On Friday, a vertical tasting spanning the 2000 to 2018 vintages of Cabernet Sauvignon from Stellenbosch property Thelema.
There is a sense in many quarters that the measure of alcohol by volume for local wines is trending inexorably up. This is born out in the case of Thelema Cab but it is not happening in a smooth progression as the graph below shows (average over the 19 years: 14.18%):
Moreover, it is difficult to say how much alcohol level correlates to wine quality, 2003 with lowest abv of 13.58% and 2011 with the highest at 14.72% were two of the best wines on show for me. The 2017 with an abv of 14.5% was probably the pick of the day with lovely clarity and depth of fruit while 2018 at 13.83% is certainly lighter-bodied and perhaps destined to always be a little awkward (my other picks were: 2006, 2009, 2014 and 2015).
Once the vertical was complete, proprietor Gyles Webb treated those assembled to a taste of his Cape Independent Winemakers Guild Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 1990. On the nose, red and black berries, just a hint of mint, tea leaf, mushroom and caramel while the palate was still very much alive – light but very detailed. Delicate and harmonious, it showed supremely well (rating: 97/100). And the alcohol? 12.5%.
Is it curious that it’s nearly always wines at the cheaper end that are promoted as “good value”? Think: If you saw an article on this website entitled “Good value wines from Stellenbosch”, would you expect it to include, for example, Sons of Sugarland Syrah – at about R400 if you can get it – or Reyneke Biodynamic Syrah, which you can certainly at R210? Both of these Polkadraai Hills wines are brilliant value for the quality, I’d say. But good value usually implies decent enough wines, over-delivering at a modest price – I’ll come back to recommend a few of those later.
I was prompted to think about this when tasting, alongside Angela Lloyd, the new range of wines made by Italian import Michela Sfiligoi and the rest of the small team producing Ayama wines at Slent farm in the Voor-Paardeberg (I wrote about Ayama in late 2020). It seems the Nomoya wines are to feature at what promises to be a worthwhile addition to Paarl’s wine culture, the Nomoya Wine Lounge at The Wine Hive in Paarl (see the website).There are two Swartland chenins in the range. The Chenin Blanc Old Vine 1982 2021 (I’m sure you can work out which is the vineyard planting date and which the vintage) costs R170, for which you get a rather intense, spicy and complex wine, well balanced and with a delicious core of sweet fruit. Pretty good value, I’d say, given the prices asked for most serious chenins these days – better value, in fact, than its cheaper sibling. The standard Nomoya Chenin Blanc is R50 less, and is a nice wine, but you can buy a lot of good chenin for less than R120.
Also paradoxically good value in this range, I’d suggest, is the priciest of the seven, a Vermentino for R240. Not only is it something of a rarity in South Africa (it was Michela and her partner Attilio Dalpiaz who introduced this Italian variety to the Cape), offering our jaded palates something different – even rather exotic. It’s also a really good, interesting and not too overt wine – nicely textured, with a succulent acidity balancing the richness and intensity, and lingering in a very satisfactory way.
The other Nomoyas, hmmm…. If it’s a good value grenache blanc you’re after, rather go for the delightful Perdeberg Vineyard Collection version for R80 (as mentioned before). The Nomoya, 50% pricier, is OK, but ordinary and a touch sweet. The red Grenache (R150) is much better: ripe but bright, nicely firm, chewy and untrivial. The ripely sweet Shiraz (R180) didn’t appeal to me, nor did the rather grubby, old-fashioned 2019 Pinotage from Stellenbosch (R130).
As to another take on the the concept of good value, I thought the slogan last week accompanying Wine Cellar’s offering of some Northern Rhône syrahs was pretty clever: “Value from the masters of Syrah”. Just “value”, conjuring up images of something valuable – which I’m sure the wines (mostly below-top-of-the-range from some star producers) indeed were – while at the same time vaguely suggesting that they are also good value.
I love good Northerm Rhône syrahs (though I seldom admire the white wines from the area, and there was also one of those included), but I can’t think of them offering what I’d call good value – given the quality of the much less pricey local syrahs these days. Instead of Jamet Côtes-du-Rhône Rouge at R525 I could get two bottles of the Reyneke I mentioned above (Neal Martin of Vinous also likes it, giving a 95 score to the 2019) and have a nice lump of change. And I’d very rather have nearly three bottles of Sons of Sugarland Syrah or Van Loggerenberg Graft than one of Clape’s Cornas Renaissance at R1200. I don’t actually know how much Porseleinberg costs these days (it’s admittedly particularly hard to get since a foreign critic gave it a super-high score), but probably about half the price of the Renaissance. Of course, if you’re rich you can have them all – but I’m talking about good value. Not valuableness.
Let me finish at a much more modest level with what seems to me a pair of great value Stellenbosch wines – that is, good wines that I’d be happy to drink at a braai or a dinner party, but costing remarkably little, given the quality. In fact, I can’t easily think of other Stellenbosch wines of this quality:price ratio. The two Guinea Fowl wines come from the vineyards of Saxenburg.
The Guinea Fowl Chenin Blanc 2021, at about R75, is pure but subtly fruited, with some sweet-peach richness and intensity but a firm fresh acidity. It’s a characterful wine, which is impressive at this price. The Guinea Fowl Red (a cab-based bordeaux-style blend; R85) is also both quite serious and easily approachable now, with rather perfumed aromas and lots of berry notes (including the loganberries that I associate with malbec), and a good dry grip. More great value from the marvellous Polkadraai Hills ward, come to think of it.
The Institute of Master of Wine is holding an information session to be hosted by Cathy van Zyl MW later this month in Stellenbosch.
The Institute is the home of exceptional expertise in the wine world. What started more than 65 years ago as an exam for the UK wine trade is now a globally recognised title – today there are 418 MWs based in 30 countries.
This information session will explain the role and function of the Institute of Masters of Wine, as well as explain the MW approach to the exam syllabus with a special focus on the writing and tasting skills required to become a Master of Wine. The session will end with an optional guided blind tasting of three wines.
This session is aimed at people considering the MW programme within the next year or so. It is recommended for WSET Diploma students and graduates, Cape Wine Masters, qualified winemakers and any highly motivated wine professional who believes MW is the next step for his or her career and personal development.
Date: 22 February 2022
Time: 14h00
Venue: The Wine Loft, Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, Muldersvlei Rd, Stellenbosch
Cost: The introductory session is free but if you would like to stay for the guided blind wine tasting, there will be a charge of R100 to cover the cost of the wine.
Bookings:
If you would like to attend the Introductory Session only, please email: courses@thewinecentre.co.za The session will also be available via Zoom – details via email.
If you would also like to attend the blind wine tasting, please book here.
David Clarke of the agency Ex Animo Wine Co. provides a podcast consisting of a series of interviews with industry figures, and recently caught up with editor Christian Eedes for a wine industry SONA. Listen to it here.
Timepiece from Jordan in Stellenbosch is a new collection of single-variety wines from the property’s oldest vineyards. First to be released is a Sauvignon Blanc 2020 and Chenin Blanc 2019 – these from vineyards planted in 1983 by Ted Jordan, father of current proprietor Gary, the logo on the label penned in Ted’s hand. A Riesling will join the range soon while a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard has also been registered. Tasting notes and ratings for the initial releases as follows:
Timepiece Chenin Blanc 2019
Price: R360
From a south-facing vineyard 195m above sea level. 78% fermented and matured for eight months in older 228-litre barrels, 22% in clay amphorae. A pronounced herbal, almost minty note precedes lime and white peach plus some leesy complexity on the nose while the palate shows dense fruit offset by bright acidity before a saline finish. There’s good depth of flavour here but it has to be said that this quite a particular and unusual rendition of the grape.
CE’s rating: 91/100.
Timepiece Sauvignon Blanc 2020
Price: R360
From a south-facing vineyard 226m above sea level. 67%% fermented and matured for six months in clay amphorae, 33% in older 228-litre French oak barrels. Lime, lemon, peach and dried herbs as well as some honey and some leesy complexity on nose while the palate has a nice presence and directness about it – good weight and fresh acidity before a long, savoury finish. A substantial and rewarding wine.
CE’s rating: 93/100.
Check out our South African wine ratings database.
Are riper wines inherently better than less ripe wines because of their additional concentration? When Jasper Raats of Longridge in Stellenbosch launched the Maandans Pinotage 2017 made in a refined and subtle style, there was a contingent of high-rolling Stellenbosch business figures among the guests who, perhaps used to drinking the likes of Beyerskloof Diesel and Kanonkop Black Label, were nonplussed by this alternative take on the variety. The look of bewilderment on some of the faces when Raats revealed that he would be charging R1 200 a bottle for his light and zippy new offering is something that still amuses me.
With summer prevailing for a good while yet, light reds which can be chilled in the fridge are to be recommended. It’s not merely a matter of fashion. There comes a point in a meal where a transition from white wine to red is needed, a bit of tannin suited to slightly heavier, meat-based dishes but the wine should not be so extracted that it becomes listless and dull. When the ambient temperature hovers around 30˚C, then serving red wine cooled down only emphasizes the fruit and boosts refreshment.
The concept of “light red” helps explain the huge popularity of Pinot Noir in certain quarters. Firstly, wines from this variety are conciliatory in the sense of working well with a broad range of foods. Eight people around the corporate lunch table who’ve each chosen different main courses? Order the Pinot and everybody will be happy.
As for how it presents in the glass, Pinot can vary significantly but it is essentially premised on aromatics and fruit purity rather than depth of colour, palate weight or firmness of tannin. This means it’s relatively unthreatening giving it appeal to a broad range of consumers.
The quintessential summer red wine, then? Unfortunately, the best examples of Pinot from wherever in the world are difficult to make in large quantity and the resulting scarcity equates to high prices, which precludes it from being an appropriate braai wine for most people.
Cue the renaissance of Cinsault and the rise of Grenache Noir on the local scene. Frankly, however, both these varieties are work in progress at the moment – Cinsault, on the whole, seems to have an inherent modesty to it that precludes it from making very interesting wines while great Grenache Noir supposedly hinges on vines of meaningful age, something that South Africa does not yet have very much of.
So where does that leave us? Dial it even further back than “light red” and you get to rosé. Not long ago, this category was synonymous with semi-sweet plonk but increasingly there are a few more serious examples around. The Break a Leg Blanc de Noir from Cinsault as made by Lukas van Loggerenberg has probably been the most convincing in recent times but look out for the Shining Carignan Touriga Nacional Rosé Non-vintage made in a Spanish-inspired, oxidative style by Samantha Suddons of Vinevenom while I’ve also liked the Ken Forrester Silver Rose (100% Grenache) when encountering it previously.
If you’re looking for wines with a deeper sense of fruit and just a bit more grip than your average pink wine, then pickings remain slim (especially if your budget does not stretch to Maandans). It’s as if quite a lot of both producers and consumers have an insecurity about how much body and weight a red wine needs, lightness viewed as equal to weakness. Picking grapes early as well as cellar techniques like whole-bunch fermentation and carbonic maceration plus an eschewal considered maverick, if not quite the work of the devil.
House reds at Chez Eedes have been the TSW Swartland Syrah and the Julien Schaal Walker Bay Syrah in recent times and while these are no more than medium-bodied, even these can look a bit chunky when the heat is on. I like Intellego Kedungu 2020 (from Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvèdre and Pinotage) a lot but as is the case with many light reds, it’s overtly scented and quite stemmy on the palate which puts some people off. Most recently, we’ve drunk Reyneke Organic Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2020, which was entirely passable, but straightforward. One wine which became a repeat purchase because it offered freshness without sacrificing too much complexity was Tierhoek Grenache Syrah Mourvedre 2019 but then it was acquired one time too often, and everybody said it was time to move on.
As you can see, I don’t think lighter reds are unavoidably poorer than their bigger counterparts but we need to stop treating them as novelties or oddities. Delicious, fresh red wines that aren’t trivial – it can’t be that hard to do.
In the UK, the Malbec grape is strictly regarded as the property of Argentina and Mendoza. Well, perhaps I should say ‘was’ instead of ‘is’? There is no doubt that Malbec has grown to such stratospheric fame that the mainstream market channels of the UK including the leading supermarkets and high street retailers have all adopted Argentinian Malbec as their go-to variety of choice that should not only engage a novice wine consumer’s interests, but also sidestep their awkward questions surrounding a wine’s complexity, merely leaving them bathing in the seductive opulence of Malbec’s rich, sappy blackberry fruits.
I can already hear the Francophiles crying foul while they submit their evidence in favour of the Southwest of France and the Cahors region where Malbec still reigns as king today and produces some of the most powerful and muscular expressions of Malbec available on the market. But trends are easily made and broken, and Malbec from the Cahors, a ‘thing’ of the early 2000’s, is no longer, long since surpassed by the plethora of hedonistic expressions from right up and down the land mass of Argentina.
For many years, I believed Malbec was a grape born in France but raised and matured in Argentina. That’s until I was introduced to a sneaky little Malbec produced by David van Niekerk of High Constantia fame. It was the late 2000s and I had agreed to ship a delicious parcel of his Clos André Cap Classique together with a nice chunk of his Sebastiaan Cape Bordeaux Red Blend. While neither of these two wines were particularly classed as ‘value lines’, my pallet needed a little more ballast, which I agreed to fill with David’s new Silverhurst Viognier and his High Constantia Malbec. Having not tasted many vaguely serious Malbecs from the Cape up until this point, I decided to err on the side of caution and only shipped a mere 60 bottles of the High Constantia Malbec. Well, we all make mistakes… except on this occasion, mine was to ‘only’ ship 60 bottles instead of a whole pallet! On its arrival, my stock hit the shelf at a very modest £16.99 (R350) per bottle and was sold out within three to four weeks without ever being offered to clients as a ‘special’. All sales were purely organic, and simply bottles grabbed straight off the shelf.
Now I could say it was my sexy allocation of Catena old vine single vineyard Malbecs which recently arrived in the UK that reminded me of my brief High Constantia Malbec dalliance, but I would be lying. It was actually a recent tasting of a bottle of the KWV The Mentors Malbec 2019 that reignited my excitement and reminded me just how exceptionally this variety is currently performing in the Western Cape but also what incredible future potential lies ahead when considering other serious fine wines from the likes of Mike Ratcliffe’s Vilafonté, who’s soon-to-be released Series M 2019 consists of 48% Malbec or their 2013 Series M Archive Release that also contains a whopping 45% chunk of Malbec. My note for the Mentors Malbec is as follows…
KWV The Mentors Malbec 2019, WO Paarl, 14% Abv.
An interesting, very individual wine that is a little bit something different. Aged for 18 months in barrel, this voluptuous ripe Malbec shows a sappy, black plum opulence with subtle notes of black olive, spearmint, dried herbs, black cherry and a meaty, savoury edge. On the palate, the wine is dense, creamy and undeniably generous with a sappy, plummy black currant and blueberry core that really shows the charming face of Malbec, opening up further to reveal a truly multi-faceted expression that is unlike anything I have tasted from Argentina. Individual in the best possible sense. Drink now to 2036+. (93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
It does strike me that very little is written about the potential of Malbec in South Africa, and I can only imagine that it may be to do with mainstream commentators being cautious to champion a grape that is already well established as a brand leader in another competitor country, or because perhaps a chunk of the best barrels produced in South Africa get blended away into some phenomenal Cape Bordeaux blends. I don’t really know, but perhaps others will comment and share their opinion after this piece is published? What I do know is that I taste A LOT of Argentinian Malbecs, from pub-pour, by-the-glass stainless steel expressions all the way up to 24+ month new oak aged old vine, high altitude single vineyard expressions that regularly score 98 to 100/100 from serious international critics, and the handful of benchmark examples I have had the privilege to taste from South Africa compare very favourably in my opinion.
Admittedly, I have not tasted all the ‘top rated’ Malbec examples from South Africa including those from Blaauwklippen, Diemersfontein, Dornier, Glen Carlou, Hartenberg, Morgenhof, Lanzerac, Paul Wallace, Neetlingshof and Rustenberg, but the ones I have tasted, including some pretty serious kit from producers such as Doolhof, lead me to believe that we should not be shy about adding this variety to the armoury of South Africa’s brand ambassadors. While the Cabernet / Shiraz blend category was never going to be wrestled away from Australia, Malbec is an altogether different grape offering a fine wine proposition I believe has hardly been tapped globally. Just as Chenin Blanc has evolved into becoming a signature white variety in South Africa, there is no reason why Malbec can’t do the same in the slightly broader context of our other premium red Bordeaux varieties.
The economics of wine in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley were discussed at the recent Pinot Noir celebration, which once again was a fantastic event. Low yields, difficult growing conditions and erratic weather makes the farming not for the faint-hearted. December was the wettest on record and all the producers commented on the intensive spraying required this season. Was this normal, and how does this impact profitability? Gordon Newton Johnson of Newton Johnson Vineyards suggested that “the weather was just as erratic but not as severe in the 1990s”. The 2022 harvest will be a couple weeks later than last year and as much as five weeks later than 2015. Along with patches of sunburn, it has been a challenging season, requiring on-point viticultural programs to capture this long, cooler vintage in volume.
Godfried Mocke of Cap Maritime, the relatively new Boekenhoutskloof Upper Hemel-en-Aarde venture, commented on the difficulty in establishing vines. Adjacent to Newton Johnson to the south-west, large blue-gums and previous farming practises made the planting more complicated. Expect wines from their own vines around 2026, while their 2020 was sourced from the ex-Sumaridge, now Hasher Family Estate. By the way, the Cap Maritime is a serious, suave and rich Pinot Noir (perhaps more Boekenhoutsesque?), more substantial than the ethereal pinots from the Upper ward typically are.
Talk of yields of under three tonnes per hectare would scare away many a wine producer, but this is common in Pinot country. Flowering complications, low vigour, wind and cool weather all hamper yield. No wonder the wines are of the most expensive on average in South Africa. Grape prices are also the highest, outside a handful of extremely old-vine chenins perhaps. Since there are only about 150 hectares of Pinot Noir in the Hemel-en-Aarde, prices have reached R30 000 per tonne. Seems steep, but you will pay double in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.
Intensive farming and erratic weather mean some of the highest operating costs in the country. Any increase in yield therefore goes ‘straight to the bottom line’. There are a host of technology platforms available aiming to provide better information to the wine grower to make better decisions including: digital mapping through imagery, yield estimation, weather intelligence, smart irrigation and winery ERPs. In theory, increasing efficiency, reducing costs and increasing accuracy should lead to more profitability and even higher yields.
FruitLook, Fieldmargin and Process2wine offer satellite imagery down to 10m GSD (digital aerial photos are composed of a matrix of pixels; each pixel is actually a small square and GSD (Ground Sample Distance) denotes the size of the side of this square on the Earth’s surface. A GSD value of 10m therefore means that each pixel shown on the aerial photo has a length and breadth of 10m on the ground, equivalent to an area of 100m²). Such an aerial view provides good indications of vigour, health and yield. Yield estimation is based on statistical models and these platforms offer good weather and irrigation intelligence. WineMS offers a leading a winery ERP (Enterprise resource planning), along with a couple of the aforementioned platforms, but it lacks further functionality.
Machine-learning algorithms have the upper-hand as technology rises at a compounding rate; more powerful and cheaper sensors collect data generating insights from previous insights. Vinelytics, offers MI models that ‘help [the producer] make better decisions in four key areas of your vineyard operations – Weather, Recommendations, Scheduling and Compliance.’ Terraview is arguably the leading wine technology platform when considering all the above functionality. Largely from a Ground Sample Distance or GSD of just 30cm satellite imagery, Terraview offers more precise images and more data. Using this rich data, machine learning algorithms monitor and predict yield, health and vigour.
“In 2021, we had a home run in Northern Hemisphere, our models on yield estimation averaged around 90% accuracy with 150+ wine producers in Spain and US. We are now working with growers in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile & South Africa,” enthuses Terraview founder Prateek Srivastava. The southern Hemisphere has presented challenges to the algorithm, however – ‘we will augment the base product with terroir-specific models, compliance related functionalities and region-specific bio-security knowledge,’ says Srivastava. There are about 40 South African producers signed up for the 2022 season. The more historical data fed to the platform, the more accurate the models initially. More accurate yield estimation should lead to better efficiencies and cost saving. Local and satellite weather data is compared to historical data, forecasting conditions and identifying health. “It -self-calibrates across millions of data points from various sources to calculate the increase in profitability as a result,” adds Srivastava.
Costs vary across the board and increased platform functionality increases subscription costs. Realised savings should however offset these platform costs to achieve a ‘tech-win’. According to Srivastava, this should be clear post the 2022 harvest. Either way, wine producers seeking to optimise their viticulture in having more, and bespoke information, at hand should consider engaging with new wine technology.
Sometimes it’s only too easy to forget how rapidly things have changed, and that is certainly true for many aspects of South African wine. A case in point that I alluded to last week is the position and prestige of Elgin, and when I was looking in old Grape magazines (old = 20 years!) for a relevant article, I also came across a few about syrah that reminded me that the undoubted present achievement of the variety in the Cape was only getting underway back then.
”Cape shiraz: the material of champs?” was one such article, from 2003, and the question mark was an essential part of the title. In the light of the growing reputation of the variety, a rather eminent panel of judges tasted 13 shirazes from the 2000 vintage that had performed particularly well in local and international competitions and in Platter’s. “Only a few of the established big names were missing”, it was noted, “most notably Saxenburg and De Trafford”. Of those present, a few of the names will not ring very loudly today for Cape syrah aficionados.
Graham Beck Coastal and Glen Carlou were the only wines to rate four stars (out of five, translated from a score out of 20) in a generally low-scoring line-up. Next came Delheim Vera Cruz, Boekenhoutskloof, Lievland Syrah, Anthony de Jager Homtini and Simonsig Merindol. Sadie Columella (included despite having 18% mourvèdre) and Stellenzicht both scored three stars. Then came Lievland Shiraz, with Neil Ellis, Blaauwklippen and Hartenberg dolefully wagging the tail.
The judges were not very enthusiastic on the whole, with a few pleading hopefully that the wines were in something of a “dumb phase”. Angela Lloyd also noted that 2000 was a notably tannic vintage generally, but thought that “possibly the variety is hyped in the media beyond what it can yet produce in the bottle”, especially from young vines. Cathy van Zyl foresaw great strides forward “when winegrowers and makers have learnt more about their sites and the grapes”. Michael Fridjhon also referred to young vines and corresponding overwork in the cellar, and also looked forward to a future that respected site and fruit. Rod Easthope, the New Zealand winemaker then at Rustenburg, thought the local standard fairly high, but was generally rather dismissive of Cape shiraz (including its lack of proven ageworthiness).
Remington Norman MW, the British author of Rhône Renaissance and widely experienced in international syrah, was another judge, and Grape reported his views at some length. He thought that great progress had been made since 1994 – including improved plant material and viticultural practices, and better quality oak barrels – but saw a need for reducing crop levels, not to mention waiting for the vines to age. A general deficiency he saw in the current crop of wines was “the lack of good texture and a tendency to ‘solid’ wines without much elegance”. Less new oak, and less of it American, would help. Remington also stressed the importance of winegrowers “tasting more widely wines that are generally regarded internationally as of top quality”. He added: “Knowing where you are going is an essential pre-requisite of getting there.”
Lessons, these, that have been learned in the past 20 years, I think, as demonstrated in the ever- increasing offering of fine Cape syrahs – and also, now, with other varietries and blends.
It’s interesting, of course, that Lievland had both a Shiraz and a Syrah on the tasting. The other wines were all “Shiraz” except for Boekenhoutskloof, Simonsig and Stellenzicht. I’d guess that labels at a top tasting would tell a different story now. It was Stellenzicht’s famous 1994 that was the first Cape wine to be called Syrah, with winemaker André van Rensburg (later of Vergelegen) having applied for the name to be allowed as an official synonym. He wanted to highlight a distinction, insisting that his wine was different from “old style sweaty, horsy shiraz”. Increasingly, the French rather than Australian version name came to be used for wines that (sometimes not very convincingly) their producers deemed to be in a pure-fruited yet also restrained, classic style.
Retrospectively, that Stellenzicht 1994 seems like the first important contribution to modern Cape syrah, in more than just the name, and primarily in terms of ambition and respect for a single site. It alerted local producers and winelovers as to the grape’s potential here. Syrah became fashionable here from the latter 1990s (and not just in South Africa) – some of the appeal, no doubt, because of Australian international success with the variety and the fact that forces at the time were pushing the Australianisation of South African wine as a means to pleasing the international market.
From about one percent of the total vineyard area in 1995, syrah’s share grew phenomenally, to over ten percent by 2010. Noting this in my 2013 book on South African wine, I added that “Fashionability has meant that Syrah is planted heavily in all parts – from cool Elgin and Elim to the hot Klein Karoo.” I also suggested that “the picture of Syrah in the Cape will be different in ten and twenty years’ time, with more mature vineyards, and a better sense of terroirs most suited to it”.
Admittedly a not very difficult prediction to have made, but it is gratifying just how the quality of Cape syrah has come on in the past ten years, especially in Stellenbosch and perhaps the Cape South Coast, and I’m sure that the spread of genuinely excellent examples will be even greater at the end of the next ten.
The 2022 harvest will be André van Rensburg’s 25th and final as winemaker at Anglo American’s Somerset West property Vergelegen.
Van Rensburg studied at the University of Stellenbosch, graduating B.Sc. Hons Agric (Oenology), cum laude, in 1987. He built up experience at Saxenburg, Warwick and Stellenzicht before joining Vergelegen in 1998 at the age of 35.
Recognition came fast from both local and international institutions, including two trophies at the International Wine and Spirit Competition for the best red blend in the world plus being judged most successful producer overall at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show on four consecutive occasions (2002 – 2005).
More recently, Winemag.co.za announced the Top 20 Wines South Africa 2021, Vergelegen taking the title of Winery of the Year, as well as taking two Best of Category awards, the 2021 emerging as Best Unwooded Sauvignon Blanc and the Semillon 2019 Best Niche White Wine.
Vergelegen is calls for applications for the post of winemaker. To find out more, contact the Vergelegen HR Manager: marketing@vergelegen.co.za Deadline for submissions: Tuesday 22 March 2022.
Subscribers receive daily reviews and in-depth reports before release to the public. Cancel any time.
