Hartenberg’s first high-density vineyards planted with a new Merlot clone.

Other wines really impressed, notably those from first-timers Rianie Strydom of Haskell Vineyards who has The Expatriate 2009 (a Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz blend), and that of Johan Joubert of Kleine Zalze who put up a deliciously drinkable Cabernet Sauvignon, Granite Selection 2009. Marc Kent is always good value and told a tale of how Boekenhoutskloof came by the Porseleinberg fruit from the Swartland which is in his Syrah Auction Reserve 2009.

The CWG tasting would not be the event it is without some humour. Speaking about the grapes which had gone into the Jordan Chardonnay Auction Reserve 2010 as being well hung and perfectly matured, Gary Jordan’s quip was that he realised this “refers to at least half of the room present today”…

(For a full list of auction wines and more details about the CWG Auction, visit www.capewinemakersguild.com )