A good deal of the excitement in South African wine in the last few decades has centred on the efforts of individual winemakers – winegrowers, rather, as many of the best of them have also been involved in the vineyards even when they don’t own them. In fact, the general rule for ambitious young wine-producers has been to at least get going by making their wine in rented space (or in the space and time generously allowed them by their wine-estate employers) from bought-in grapes. Typically, they then spearhead any marketing strategies themselves, their personalities often a crucial element of the perception of their wines.
The focus on the heroic winemaker has been an often brilliantly successful strategy, allowing for fast and exciting growth. But building a reputation and a brand around one person – rarely two – has an obvious inherent danger. What might Alheit Vineyards be without Chris Alheit? Miles Mossop Wines without Miles? Van Loggerenberg Wines without Lukas? With many et ceteras…. How to take the brands into a future with more stability than can be guaranteed by one fine winemaker and his or her hard work, supportive partner, and skill? As more and more of the new-wave heroes reach middle-age and beyond, strategies to make their brands grow and survive without them are emerging – or not.
Miles Mossop, for example, responded with great candour when I asked him about this. “My brand is so linked with me”, he admitted. “that it is a problem”. He has a reputation as one of the finest winemakers of his generation, both in his former position at Tokara and with his own brand – but he owns neither winery nor vineyards. There’s no certainty that his children will have interest in continuing his work. How to make a sustainable business as well as great wines is the obvious task now. Miles speaks of getting to the stage of at least having an assistant winemaker, of firmly linking the brand to a place to provide continuity (he admires not only Bernard Bredell’s Scions of Sinai wines, but also his building an association with a particular location rather than a name – something beyond himself), and is investigating the idea of slightly shifting the name of his own brand away from something so personal.
By contrast, Chris Williams told me that it was a conscious decision not to use his own name in The Foundry, the brand he established with his business partner James Reid. The Foundry now also has a base in the vineyards and buildings of James’s Voor-Paardeberg farm. Although Chris has been central to building the reputation of the brand, there is little doubt that it could survive without him. In some ways a sad truth (of the kind we all have to face someday), but really a triumphant one if one wants one’s work to survive longer than oneself.
The name thing is obviously significant in setting up some apparent limitations. At an extreme, one imagines with diffiiculty David & Nadia without … David and/or Nadia. I wrote last week about how three other leading new-wave Swartland producers with brands named for themselves (their surnames and family invoked) have changed and built stability over the last 15 years – different strategies, but all involving the achievement of brand bases in winery and/or land.
Of the three, Sadie Family Wines is looking to be the most securely sustainable brand right now, despite being so dependent on leased or semi-leased vineyards. Above all, making the “Family” bit meaningful, Eben has two sons establishing their reputations as winemakers (gosh – I remember them as little boys, their beautiful manners a tribute to a strict Calvinist upbringing, who called me Oom Tim). Charming young men, they are unlikely to share the charisma of dad, but the imprimatur of the family name and family training should help work wonders in terms of continuity. As to the Mullineux, I don’t pretend to have an inkling of the nature of the deal with their rich partner, but I would suspect that the Mullineux Family Wines part, at least, is safe enough, and there is a next generation to which one can attach hopes – as with Badenhorst Family Wines (where, I reckon, financially all-important Secateurs is anyway sufficiently independent to be viable without Adi attached).
Other new-wave Swartland winemakers/brands with strong identifications with the winemaker, like Testalonga and Mother Rock/JH Meyer, have also recognised the need for a fine-wine brand to have something really solid behind it, and have already established themselves as landowners, in a smallish way, and cellar-owners. There will surely be more soon. As with Sadie, owned vineyards may not for a good while supply all the grapes needed, but, along with the winery itself, the stake in land offers an assurance of long-term seriousness. I once quoted Eben as saying “To have a future, you must plant”, and he really meant it – literally, symbolically, even spiritually.
Further afield, Le Riche is a fine example of a family-named brand closely linked to the winemaker but successfully transitioning to the next generation; the fairly length stability of the brand and the source of grapes, the oversight of Etienne himself, the timely acquisition of a cellar and some land were well thought through.
A more interesting example is Neil Ellis Wines, in which Van Loveren recently acquired a majority stake. The buyers were getting, among other assets including the cellar, the use of the full name of the founder and his reputation for excellence – which had already successfully been used as the main responsibilities were passed to a younger generation. Now, although the family remains fully connected (for the present at least), the brand has moved beyond its control. It seems unlikely that any loss of confidence in the brand will result. That sale is, paradoxically, a real sign of success.
Want access to this content?
Reviews and Reports are initially reserved for subscribers. Get immediate access to exclusive insights and data.
Already subscribed? Login
For the past 25 years, Qunu restaurant at the Saxon Hotel, Johannesburg has set the standard for Gauteng gourmet glamour. A recent collaboration with African Foodways Productions, and Leeu Passant wines sought to redefine luxury through hyper-local haute cuisine. Traditionally known for its retro-chic grillroom fare, Qunu has impeccable service, wonderful wines and a menu replete with Eurocentric culinary classic such as Steak Diane, saffron risotto with snow crab and lemon mousse with blackberry sherbet. All of the above are deeply delicious but guests at the Saxon – among the world’s best travelled people – increasingly expect more than familiarity. They are craving epicurean experiences unique to the cities in which they find themselves. In this case they are looking for meals infused with the taste of Johannesburg’s terroir.
Hyper-local cuisine is gaining recognition as the pinnacle of modern luxury, celebrated for its sustainability, exclusivity, and ability to tell compelling stories through food. Recognizing this shift, Saxon executive chef Matthew Foxon and his team designed a tasting menu replete with indigenous ingredients, challenging conventional notions of which food genres and flavours ‘belong’ on fine dining plates. By working with heritage crop farmers, foragers and artisanal producers, the chefs created dishes that articulated cultural, environmental, and personal narratives, elevating craft into art. Leeu Passant’s consistent commitment to heritage, biodiversity preservation and terroir-driven winemaking resonated with the evening’s overall objectives.
Full disclosure, my colleague RJ Van Spaandonk and I are African Foodways Productions. We came up with this concept, introduced the chefs to heritage food farmers, brought the winemakers onboard and drew up the glossary of ingredients given to guests. After that we sat back and let the chefs and sommeliers work without interference.
The menu, available for one night only, was an experiment to test the market. Since it was sold out, it seems likely that many more such meals will follow. We began with bouffant dombolo steamed breads, golden magwinya, goats’ milk curds and a radiant Limpopo-style mango atchar. This was followed by a rich, buttery ostrich egg scramble dotted with umami-intense Kalahari truffle shavings and tart amasi aioli. Shards of Aromat ‘vukoko’ (crisp crust from the bottom of the pap pot) added a nostalgic, playful touch, puncturing the potential for pomposity. Saxon sommelier Lloyd Jusa chose to pair the plate with Leeu Passant Radicales Libres 2019, saying “Its oxidative character with sherry-like, nutty notes, and caramelised, aged tones I think works beautifully with the savoury depth of egg and truffle, creating a luxurious, layered start to the menu.” Indeed it did.
Leeu Passant Chardonnay 2023 accompanied smoked tilapia on amadumbe with fragrant curry leaf oil and a sweet potato foam. While conceptually inspired by childhood fishing trips, the dish’s execution lacked the exuberance of the tale, delicate tilapia flavours subdued by the richness of foam and oil. The next course more than made up for the fish that got away. Pressed tongue was topped with crisp fried mogodu, isijingi (Zulu melon and maize melange) and pickled cabbage. Diners were offered a choice of either Leeu Passant Wellington Old Vines Cinsault, 2023 or the Leeu Passant Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon, 2023. Inspired by the idea of matching traditional varietal, Cinsault, with local food, I picked the former. The tongue’s intense savouriness and the tripe’s crisp exterior were beautifully balanced by the wine’s red fruit and floral elegance.
A horned cucumber sorbet cleansed palates before in advance of braised lamb with cowpea and sorghum stew. Sommelier Jusa explained that he paired this dish with The Leeu Passant 2022 because “ the red berry and leafiness connects beautifully with the lamb and the wine’s structured elegance is an ideal foil for the generous earthy cowpeas and sorghum.”
Dessert was a triumph, highlighting the heritage pleasures of khova (aka bhanana ka Shaka), Zulu heritage banana. Transformed into banana bread, ice cream, and caramelized garnish, the khova fruit’s silky-smooth texture, subtle sweetness and surprising citrus notes made magic with the spiced caramel and milk tart custard. Marula nut crumble and treacle tuile biscuits provided texture, while khova’s floral flavours lent vibrancy. The absence of a wine pairing with dessert was disappointing. Leaving the meal feeling unfinished.
Was it perfect? No. Was it groundbreaking and deeply delicious? Definitely. Did it answer the call from guests for an epicurean experience that could not have been eaten anywhere else in the world. Absolutely.
Want access to this content?
Reviews and Reports are initially reserved for subscribers. Get immediate access to exclusive insights and data.
Already subscribed? Login
We’re now a couple of weeks into the 2024 Bordeaux En Primeur campaign here in Europe—an annual bellwether for the fine wine world. Traditionally, this period carries enormous weight, with the potential to shape not only the fortunes of the Bordeaux market, its négociants, and the reputations of individual châteaux, but also to influence sentiment across the global fine wine trade. A strong campaign can energise the market, creating positive momentum beyond Bordeaux, while a weak one risks deepening hesitation and deferring confidence industry-wide.
Increasingly however, merchants and fine wine retailers have started distancing themselves from the general Bordeaux market malaise around the Primeurs because for at least nine of the past 10 years, it has arguably been a commercial failure for most people involved, the possible recent exception being En-primeur 2019.
Two weeks into the EP 2024 campaign, the incriminations and merchant tantrums continue to grow ever louder, with not even a 30% decrease in the Chateau Lafite-Rothschild price (available to consumers at circa £1,770 per 6 Underbond or R43,500) able to assuage discontented merchants. But like in most Primeur campaigns, because the new price releases are massively staggered, those chateaux releasing later in the campaign have the benefit of context, able to see the relative indignation the pricing of earlier releases has stirred, thus allowing them to quickly reassess their own pricing level and avoid misfires.
Reading between the lines, this is almost certainly what happened with the Chateau Cheval Blanc 2024 price of €276 per bottle which was released this week at a level lower than even their post Lehmans EP 2008 vintage crash price of €300 per bottle. They almost certainly heard the mood music and realised that not even Lafite’s discount was sufficient to entice buyers to come out and play ball. With the release of Chateau Montrose 2024 in Saint Estephe on the horizon, rated possibly the best wine on the left bank this year, the anticipation grows steadily in the fine wine trade.
While merchants, negociants and chateaux owners can debate the relevance or complete lack thereof of the annual Primeurs endlessly, what is far more meaningful and important is to understand the reasons why the chateaux are not prepared to lower their prices further, and, in their minds at least, potentially damage their brand’s long-term reputation and equity in the wider global market.
Quite simply, the top chateaux – you can decide for yourself whether it’s the top 50 or top 100 – have all looked at the evolving fine wine marketplace as well as the rapidly changing consumer demographics and decided some time ago that traditional pricing structures ought to be dumped in favour of ‘luxury brand pricing strategies’, following principles more akin to the wider luxury goods market than to anything we see in traditional wine markets.
Much of this change in pricing strategy unsurprisingly coincided with the sale of several premium chateaux to the likes of the Chanel Group (think Rauzan-Ségla, Berliquet and Canon) and to Louis Vuitton Moét Hennessy owner, Bernard Arnault, now worth a meagre $192bn. If the Boomers don’t want to buy anymore new stocks, then perhaps this is the perfect time to realign pricing with other premium luxury consumer goods that many Gen X’ers and Millennials DO still aspire to buy. In due course, if strategies are successful, Gen Z’ers would follow suit as well as their incomes rise.
With all this pricing and strategy noise being touted around the fine wine market, perhaps it’s time for merchants to put their collective business and marketing caps back on to take a closer look at how these premiumisation strategies might affect the future marketing of wine and what these strategies might look like in reality.
In a wider consumer market context, premiumisation in retail is a megatrend and a strategic move by consumer brand owners to elevate their product offerings and charge higher prices. It was surely only a matter of time before the Bordeaux fine wine chateaux followed suit. If we are all going to be drinking less, as current OIV figures suggest, then why not focus on super-niche, high-value segments only?
Over the past few years, there has indeed been a growing demand for quality, authenticity, and more unique consumer experiences. At the same time, inflation has driven many companies to become more comfortable with overt price increases. “Value for money” is no longer the prevailing mantra. However, raising prices may be reaching a breaking point as consumers are becoming more discerning.
In many lower value categories of wine, the private label or Buyer’s Own Brand (BOB) is by default the cheapest option on the shelf in major retailers, and its market share seems to keep on growing. Brands need to rethink what makes them unique and worthwhile so as not to lose their customers. For many Bordeaux chateaux, this is quite simply wishing to see their wines sold at a certain higher price point that does not fluctuate massively like in past Primeur campaigns, but is constant, reinforced and upwardly scalable with increased quality.
What marketers then ask themselves is “how can consumer brands ‘premiumise’ while still retaining their core customer base?” But, if like in the Bordeaux fine wine market your core customers are rapidly changing, then surely this would seem the perfect opportunity to change the way you market, sell and price your products? Too many chateaux clinging on to selling via the Primeurs system is perhaps what is really holding the region back? The negociants will always be there willing to offer their distribution networks if there is money to be made.
The most obvious path to premiumisation is to have a high-quality product and there is no denying the quality revolution that has occurred in Bordeaux in the past 20 or 30 years. Many premium chateaux are now capable of producing second wines that are of a higher quality than even their Grand Vins were in the 1970s or early 1980s. Yes, these wines have also become more expensive, but they have also been fine-tuned with remarkable modern winemaking craftsmanship.
While the chateaux have certainly tailored their product offerings to individual preferences and purchase behaviours in an attempt to build brand loyalty, doing so effectively within the fine wine category is a lot more difficult and complicated compared to building a loyalty programme for Starbucks coffee drinkers. The general detachment and inaccessibility of the top 100 chateaux still makes building an effective emotional connection and consumer product experience a difficult proposition. Bordeaux has still not fully embraced a wider end-consumer interface engagement strategy.
Post 2009 and 2010 vintages, the Chateaux have certainly had the money to ‘embraced the new’… new cellar tech, new equipment, new wineries, new second and third wines, new premium label designs, and some have even embraced new interactive consumer tasting experiences in London, New York or Hong Kong to drive up the excitement value of their brands. Also viticulturally, embracing ‘the new’ has had a particular resonance with the next generation of consumers where organics, biodynamics and regenerative viticulture has taken on a greater importance for these ‘green aware’ fine wine end consumers.
Unfortunately, the Bordeaux chateaux, and indeed premium wine producers across the world, have struggled to leverage one of the most important tools in the luxury brand marketing tool kit, namely scarcity. We all know that the top boutique chateaux wines are made in more limited quantities than before, and even the first growth Bordeaux chateaux who once botted 8,000 or 10,000 dozen bottle cases annually are now only making 3,000 or 4,000 cases in an effort to build the notion of scarcity and quality, however, much of this endeavour has been negated by a rapidly shrinking consumer base of active fine wine drinkers with pockets deep enough to afford these premium wines.
Even with the increased use of more sophisticated ‘pricing architecture’ or classic ‘good, better, best’ ladder branding of their chateaux wines, lower quality tiers of second, third of even fourth label wines have merely shifted into more direct competition with alternative premium products from the USA, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand especially if we are talking about red and white Bordeaux blend categories.
Somehow, the Bordeaux chateaux will have to re-examine how they justify their wines’ price tags to a new generation of consumers. A large part of this will be redetermining how elastic their premium pricing can be, whether sold direct to merchants or through the Primeurs system. How will demand change when product pricing increases or decreases? These factors will then help them determine qualitatively how elastic their demand is and how loyal their consumers are.
Markets do not always function logically, especially the fine wine market. Sometimes, there are simply “magic price points” that represent steep drop-offs or sharp increases in demand. Premiumisation is not a simple solution but a strategic approach that will require careful planning, execution and adaptation if chateaux are to achieve long-term success and reinvigorate the entire Bordeaux region.
Back in the 2000s, when old media (i.e. ink on paper) was in its pomp and the fine wine sector of the South African fine wine industry was trying to find its way, if, as a producer, you wanted your wine to be taken seriously, you had to submit it to the rigour of a blind tasting.
No name, no label, no reputation to prop it up – just the wine, stripped of context and left to speak for itself. That was the great leveller, the crucible in which pretenders were found out and those that were the real deal emerged.
These days, though, many of South Africa’s most acclaimed producers – particularly in the rarefied air of top-end Chenin Blanc and Syrah – no longer feel compelled to play that game. And why would they? They already dominate the opinion polls, their reputations hyped constantly by critics, international and national.
But it raises the question: Are we letting the elites coast?
It’s not necessarily about integrity – no one doubts the commitment of, say, Chris Alheit or David and Nadia Sadie to their craft when it comes to Chenin; or Reenen Borman when it comes to Syrah. Their wines have become benchmarks precisely because of the obsession to detail, lavished from vineyard to bottle.
But if these wines are now assessed sighted, with the name on the bottle and all its brand allure in full view, how do we guard against unconscious bias? Even the most fastidious critic is human. The whisper of a name like “Magnetic North” or “Epilogue” carries with it an aura that’s hard to entirely block out.
There’s a case to be made, of course, that these producers have earned the benefit of the doubt. Reputation, after all, is not an accident – it’s forged over years, through consistent quality, often in the face of adverse conditions and stubborn scepticism.
South Africa’s top producers have done more than just make good wine; they’ve raised the bar for everyone. Alheit’s Cartology helped rehabilitate what role old-vine Chenin could play in a top-end blend. Sadie made single-vineyard Chenin not only viable but aspirational – Skurfberg, Mev. Kirsten. Mullineux, Rall, Van Loggerenberg – each in their way has pushed the envelope, and their success has forced the big guys to lift their game.
And yet, as soon as the tasting is sighted, most of the producers that score big still come from the usual suspects – small, hands-on outfits with a penchant for old vines and minimal intervention (this website guilty as charged).
I’m not sure how to feel about this. Do we see the gap between boutique brilliance and big-brand adequacy narrowing? Top-tier Chenin from legacy producers like Nederburg, Spier, or Kleine Zalze perform spectacularly well in blind tastings. But there is still the assumption that small equals superior. There seems an inherent reluctance among both trade and punters to let the best of big match the pinnacle of boutique…
Which brings us back to the original point: If we no longer demand blind tasting from the top guns, what happens to impartiality? Should the gatekeepers of critical acclaim be more militant about it?
Maybe. But maybe not. The landscape has changed. It could be argued that the producers at the top are there not because of blind tasting, but because they’ve built reputations that endure even outside it. And with the playing field tightening, with big players stepping up and new names emerging all the time, resting on laurels isn’t really an option – even for the elite.
Moreover, sighted tasting demands more rigour, not less. Transparency around process, critical self-awareness, and a willingness to call out even the revered when they falter – these are essential if credibility is to be maintained. SA wine needs champions, yes, but it needs honest ones.
Chenin Blanc and Syrah, more than any other varieties, has been the launching pad for South Africa’s wine renaissance. It’s appropriate, then, that the debate about fairness, rigour, and recognition finds its sharpest focus around these two varieties. Whether blind or sighted, what matters most is that we don’t forget what got us here in the first place: a relentless pursuit of quality, and a refusal to settle for anything less.
Want access to this content?
Reviews and Reports are initially reserved for subscribers. Get immediate access to exclusive insights and data.
Already subscribed? Login
Entries for this year’s Pinotage Report sponsored by financial institution Prescient Fund Services are now open.
Winemag.co.za will be generating a number of category reports throughout the year – see here. Each report will be based on the outcome of a blind tasting of wines entered within a specific category and includes key findings, tasting notes for the top wines, buyer’s guide (wines ranked by quality relative to price) and scores on the 100-point quality scale for all wines entered.
Wines will be tasted by a three-person panel consisting of Christian Eedes as chairman, Ndaba Dube, director of operations at the President Hotel in Cape Town, and Francois Rautenbach, wine and hospitality specialist.
The producer of the best wine overall will win the following from Evolve Battery & Grid Solutions:
The monetary value of these services is approximately R 10,000.
Entries close on Thursday 12 June. For the rules and entry form, click here.
Entries for this year’s Signature Red Blend Report sponsored by financial institution Prescient Fund Services are now open, the focus being wines which are distinctive of their originators and draw particular attention in the market place. So-called Rhône-style blends, Cape Blends and all other proprietorial red blends are permissible but Bordeaux-style blends are not.
Winemag.co.za will be generating a number of category reports throughout the year – see here. Each report will be based on the outcome of a blind tasting of wines entered within a specific category and includes key findings, tasting notes for the top wines, buyer’s guide (wines ranked by quality relative to price) and scores on the 100-point quality scale for all wines entered.
Wines will be tasted by a three-person panel consisting of Christian Eedes as chairman, Ndaba Dube, director of operations at the President Hotel in Cape Town, and Francois Rautenbach, wine and hospitality specialist.
Entries close on Thursday 12 June. For the rules and entry form, click here.
The producer of the best wine overall will win the following from Evolve Battery & Grid Solutions:
The monetary value of these services is approximately R 10,000.
Entries close on Thursday 12 June. For the rules and entry form, click here.
To enter, kindly ensure you (or the company you represent) are a subscriber to Winemag.co.za. If you’re not yet subscribed, click here to sign up.
Please expect a representative from co-sponsor Evolve Battery & Grid Solutions to contact you about maximising your renewable energy returns.
An entry fee of R1,395 including VAT per wine applies and you will be directed to our online shop to make payment after you have completed the entry form below. Please note that if you want to enter multiple wines, each will require a separate form although payment can be made all at once.
Subscribers receive daily reviews and in-depth reports before release to the public. Cancel any time.
