Tim James: Organic wines then and now

Browsing aimlessly through the past, I paused at a report I’d made (in Grape 22) on a 2004 tasting of organic wines. Whether it was the first such journalistic tasting in South Africa – or even the last, for that matter – I’m not sure. There were certainly many fewer certified organic wines being made then (for which read, effectively, “wine made from organically grown grapes”, which is what was being certified). The article claimed that we’d tasted “wines representing most of the Cape’s organic producers, large and small”, but there were just ten producers included – Backsberg, Bon Cap, Fairview, Kumala, Laibach, Matzikama, Stellar Organics, Origin Wines Greenfield Organics, Reyneke, Rozendal (uncertified), and Upland. Another was mentioned: one of our tasters was Chris Mullineux, then winemaker at organic Tulbagh Mountain vineyards (I now have no idea why we didn’t taste his wines). And there were some Woolworths bottlings.

What’s interesting about the list, if you have a moderate standard for interest, is how much has changed. Backsberg doesn’t seem to produce organic wines under its post-Back family ownership, and I don’t think Fairview has any now, while Reyneke produces many more than the single wine in that tasting; Upland too produces many more; Laibach, Matzikama and Rozendal no longer exist as current brands, nor does Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards, as far as I know. Kumala is still a largely-exported brand and I have no idea if it does anything organic these days; the vast Origin Wines seems to have an organic range still, and also-vast Stellar continues to concentrates on organics (and seems possibly more concerned with sustainability, human development, the environment and suchlike nice things, than wine quality).

As for Bon Cap, I was intrigued to follow up on that. A long-established Robertson farm, but only bottling their own wines this century, they were the first organic producer in the area, and back then the Cape’s largest privately owned winery making wine only from their own organic grapes. Roelf de Preez, one of our tasters that day, and his wife Michelle were clearly deeply sincere about their organic project. I haven’t heard of Bon Cap for ages but see on the internet that their wines are thriving and still determinedly organic, although seemingly the wedding venue, bistro and accommodation are equally important (as for many established wineries these days – apart from the direct income, hospitality does provide a market for the wines).

In fact, the Bon Cap wines probably performed best overall on the tasting, where the scores, as I noted, “reflected a lack of overwhelming enthusiasm”. (Roelf’s scores for his wines weren’t included; other tasters, apart from me and Chris Mullineux already mentioned, were retailer Mike Bamfield-Duggan, winewriter and winemaker Irina von Holdt, and Philip van Zyl, editor of Platter’s. I concluded that many of the wines in the line-up “were fairly low-priced, few actually expensive [R27–R70]. Most of what we tasted are essentially unambitious, commercial examples for early and undemanding drinking. Some, at least, offered more than that.”

The category of organic Cape wines has grown in the past two decades, despite a few of those wineries falling off the list. But not very greatly. When Organic Wines South Africa was launched a little more than a year ago, with eleven members, it estimated the number of organic wines in the country at 2–3 dozen. Although they were hoping to extend membership to other producers of “organically-certified wines…, including those officially in conversion and those certified as organic regenerative”, the website indicates that membership has grown only by one since then. Which is a pity, as the objective of the association is “to broadly market the merits of sustainability in our agricultural processes and of the non-chemical production methods of our wines. We aim to promote the development of sustainable production throughout our sector, including information sharing and the pooling of technical experience & expertise, while collaborating in collective marketing, both domestically and throughout the globe.”

One problem, of course, is that there seems no certainty that being registered as organic improves sales significantly, while international registration is quite expensive. It’s pretty certain, however, that what I wrote in 2004 remains true: “Many more producers than these, however, work to some extent within ‘organic’ principles. Such responsible, environmentally respectful farmers will seek natural responses and remedies to the pests and weeds, diseases and shortfalls that threaten a healthy crop. They might be reluctant to face yet more inspections and paperwork to achieve certification or merely want to keep some minimal recourse to a ‘non-organic’ practice, or simply see no value for themselves in having official recognition.”

And looking at the list of the association’s members, it is abundantly clear that a tasting of organic Cape wines these days would reveal greater heights of quality than we found in 2004 – unsurprisingly so, given all the improvements in winemaking and, especially perhaps, viticulture in the years since then.

• Tim James is one of South Africa’s leading wine commentators, contributing to various local and international wine publications. His book Wines of South Africa – Tradition and Revolution appeared in 2013.