Stellenbosch

Delheim: Cape’s First Estate Pinotage

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Much has been said of the first commercial Pinotage bottled in the world, namely Lanzerac 1959, a brand back then having nothing to do with grapes grown and wine made at what is today Lanzerac in Stellenbosch. Rather, this bottling was under a brand owned by erstwhile Stellenbosch Farmers Winery.

So, which independent wine estate would have been the first to make and bottle a Pinotage? Turns out that, according to records to our disposal, this honour goes to Delheim on the Simonsberg, Stellenbosch who released a Pinotage from the 1960 vintage, one year after the Lanzerac label.

“My father, Spatz, arrived on Delheim from Germany in 1951, and in his memoir written in 2005 he talks about the farm already experimenting with Pinotage in the 1950s,” says Victor Sperling, Delheim Director. “As a youngster, ever since I heard there being spoken of wine by my father and his friends, and once I began getting to know the Delheim vineyards, Pinotage was one of the primary grape varieties in the Delheim narrative.”

Pinotage features prominently in Spatz Sperling’s memoir. There was the irreverent side when in 1966 he was “inspecting the filling tank, balanced as usual somewhat precariously on top of a building trestle, when a flaw in the support structure (and the additional weight?) caused the sudden collapse of the pyramid.

“The tank fell down, the vintner (Spatz!) nearly broke his neck, and the wine came tumbling after! Hundreds of gallons of Pinotage streamed out of the cellar, into the sluice and down the mountain.”

And in 1965 when Spatz decided to propose to Vera Reinarz in the Delheim garden barely two weeks after meeting her, the wine of choice accompanying Spatz’s proposal was a crystal glass filled with his Delheim Pinotage.

The initial Delheim wines bearing the Pinotage label included a reference to the bottle contents as “Burgundy type”, and according to Roelof Lotriet, Delheim cellarmaster, this refers to the farm’s goal to, from the outset, express the refined elegance in the Pinotage variety.

“Tasting the Delheim Pinotages from the 1970s and 1980s it is apparent that the mindset in the Delheim cellar has always been a gentler, less-is-more approach to Pinotage,” says Lotriet.

Early years on Delheim: Nora, Vera, Spatz and Victor Sperling.

“One must remember that when Delheim was making Pinotage in the 1960s and 1970s the variety was very much a work-in-progress, having only been planted for winemaking purposes since the 1940s and 1950s. The cultivar’s distinct features differing from other red varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, include early ripening and a propensity to ferment quickly.

“These traits must have been new to winemakers back then. Each producer would have had to define an own approach or use the advice of your neighbours. It would, however, appear that from early on Sperling understood that Pinotage required a gentle approach when fermenting to avoid harsh tannins and flavours from the skins, as well as the judicious use of wood.”

Delheim’s flagship Pinotage today is the Vera Cruz Pinotage made from a vineyard planted in 1996 on oakleaf soils comprising decomposed granite with a pronounced clay component.

“Vera Cruz is the flagship, simply because it is made from our best Pinotage vineyard,” says Lotriet. “It is set on a south-west facing slope, 240m above sea-level and is exposed to ideal sunlight radiation as well as cooler breezes from the south-east in summer.”

Sorting the ripe grapes already begins in the vineyard before harvest where substandard fruit is removed. And upon arrival at the cellar, the berries are once again inspected to ensure only the healthiest unblemished grapes are allowed to enter the vinification process.

Bunches are de-stemmed and the grapes placed in open-top fermenters. Natural fermentation kicks in, and after a day the fruit is inoculated with a selected yeast strain.

“Pinotage ferments like the clappers and the wine can pick-up heat during the process,” says Lotriet. “We keep the temperature at a mild 26°C, while doing gentle punch-downs and pump-overs during fermentation for a softer, more discreet extraction of tannins and flavours from the skins.”

Once fermented dry, the wine is drawn from the skins and placed in a combination of 300l and 500l French oak barrels, 35% of which are new and allowed to age for 18 months.

“By using larger barrels with a greater ratio of wine to wood we avoid intense oak influences, such as aggressive tannins, while giving the aging wine the correct amount of exposure to the magical nuances of oak maturation.”

Delheim cellarmaster Roelof Lotriet.

The other Delheim Pinotage, in the Family Premium range, is made from three vineyards planted on a site slightly lower than the Vera Cruz vineyard. The grapes from the various vineyards are vinified separately and aged for 18mths in older French oak before being blended to the final wine.

“I have noticed an upswing in the popularity and appreciation of Pinotage over the past decade,” says Lotriet, “and I think this is primarily due to the fact that winemakers have realised that treating Pinotage like a Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz in the cellar makes overdone wines, suppressing the elegant complexity the variety is capable of expressing. At Delheim, the combination of sites that were truly made for growing Pinotage, as well as the legacy of treating the grape with respect through a deft hand in the cellar, allows us to offer a distinct and very refined expression of South Africa’s home-made red grape variety. A variety not only a part of our country’s heritage, but of Delheim’s, too.”

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Stellenbosch and the Cabernet DNA

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As the increasing number of property developments and the influx of new residents descending upon the town and region show, Stellenbosch has largely become a place of newcomers. The natural beauty, architectural heritage, and the alluring atmosphere created around an old town that associates itself with the culinary arts, hospitality, and the youthful spirit of a university have made Stellenbosch a sought-after brand, both locally and internationally.

However, it must always be remembered that, no matter how diverse and multi-dimensional Stellenbosch’s character and offerings may be today, the most important newcomer and contributor to the town and region’s aura and its status of desirability is the grapevine. Simon van der Stel’s horses had barely cooled off after he crossed the Eerste River in 1679 when plans were already being made about where and how vineyards could be planted in the area.

Today, Stellenbosch is undeniably proven as South Africa’s premier wine region. Some of the country’s top wine estates and brands are found here. The university itself and the Elsenburg Institute are globally recognised institutions for the training of winemakers and viticulturists. And the geographical features of the region offer a treasure trove of soil types, slopes, mountains, and climate zones that make it seem as if the wine god Bacchus himself intervened to create this part of the earth.

These various patches of suitable and ideally located land have, over the past century or so, led to Stellenbosch’s exceptional ability to produce wine from almost every grape variety planted here. Brilliant Chardonnay. The best Pinotage in South Africa. Stately Shiraz wines and pure, bright Sauvignon Blanc. Merlot is magnificent, the Chenin Blanc is the best in the world, and for those who still crave Riesling, Stellenbosch is your place.

Yet, in this abundance of grape varieties in one region, there must be one that stands out, one that repeatedly produces fabulous wines with its own identity and captures the world’s imagination. And that is Cabernet Sauvignon—Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon.

Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon country.

It was Professor Abraham Izak Perold, the father of Cape viticulture who created the Pinotage grape in 1924, who mentioned as early as the 1920s that Cabernet Sauvignon belongs in Stellenbosch. Well-travelled through every vineyard land and with an intuitive sense for grape varieties and their suitable terrains, Perold informed the Stellenbosch farmers that Cabernet Sauvignon could thrive in the region’s soils and climate and that the variety could, therefore, produce world-class red wines.

Now, just over a century later, anyone with a nostalgic inclination would gladly show Professor Perold what has become of his advice. (In fact, his involvement was more than just advice—the professor personally helped establish Cabernet Sauvignon on farms like Alto and Uitkyk.)

Today, Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon wines are regarded by international writers and wine critics as some of the best in the world—wines that show elegance and refinement, along with the muscular robustness for which the cultivar is known. The status of Stellenbosch’s Cabernet Sauvignon is bolstered by the fact that the cultivar appears on the labels of world-famous wine estates such as Kanonkop, Meerlust, Spier, Le Riche, Neil Ellis, Delaire-Graff, Simonsig, Delheim, and Rust en Vrede, to name a few.

“I think Stellenbosch can rightly be considered one of the leading Cabernet Sauvignon regions outside the grape’s traditional home of Bordeaux in France,” says Deidre Taylor, head of marketing and wine sales at the Meerlust estate and newly appointed chairperson of Stellenbosch Cabernet, the organisation of producers that, under one banner, promotes the virtues and magic of the region’s Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

“And I feel it is extremely important that there is a body like Stellenbosch Cabernet that can deliver a unified message to promote Stellenbosch’s unique characteristics as a wine region suitable for phenomenal Cabernet Sauvignon wines,” says Taylor.

“In the wine world, it is a trend for various countries and regions to align themselves with grape varieties that have a proven track record of success, as well as those that can capture the taste and imagination of the world’s wine drinkers: Bordeaux with red blends, largely driven by Cabernet Sauvignon; the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay of Burgundy; and German Riesling, to name a few.

“In the so-called New World, outside Europe, the Napa Valley in California has made ‘Napa Cabernet’ a whole brand, and similarly, Australia with the Margaret River and Coonawarra regions’ Cabernet Sauvignons—although they have not yet reached the stratospheric prices of their Californian counterparts.”

The goal of a body like Stellenbosch Cabernet, which consists of 36 of the region’s producers, is not just that of an ordinary generic marketing body that wants to create awareness of the product and an “I’m also here” presence.

Taylor, an experienced salesperson who deals with buyers and wine enthusiasts around the world, believes the organisation’s goal is “to persuade wine lovers that Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon should simply be a part of their wine selection.”

Deidre Taylor

The international acclaim that the region’s Cabernet Sauvignon wines receive offers Taylor and the organisation plenty to work with. “Stellenbosch stands back for no one when it comes to determining quality,” she says. “For example, last year, Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 was Decanter magazine’s international red wine of 2023. And in the same year, Le Riche’s 2020 vintage wine won Decanter’s Cabernet Sauvignon trophy. And that’s just a few of the international accolades Stellenbosch’s Cabernet Sauvignon wines have achieved.”

As a proven wine expert with a higher WSET 4 diploma, Taylor is aware of the exceptional quality of Stellenbosch’s Cabernet Sauvignon. “The absolute purity with which the fruit flavours shine through the wine is something that few other countries can achieve with Cabernet Sauvignon,” she says. “And then our wines have a hint of fynbos to lift the classic fruit and tannin structure for which Cabernet Sauvignon is known… making the wines distinctive, unique.”

Taylor also points out that Cabernet Sauvignon’s contribution to Stellenbosch’s reputation goes beyond producing sublime single-varietal wines. “It’s important to remember that Cabernet Sauvignon was and is the main component in some of South Africa’s most famous wines, including Kanonkop Paul Sauer, Meerlust’s Rubicon, and Rust en Vrede Estate,” she says. “These iconic red wines largely paved the way for Stellenbosch’s recognition as the country’s leading wine region, and therefore, the role that Cabernet Sauvignon has played—and continues to play—in the reputation of the area and the country should not be forgotten.

Could the region’s Bordeaux-style blends, therefore, in the future, fall under the Stellenbosch Cabernet banner?

“I’ve only been in this position for a few weeks, so give me some time,” she says. “But I am a proponent of an open-minded approach in determining what will be best to further strengthen the words ‘Stellenbosch’ and ‘Cabernet’ in the South African and international wine world.”

Here to stay.

  • This article appeared in Die Burger newspaper in Afrikaans, and has been translated by Gert Bartho Thibault.

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Shiraz: An Enigma Wrapped in a Mystery

~ emile ~ 3 Comments

My relationship with Shiraz is similar to my penchant for cheeseburgers and Japanese films, ranging from the insultingly forgettable to the heavenly sublime. Some of the most memorable wine experiences, surreal and cosmos-shifting, have involved Shiraz, whereas wines made from the same grape have had me requesting cellar-staff to forgo the spittoon for a puke-bucket.

It truly is a chameleon grape. If, that is, you like your chameleons with an ability to turn into wart-ridden, mutant lizards.

Japanese movie.

The energy for exploring the reasons for Shiraz’s inconsistency is just not there, so I prefer keeping this in the file of vinous mysteries I so eagerly gather. But my layman’s opinion ascribes the grape’s inconsistency as something to do with the variety’s chemical and phenolic fragility that needs just a touch of undesirable terroir and the tiniest bit of carelessness in the cellar to send the balance crashing down. Perfumed, layered fruit and spice turns into tarry, acrid fur-ball, like no tomorrow.

Yet, Shiraz’s ascendency in South Africa – in terms of hectares planted – has been mercurial. Back in 1981 a meagre 704ha of the Cape vineyard was planted to Shiraz. Following the birth of South African democracy, plantings shot up from 1030ha in 1996 to 5 630ha in 2000. Do that maths: 4 600ha of Shiraz planted in four years, spurred on by – I wonder – what? And driven by what industry strategy, other than a desire to replicate the Australian Shiraz success story, which has today tanked dramatically.

Gerhard de Villiers of Kleinood.

In 2009, the variety hit the 10 000ha mark, which has eased off to the last available figure of 2023 pegged at 8 713ha.

But preferring taste and experience to statistics, my modest opinion of South African Shiraz is that the cultivar affords little, if no, middle-ground in terms of the quest for quality. It is either extraordinary and intoxicating and very interesting, or it is as dull and forgettable as the last Coldplay album.

I was put in a Shiraz mindset last week upon a visit to Kleinood’s boutique winery on that majestic part of Helderberg, Stellenbosch that runs up to Keermont, De Trafford and the winery made famous by Kevin Arnold. Kleinood owner Gerhard de Villiers, who as an engineer has been responsible for designing some of the leading Cape wineries, bought Kleinood in 2000, initially wishing to focus on Cabernet Sauvignon. Complex and scientific analyses of soil, aspect and temperature, however, told him Shiraz was the way to go, and being an engineer, Gerhard was not going to argue with the science.

The result was the Kleinood Tamboerskloof Syrah brand, which since its first production in 2002 has become a formidable player in the country’s Shiraz/Syrah offering in terms of brand presence and wine quality. And from last week, and this is the reason for my visit, Kleinood is offering a new Shiraz immersion for small groups, where personal tastings, discussions, and general conviviality are offered in a nook of the barrel cellar.

The focus is on Tamboerskloof and Kleinood’s single-site Syrah under the name John Spicer, as well as an international wine thrown in.

Here the Shiraz tune played on-song, needily reminding me of the greatness of the variety.

From the Rhône, a Cornas appellation wine was selected, namely Renaissance 2019 from Domaine A. Clape, while the Kleinood line-up included Syrahs Tamboerskloof 2014 as well as the John Spicer 2017.

The diversity was extraordinary, truly. A multitude of diverse riches from one cultivar.

Cornas Renaissance 2019, while still young, underscored the ability of Shiraz to offer extremely drinkable classic wines while still in their youth, already revealing detailed layers of intricacy with an adventurous, spectacular, edgy, wild side.

The nose was densely perfumed with lavender and salt-marsh and just the slightest touch of used saddle that had just been rubbed with dubbin. And how gorgeous and pulsating in the mouth: olive brine, charcuterie and cassis drifting on a layer of velvety tannins. That’s the other thing I’ve observed about Shiraz, when it is Rhône, it is Rhône and impossible to replicate.

Kleinood winemaker Reinie Oosthuizen uses manual punch-downs during the ferment, but only twice daily to avoid the frequently found menace of over-extraction in Shiraz. The Tamboerskloof Syrah spends eighteen months in 300 litre French oak barrels, of which 15% is new, 35% second and 50% third fill.

At ten years old the Tamboerskloof 2014 was settled and calm without the slightest sign of oxidation or portiness. Dense dark fruit is there, but the surrounds are all powdery tannin and crunch. Time has brought the variety’s characteristic whiff of white pepper into play, but only as a complement, a lift to the still primary flavoured parcel of pure fruit.

Kleinood’s top offering, John Spicer, came from the 2017 vintage, a Cape wine season that is increasingly being highlighted as eclipsing the much-vaunted 2015. John Spicer’s flagship status is solely ascribed to the specific soil parcel on Kleinood, and in making the wine, Reinie employs the exact same cellar methods and oak regime used on Tamboerskloof.

And yes, the flagship it is, full spinnaker to the wind. Flavours are more concentrated and direct than Tamboerskloof, yet the presence is one of clarity and precision. In John Spicer, Shiraz shows a decidedly blue-blooded, regal pedigree, the one that, in the days of yonder, convinced Bordeaux and Burgundy growers that wines from this variety were deemed worthy to slip into their cuvées so as to elevate the region’s fruit profiles in unsatisfactory vintages.

But for me the lasting impression of fine Shiraz is one of absolute deliciousness. Yes, one can analyse the layers, prod at the structure and interrogate pH and sugar and acidity. It is – can be – just such a damn tasty and delicious wine when everything falls into place and every party involved gets it right.

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Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon: Drowning in Honey

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The week past presented a tasting that left me as astounded as the palpable resonance of appreciation and fortune. But more than that, genuine amazement and wonder at the greatness South Africa is achieving in terms of red wines, and specifically from Stellenbosch.

It was the tale of Cabernet Sauvignon, a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon and an experience that left me with that line from Evelyn Waugh’s classic Brideshead Revisited: “I was drowning in honey, stingless.”

Le Riche laid on an extensive Cabernet Sauvignon immersion, with the star of the show being the Reserve 2021 – vintage number 25 since pater familias Etienne le Riche made his maiden 1997 after going solo, post his years at Rustenberg. Son Christo is pretty much in charge of the wines these days and has become a veritable prophet for Cabernet Sauvignon and, specifically, Stellenbosch’s interpretation of this cultivar.

Excluding the three niche single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons on show during the presentation, Le Riche sources from growers in various pockets of Stellenbosch. The producer is not hellbent on the site-specific narrative; the Reserve 2021, for example, is made from vineyards in Jonkershoek, Simonsberg, and Helderberg, carefully cobbled together to reflect Christo’s idea of what a Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon should portray under the Le Riche label.

Christo le Riche

Other Reserves thrown-in at the tasting were from 2001 and 2013, with a Bosstok, Steynsrust and Simonsberg – all 2021 – being singular terroir in origin. Then there were the standard Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignons from 2004 and 2022.

The success of such a vast showing of various wines – even if they are from one cultivar – is the occasion’s ability to leave one with a singular, overriding impression. For me this was simply one of having been privy to great South African red wine. As diverse as these Cabernet Sauvignons are, they sing from the same hymn-sheet in offering depth of fruit, a tapestry of indestructible – yet refined – tannins and a soul-stirring powerful beauty.

But the parts that stood-out in the whole greatness, for me, were three wines.

At 23 years of age the Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 showed the pure joy of ageable red wine, and specifically Cabernet Sauvignon. To have such an exuberant aroma on a wine of over two decades underscores both the reliability of the fruit source and precision winemaking, for there was not an iota of dullness, an atom of the oxidative or a splinter of a porty note. On the palate, a gorgeous feral hint of polished saddle-leather which added depth and meaning to the flavours of blackcurrant compote, Turkish prune and pine kernel. The balance between luxurious, evocative plushness and pulse-racing viridity was precise and the finish as clean as a nun’s joke on laundry-day.

Of the single-site wines, the Le Riche Steynsrust 2021 had my number. The vineyards grow in Stellenbosch’s windswept Firgrove region, and the wine had 24 months’ maturation in a combination of new and old barriques. This, such a great example that only a fool will predict the nature of a wine by the physical appearance of the site. Firgrove is hardy country, cold and influenced by the maritime air-flows. Yet, this Steynsrust Cabernet Sauvignon shows a reverberating bright fruitiness with ripe cherry and a warm mulberry sunniness. Absolutely delicious and very amicable, but with Cabernet Sauvignon pedigree kept intact courtesy of corded sinewy tannins and an intangible profundity.

Then, of course, there is the Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2021, to be released in early June and now confidently and justifiably priced north of R1 000. A blend of three geographical parcels, Helderberg leads with 67%, followed by Simonsberg (22%) and Jonkershoek (11%). Fruit from the different wards is vinified and aged separately in French oak, 70% new. After a year in wood, the three components are blended, then back in barrel for another 12 months.

Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon has always struck me as a result of craftmanship, no matter the indisputably vital role of geography and vineyards, and the Reserve 2021 just confirms this impression. It is all so seamless, and it all seems so easy and so very good, and so damn right.

A delicious, heady juiciness. The tannins coaxing the mouth like the fronds of a silk-bush. Dense, dark fruit with a slight touch of fennel and whisper of garrique and sun. The resounding symphony of power as the flavours expand in the mouth, shivering, thrusting with excitable tannin. It is not a taste, it is an experience.

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What a Whopper! Meerlust Pinot Noir

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South Africa’s venture into the making of Pinot Noir did not get a good rap from the judges at this year’s Trophy Wine Show, arguably the strictest in the ever-growing South African wine competition circuit. No, results for Michael Fridjhon’s annual show are not out yet, but last week at the feedback session, agreement that Cape Pinot Noir appears to be a work in progress seemed unanimous.

Not that failing to claim a gold gong at this competition is a calamity – of the 645 entries, only some 5% secured a gold medal, which is about the annual average for the Trophy Show. And when it came to judges’ commenting on the wines entered, the Pinot Noir category was given a brief diss. Narina Cloete, Blaauwklippen winemaker who judged this sector said the wines lacked the reflection of a suitable site. Michael himself alluded to the fact that many regaled Cape Pinot Noir marques were not entering competitions – punters paying R500 and north for a bottle of Pinot Noir were apt to be less supportive of said wine should it fail to meet expectations by not roping any bling in shows entered.

Despite not having a cooking clue as to what a gold medal Pinot Noir – or any other wine, for that matter – looks like, it is a cultivar I enjoy, believing that like rugby matches and pizza, even sub-standard Pinot Noirs are better than not having any in all. My promiscuous drinking of the royal Burgundian red recently had me charmed by the 2022 Pinot Noir from Meerlust Estate in Stellenbosch, one of the few Stellenbosch farms to venture into Pinot Noir and one underscoring the fact that the appellation is actually able of making wines with a distinctive edge from this cultivar.

Look, cool climate Elgin and Hemel-en-Aarde it ain’t, despite the Meerlust patch in what is known as Stellenbosch South is markedly cooler than Simonsberg, Helderberg and Polkadraai. This Pinot Noir does not have any red floral perfume or flirtatiously leaping berry-fruit, but what it lacks in these departments it makes-up for in structure, a reverberating crunch of black fruit and sheer polished presence on the palate.

Aromas are meaty, bloody and feral with a slight grasp of forest-floor, just enough to make the cultivar sign its initials. The wine is plush in the mouth, hitting the senses secure and true with sour cherry, dried fig and mulberry, tannins being sinewy, long and rippling. Burgundy-acolytes will be referencing northern parts of that region, the Meerlust showing a density and power perfected by Gevrey-Chambertin as opposed to the more expansively decorative offerings from lower down Musigny way. I just think it is great show by one of Stellenbosch’s leading producers, more known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Rubicon Bordeaux-style red blend, to comfortably also offer a class Pinot Noir in its arsenal.

Of course, there is also the only Meerlust white wine, namely Chardonnay, and the wine from vintage 2022 shows a lovable fragility that makes you want to stroke the bottle’s head before pouring the next glass. There is a crispness to the wine that is alert and tantalising, as well as accurate expression of varietal character in the specks of sage-butter, Seville orange rind and lemon curd. Pronounced as they are, these flavours are stitched together in a fine, detailed tapestry displaying grace and light rather than resounding and stern depth. Good, and prettily so.  

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To Hell and Back with Dry January

~ emile ~ 6 Comments

The concept of Dry January falls strange and incoherent, rings hollow and is met with churlish nonchalance and – despite my respecting the wonts and motives of each and every one – a tad of the absurd. No partaking in the glorious offering of the vine for a month? It just seems incomprehensible in my world, but I suppose it depends on what one’s relationship is with wine.

If it is a physical thing, Dry January can perhaps find purchase among those wishing to cleanse livers, purify colons and align urinary tracts for 31 days, before again exposing them to alcohol for the next 11 months. Only to then repeat the guilt-assuaging, monastic sanitising process. The mind, too, is replenished by the dry-spell with that feeling of having done the right and the good, like ordering Coke Zero with a cheesy carb-heavy sourdough pizza, green salad on the side.

But in my world, eschewing wine means the crass, heartless shunning of culture and beauty; the voluntary rejection of art and the poetic rhythms of daily life.

Tertius Boshoff, Stellenrust.

Just as I will frown upon any fad, trend, or mode that wills me to forgo rock or jazz, films, literature, and art exhibitions for a month, so too can I not partake in this thing of a Dry, wine-less month.

Like art and other elements of culture, wine evokes fascination and curiosity. It inspires and makes me wonder about soils and plants, and about the people driven to transform a derivative of nature into something offering pleasure and light and something which is sensorially uplifting. It makes my world a better place, this partaking of a creation that is the result of so much and so broadly a constituted giving. From the land and from the hand that partakes in all the varying chapters of wine’s making. No, I am not going to deny myself this wonder for a day, never mind a whole month.

Thus, I am upending Dry January by going big and looking for wines offering pleasure that is unbridled in their decadence, almost sluttish in that visceral overpowering of the senses.

An example of this is from the Bottelary producer that is Stellenrust which – by the way – had a formidable run in 2023. Four Chenin Blancs in the Standard Bank Top 10. And Diners Club Winemaker of the Year for Stellenrust padron Tertius Boshoff – not with a Chenin, but a Shiraz.

But it is to a Chenin Blanc I go to poke holes in the rarefied Dry January veneer, namely Stellenrust Barrel Fermented 2022. The bottle bears a gilded “58” which refers to the age – in years – of the Chenin Blanc vines offering their firm, palm-filling grape-bunches for creating vintage 2022.

This fruit originates from Bottelary, always a wonderous and enchanting part of Stellenbosch for its authentic ruralness and undisturbed pastoral rythmns. Grapes bleed from vines that have been rooted in the iron-rich decomposed granite and clay soils for almost six decades, now responsible for classic, regal Chenin Blanc wines instead of the run-of-the mill, unimaginative co-operative juice they were destined for in their first 35 years of life.

Before getting them to the winery, Boshoff gives these grapes extended hang-time, allowing the sun to cure the sap and, when it becomes cooler in March, to develop just a prickle of botrytis to broaden the curves, extend dimension, stir drama.

The juice is fermented and aged for nine months in French oak, 16% of which is new and the rest split equally among barrels up to sixth fill.

Once opened and splashed into the glass, I have even fewer doubts about my aversion to Dry January or any other month of dryness. It is all gorgeous, and it is wine. The colour is of pale gold reflecting a stained-glass window in which emerald is the dominant colour. On the nose, the aromas are lush and rich and decadent, exuding pickled pumpkin, clove and a ripe pear cut into paper-thin wafers with a samurai sword.

O hell, the presence in the mouth is a beautiful thing. And it is presence and structure and texture that cement initial impressions onto the mind like a coiled snake tattoo on the lower back of a Brazilian samba dancer. The wine is unctuous and glides around the mouth, drawing impressions from the tasting machinery with a confident charm and alerting flirtatiousness.

Then comes the taste, commanding and regal and almost vocal in its expression. Yellow quince left to confect sugar in the quiet confines of a sunny wooded loft. Honeycomb plastered by wild bees in the hollow stumps of ancient dead trees. A slight note of lime zest to move the palate along with a sense-alerting energy and briskness. The finish is longer than a Russian ballerina’s quadriceps and as memorable as the last line in a Chekov short story.

I fill the glass again, and drink deeper this time, the only dry thing being my sweatless and refreshed brow and the cuff of the dress-shirt I deemed necessary for donning to experience another piece of never-ending wonder. Day in, day out.

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Some Wine is Mossop’s Sam

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Twenty years back everyone was wondering what the Kid was going to do up in Helshoogte, Stellenbosch at the country’s most-eagerly anticipated new winery. The place was Tokara where the Kid, a.k.a. Miles Mossop, had been tasked by Tokara founder GT Ferreira to launch the wines from this spectacular spread of vineyards and cellar and all-round fabulous wine destination.

Then in 2005 the first Tokara wines hit the world like a Cheslin Kolbe line-break, with quality and a distinctive sense-of-place showing that, wine-wise, the product could assuredly match the gravitas Tokara had reached, image-wise, even before the first stuff was bottled.

Despite having left the joint five years back to do his own thing, the Kid will go down as the guy that put-down the foundations for the magnificence Tokara has claimed at the top end of the Cape wine spectrum, a spot it is not likely to lose anytime soon.

Sam and Miles and Sam the Wine.

My interest in the doings of the Kid originated from the reputation of his late father, Tony. He was a leading wine commentator and critic and all-round wine gentleman who also happened to be infatuated with Port. This stuff he made in Calitzdorp on his Axe Hill farm. Those interested in wine read what Tony Mossop wrote, listened when he spoke and agreed with the many winemakers and other people who revered the man’s opinions and appreciated his understated and self-deprecating sense of humour.

And as far as son Miles is concerned, and if Tony is looking down, one can paraphrase the Who song and state that, yes, the Kid is alright.

Now making his own Miles Mossop Wines, as well as assisting with a couple of other ventures, Miles has a track-record ticking all the right boxes: Name made at Tokara. Former Cape Winemakers Guild chairman. A hero in the eyes of the younger generation of winemakers. International reputation. And not to mention that the Kid still has great hair.

He lives his wine career in the fast-lane, does Miles. Busy. Happening the hustle. The opportunity, thus, of attending a tasting of a new release at the Mossops’ Banghoek home, verdant forest-garden looking up to the colossal blue-grey Simonsberg, was eagerly taken.

The occasion was the latest vintage of Miles’s wine named Sam, a Cabernet Sauvignon-led beauty in the Mossop Family range, this one named after Mrs Miles. It is pitched top-end at just under a grand a bottle and represents the culmination of Miles’s vinous vision through a meticulously crafted wine.

Before hitting the latest Sam release from vintage 2020, glasses were filled with various renditions of the same wine from the maiden 2017.

While Sam’s geographical origin has moved to the Polkadraai Hills appellation, the 2017 started out in Bottelary, with the 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot both sourced from those rugged slopes and once again confirming Bottelary’s terrain to be a truly great setting for classic Cape wines. This 2017 Sam has a true bloodline of old-school Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon about it with that meaty dark fruit and cedar approach levelled out by a silky charm still allowing the required degree of force and presence to reverberate throughout the palate.

Good winemakers wield a deft hand at taming tannins to still the roar but allow the excitement to thrill, and this feature is noticeable in that 2017. Also helped, of course, by 2017 being a comet vintage.

Sam 2018 saw some Cabernet Franc from Polkadraai coming into the Bottelary Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot mix, and of all four vintages tasted this was rather showy in terms of a sweet-fruited rim, a firm graphite grip and some lush, glow and warmth. Fig-paste, plums and bramble-berries with wafts of fynbos and just a tad of cigar box make for a delectable wine that is both very drinkable as well as admirably commanding of respect. Pretty much like Taylor Swift wearing a Royal Navy admiral uniform.

The 2019 still spoke of some assertive and adventurous tannins of the grainy kind, the sappiness shown by 2018 being in the background. It is powerful and alert, and immensely cool and confident with the accent on petrichor, broken shale and potpourri rather than fruit succulence, the latter which will be coming to the fore in a year or three’s time.

Concerning the latest release, Sam 2020 underscores the fact that this is a great Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon vintage offering wines of immense varietal expression and a fruity eagerness, yet with polish and poise that will age to talkative secondary complexity. The 92% Cabernet Sauvignon element is now all Polkadraai, and as Bruwer Raats has displayed with his stuff, this region is known for its ability to bring accuracy and precision from them heavy granite soils, while offering just the correct degree of plushness to give depth and meaning.

A juicy tenderness lies at the core of this wine, fresh acids providing a taut harness on which to peg a tapestry of joy-giving flavours. Ripe pomegranate flesh with raspberry confit. Some sour cherries with a lick of blackcurrant and a few slivers of sun-dried prune. Brief glimpses of washed-up whelk-shell add a cooling maritime touch, while a few cedar cuttings give a civilised feral edge to a wine of immense presence and with an individual voice.

There’s a lot to like, and more to come as the Kid is at the top of his game. And the hair, man, the hair is still just great.

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Breaking New Ground for Riesling that’s Staying Alive

~ emile ~ 5 Comments

Lafras Huguenet

Were it not for sport, I would never have made it to Germany in 1972 and discovered the delights of Riesling wine. In a rare moment of spontaneity, I bought a ticket to Munich where that year’s Olympic Games were held and ended staying at the home of the South African consul who, besides having passes to the magnificent Olympiastadion, entertained lavishly. Fellow diplomats from South Africa, Britain, Australia, Switzerland and the United States descended on Mr Willem Retief’s rambling Munich home where he and his wife entertained us with barbecues, Mrs Retief’s famous bobotie and enough Riesling to drown a pod of orca whales in.

I did see Valeriy Borsov, the ace Russian sprinter, win the 100m gold and was able to marvel at the legs of German high-jumper Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth, while at nights I joined the merriment at Casa Retief. Before terrible things happened with that terrorist incident inflicting mayhem and murder on the Israeli athletes’ compound.

What I do remember as well, was truly falling in love with the German Riesling wines that were laid on each evening, one of the reasons being that their low alcohol count meant I could spend the full night imbibing without having an oompah band playing in my head at the next day’s wakening. Being a connected diplomat, Mr Retief hauled out some big-gun German wine names: Weingut Gunderloch, Kloster Eberbach, Schloss Johannisberg – to name a few. And there were even some local winemakers around with whom one could discuss matters vinous between bites of bratwurst and pickles and the frequent bouts of song the German guests would break into.

Marlene Dietrich

German Riesling, I discovered then, was intriguing stuff. But much like South African Chenin Blanc, you never quite knew what you were getting. Under one grape’s name, the wine could be drier than the humour of a Berlin accountant, fleshier that a model in a Leni Riefenstahl film or as sweet as the lipstick John F Kennedy tasted when he canoodled Marlene Dietrich. This being the case, of course, before one had learnt to decipher the German wine-labels. Gothically confusing, these bottle adornments made ancient Cyrillic script seem as legible as a Dick Bruno kiddies’ book.

But, astoundingly so, in all its variety of renditions, good Riesling for me remains intensively true to its classic fruit origin. Even the sweet stuff has a spatial, glowing sunniness about it backed by a goose-step run of fine acidity. The dry stuff matches white Burgundy for the riveting expression of geography, and like Burgundy, the wine houses of Germany were founded by monks choosing to grow grapes in challenging environments so as to remain true to the maxim of “the more you suffer, the closer you are to God”. Well, try telling that to someone tackling a cloggy natural armpit wine from the Swartland of South Africa.

I had fond memories of my introduction to Riesling back in ’72 when German winemaker Christoph Hammel breezed into Cape Town recently to talk about the state of wine-play back in his motherland. He was also here to introduce a new label he had made in conjunction with the Delheim Estate from a Riesling spread on Stellenbosch’s Simonsberg. Christoph is a ninth generation winemaker at Hammel&Cie, out in the Pfalz, and during his visit he was keen to share the direction the newer generation of Riesling producers were taking.

He laid-out some German wines from Künstler in the Rheingau and Kruger Rumpf in Nahe, as well as a beautiful number from his own Hammel&Cie outfit, and Herr Hammel enjoyed hearing my noting the lack of a character that one often found in Riesling, namely a slight petrol, turpentine feature. Christoph explained that, yes, that feature was being discarded. Obsessed with the little sun Germany’s wine regions get, the wine-growers had always opened their canopies to invite light and warmth. But, this caused tough, tanned skins which, during fermentation, encouraged the fermenting Riesling to literally fart-out a slight petrol-whiff into the wine.

Subsequently, the German farmers are limiting the Riesling vines’ exposure to sun, creating purer, cleaner white wines with brilliant focus and unhindered varietal accuracy along with vivid terroir manifestation.

Of the three German wines, the Hammel&Cie offered more fun-filled enjoyment in one glass than a whole team of Prussian comedians could provide. There was freshness and lustiness in the wine, but also a poised delicacy and tender coolness. I loved it, have ordered a case.

The Künstler Riesling, made with a touch of oak, offered a clod of apple-peel and smoke, yet was still true and whistle-clean, while the Kruger-Rumpf – from vines planted in 1937 – was just statuesque. White wine at its most complex and engaging.

Of course, Herr Hammel was most enthusiastic about his collaboration with Delheim in making the maiden Staying Alive Riesling 2022, which was cobbled together in partnership with Delheim’s Roelof Lotriet. Christoph had worked at Delheim in 1985 under patriarch Spatz Sperling, fell in love with South Africa and when Spatz’s kids Victor and Nora asked if he would collaborate on a Riesling, it was like asking a Berlin night-club bouncer if he’d like another tattoo. Jawol!

Christoph Hammel and Roelof Lotriet.

The juice was kept cold for six weeks before fermentation. And this was done with the 1895C yeast, a strain discovered in the residue left in wine bottles aboard a ship that in 1895 had sunk in Lake Zurich, Switzerland. The wine was then aged in barrels consisting of oak staves and acacia wood head to finish-off the uniquely singular approach to Staying Alive.

Tasting the Staying Alive Riesling truly reminded me of experiencing this variety for the first time in the celebratory air of Munich in 1972, also allowing me to relive the sombre, despair-filled atmosphere that set-in over the city after the attacks on the Olympic Village. It is a very fine wine, and one that truly introduces a new taste-offering to the brilliant palette that is South African wine.

Staying Alive takes a line from the Riesling playbook Christoph had recited, the accent being on taut restraint but not without expression, character or personality. The nose is clarion and unobtrusive, just a tickle of dry grape perched on a shard of clean, brittle slate. As it opens up, a brief heather-scented airiness rises from the glass, not the colourful honey-laced scent of spring fynbos, but a northerly smell of broad valleys where rocks and plants precariously perch with expansive views of wide, strong flowing rivers.

Oh, but the taste is delicious, actually more experience than taste. A prickle of aroused acidity does disco on the palate, settling down to give the soul of the Riesling chance to take the beat. Fresh, dew-moist petals of white flowers abound, a lick of grated grape-fruit peel drifting around the essence of green-apple, raw almond-skin and just a slightly teasing spot of bitter thick-peel Cape lemon.

Structurally, Staying Alive Riesling makes John Travolta’s solo-dance scenes in Saturday Night Fever resemble a Bavarian folk dance by ten buxom Fräulein wearing cement loafers. The wine hits the mouth with a frosty clarity, a surge of crystal-clear taste creating experiential enhancement on the mid-palate and ending in a slice of surgical precision, like a samurai-sword effortlessly cutting through virginal Egyptian cotton.

It is a stupendous wine, the art of its structure and its classic framework deftly offset with the warm, fun-hearted label.

If Riesling tasting were an Olympic event, one would have to clear the podium as currently, to my mind there is only one winner. And it’s staying.

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50yr Old Kanonkop: The Eternal Taste of Greatness

~ emile ~ 2 Comments

As Cape icon estate Kanonkop celebrates the 50th anniversary of its maiden wine release, there has been a run-on the demand for those remaining treasured initial bottles of 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage wines that were made by Jan Boland Coetzee. The Kanonkop team is hosting a number of tastings to international groups to accentuate the brand’s provenance, and to have a 1973 to pour for the assembled tribe to experience is deemed a must.

The search party has, however, turned-up a few of these rarities, namely the maiden Cabernet Sauvignon. Obviously, just because you have the bottle doesn’t mean it is worthy of exposure to an enlightened audience. Which made the opening and recorking of these discovered wines non-negotiable.

This was done by Amorim Cork, with MD Joaquim Sá – the Cristiano Ronaldo of the recorking technique – doing the work himself last week.

To be present at this occasion was like accompanying an archaeologist into the just-discovered lost tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh, without the embalmed cats and funny headgear. The Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 lay in bottles of agreeable ullage, green and bright with a firm layer of old compacted dust around the closure. This was scraped away with surgical precision, the five decade old cork – soaked and frail – carefully removed before argon gas was placed in the opened bottle to prevent oxygen getting to the waking old wine.

This gave Abrie Beeslaar and Deidre Taylor, Kanonkop’s winemaker and marketing director respectively, the chance to scrutinise the wines so as to judge their condition and to ascertain whether these aged elixirs tasted like the monuments of South African wine they are purported to be.

Of their making by Jan Boland, the interesting aspect is that this first Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon was made from grapes harvested from vines Jan had planted on the farm in 1969 – four years old, thus. One of his first tasks was, with the permission of Kanonkop-owner Paul Sauer, to remove the farm’s Shiraz as this was not a variety he was interested in and, after all, he felt then as he did today that Cabernet Sauvignon and Stellenbosch go hand in glove.

The other feature was that the 1973 Kanonkop wines were some of the first in the Cape to be exposed to new French oak. This on account of Jan having met the Demptos family from the eponymous cooperage when he went over to France in 1970 on rugby-playing duty.

Along with the new wood, traditional Kanonkop winemaking was done, with open concrete fermenters and manual punch-downs setting the fermenting juice on its path where, in 2023 with an open bottle of Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 before me, one was able experience living vinous history.

Jan says 1973 was a good vintage, a mildly temperate growing season with grapes reaching pin-point accurate levels of ripeness. “Not like 1975, when the easterly wind blew on 26 January and knocked the good grapes out of the bunches.”

It is hard to approach a 1973 Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon without clouded objectivity. It’s like reviewing a play starring Marlon Brando after it was found that the great man is, actually, still alive. You want to like it, you want it to be great. You will be sure it is.

But truth and honesty prevail in greatness. Just like argon gas blows the oxygen off an old wine, a great wine does not allow for wondering, pondering or doubting. It overpowers one with its presence, washing away romantic thoughts and dreamy reflections. When it is good, it is just that – good. Fantastic.

So, before the Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 was recorked, tasting had to be done to ensure the wine’s suitability for showing to a fortunate audience later in the year.  And this was just marvellous, showing the sort of marvel encountered by those fortunate to have experienced wine capable of reaching ripe old ages in states of assured and confident grace.

Joaquim Sá and Kanonkop winemaker Abrie Beeslaar.

The nose was meaty, charcuterie and roasted coriander soaked in liquid scented by dry rose petals, dried figs and that aroma of preserved age one experiences when opening the drawer of a yellow-wood Jonkmanskas three centuries old. It was a heady, intoxicating aroma strong enough to evoke emotion, quickening the heart-beat and replenishing the soul with the wonder of discovery that something good and old is still here. For you.

Warm tar featured on the taste, a sun-baked endless highway, straight and true, with a faint edge of fennel and liquorice coaxing the gravelly heat. And then a murmur, a stirring and there it is: a prickle of fruit, sappy and bright, sweet and berry. Damson and mulberry; cherry, black-currant and a moist little crab apple. Here, after 50 years, the nectar of the vine lived still.

Most extraordinary was the perkiness of it all, the energetic and the shivering freshness. Acids sparkled bright and vivid, while a freshness whistled haunting tunes of lost love, memory and hope for things to come.

It was a small taste, as the bottled must be closed with a tight new cork, locking-up the beauty of it all for future imbibers of this miracle whose lives will, too, be made better with such an incredible experience, one few things can offer, but great old wine can.

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The Heart of a Cape Classic, Hartenberg

~ emile ~ Leave a comment

 

Footsteps of wine legends have carefully trodden the slopes of Bottelary’s winelands into undulating expanses of glorious vines. From the late Stevie Smit of Koopmanskloof, Danie Steytler at Kaapzicht and the Roos-family on Mooiplaas and the Morkels of Bellevue, to name a few. This unique part of Stellenbosch’s wineland geography is home to not only some of the region’s oldest farms and vineyards. Some of the area’s best wines are made here and supply grapes to some of the finest bespoke wine labels in this country, the terroir of gravel, clay and koffieklip exposed to the maritime air from the north-west in winter and the south-east in summer, complementing the legacy of the pioneering forefathers.

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