The Circumstance Cape Coral rosé made by Waterkloof in Somerset West is being touted by some as capable of rivaling the best of Bandol, Provence. Tasting notes and rating for the current-release 2018 as follows:

Made entirely from Mourvédre, fermentation occurred spontaneously in dedicated wooden vessels. The nose shows red fruit plus subtle notes of earth and spice while the palate is light, fresh and admirably dry (alcohol is 13% and RS is 1.9g/l). It’s very drinkable yet somehow almost too elegant – would a little more substance and grip be to its benefit or detriment, I wondered? Wine Cellar price: R120 a bottle.

Editor’s rating: 88/100.

The Vuurberg wines are big, booming multi-regional wines made by the acclaimed Donovan Rall. Tasting notes for the new releases as follows:

Vuurberg White 2017
Approximate retail price: R215
A blend of mostly Chenin Blanc with Verdelho, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Semillon sourced variously from Stellenbosch, Piekenierskloof and the Swartland. Plenty going on aromatically with notes of hay, citrus, peach and even a little pineapple plus a slight yeasty quality and a touch of reduction. The palate is rich and full-bodied with a creamy texture. Overall, a wine that makes a big impression. Alcohol: 13.5%.

Editor’s rating: 92/100.

Vuurberg Red 2016
Approximate retail price: R265
A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Swartland Cinsault (the latter replacing Merlot from the 2015 vintage). Very ripe, even slightly baked red and black fruit to go with some exotic floral fragrance and a hint of spice on the nose. Big and broad – plenty of fruit power, moderate acidity and soft tannins. Intoxicating stuff, this needs to be served chilled! Alcohol: 15%.

Editor’s rating: 88/100.

Find our South African wine ratings database here.

If you look carefully at the bottom left-hard corner of the photograph to the left (an inset of the original photo gives the context), you will see part of the bowl of a wineglass at a rather odd angle. And surprisingly close to the table top. The clue to an explanation lies in the slatted top of the table or, more exactly, the spaces between the slats: they are just wide enough to take the very slender stem of an unusually elegant wineglass – one from which the foot has been snapped off. A winelover of any length of experience is bound to recognise the idea of such a vitally damaged glass, and will feel a sympathetic twinge of anguish.

Especially when the glass is as expensive as the Zalto slotted into the tabletop by winemaker Lukas as Loggerenberg, shown here at the modest launch a few years back of the Carinus range, which he makes in addition to his own brand. Lukas was not in a financial position to simply throw away the damaged glass (almost useless unless you also have a regular supply of slatted tables to hand), hence the expedient. His guests had whole glasses, by the way. Ones with feet intact. (Glasses, I mean – not guests, though they too, as I recall.)

Fashions can be odd, but sometimes explicable. Just about all the new-wave winemakers I know have their sets of the lovely, airily lightweight Zalto glasses – mostly frequently the Burgundy shape. I strongly suspect that they choose this shape for their red (and white wines) rather than the Universal one, let alone the Bordeaux model, not because it suits the wine better, but because Burgundy is inspirational for their own winegrowing. If not the Zaltos, then the Gabriel Glass – which, however, comes in only one shape, closer to the “Universal”, but in two qualities, one handblown like the Zaltos and as airy, the other not. Most unusually, local prices for the Gabriels seem very good and, at about R450 each, the finer ones are quite a bit less costly than the Zaltos something over R700, and of much the same style and quality (so I use them myself – I have some of the slenderer ones for rare grand occasions or grand wines, the cheaper – R150ish – standard ones for everyday).

On the other hand, I suspect, on flimsy evidence, that many of the older school of winemakers (and winelovers), if they go for very expensive glasses, will choose to stick to the weighty name of Riedel, which has been around for so much longer. While Zalto’s range of glass-shapes seems to be expanding, it can’t begin to compete with the rather bewilderingly vast array of Riedels for different grape varieties and wine-styles, and at different quality levels but all expensive or extremely expensive. It’s undoubtedly rash of me to associate Riedel with Bordeaux and plush conservatism, and link Zalto to more fashionable Burgundy and the new-wave terroir aficionados, but I do … at least tentatively.

One weird thing, in fact, is that even those who have undergone a Riedel demonstration of the substantial effect of glass shape on wine-drinking experience are capable of walking away with their preconceptions shattered yet returning to using just one or two different glasses for all their drinking. I’ve done it myself – twice. The last time, I was so convinced by the superiority of a good white burgundy in the appropriate glass, when compared with other apparently plausible Riedels, that I swore I was going to buy it. I still haven’t – but, then, I so seldom drink good white burgundy…. Apart from my Gabriels, I do have glasses marketed as ideal for one style/variety: Speigelau glasses for burgundy, a mix-up of Spiegelau and Riedel for Bordeaux, but they pretty seldom get an outing.

For those others that want a one-shape-supposedly-fits-all glass, there’s quite a choice apart from the Gabriel I mentioned, and (presumably) the Zalto Universal, both easily available in South Africa. The latest to make headlines in our little wine world was one from Jancis Robinson, whose signature appears on the glass together with that of the designer, Richard Brendon. I must say I was sorry when it was brought out (with a lot of fanfare from Jancis), because it meant that she was no longer one of remarkably few wine writers without a crudely commercial sideline to supplement the income derived from her pen. But the glass looks lovely – its bowl rather more rounded than those of the Zalto and Gabriel. Not yet available here, as far as I know, but I suspect it soon will be, at a hefty price.

• Tim James is one of South Africa’s leading wine commentators, contributing to various local and international wine publications. He is a taster (and associate editor) for Platter’s. His book Wines of South Africa – Tradition and Revolution appeared in 2013.

What an asset South Africa’s old vines are proving to be! Grapes for Duwweltjie Chenin Blanc as made by Thistle & Weed, which is the collaboration between Etienne Terblanche (Vinpro’s viticulturist for the Coastal Region) and Stephanie Wiid (Fairview winemaker), come from a Paarl vineyard planted over 65 years ago and three vintages in, the resulting wine is really proving to be the business.

The newly released 2018 (matured for 10 months in older oak, alcohol: 13%) has an extraordinarily expressive nose – naartjie and orange, peach and apricot, some waxiness, some nuttiness and a touch of spice. The palate is super-concentrated and super-flavourful. Sweet upfront but suitably savoury on the finish, tangy acidity lending drive. It’s a dramatic wine, perhaps a touch more rustic than the sublime 2017, but quite delicious even so. Wine Cellar price: R205 a bottle.

Editor’s rating: 94/100.

Find our South African wine ratings database here.

When considering Pinotage’s potential for greatness, the wine by Abrie Beeslaar under his own label has in relatively short space of time become as important a reference point as anything he makes for the great Stellenbosch property that is Kanonkop.

Current-release is the 2017, the sixth since the maiden 2012, and it is again superbly well crafted. 2017 was the third consecutive year of drought in the Cape Winelands, Stellenbosch receiving 450mm of rain, significantly less than the long-term average of 750mm but every indication to date is that the district still produced some very fine wines.

Fermentation took place in open top concrete tanks with punch downs every two hours, while maturation lasted 20 months in 30 French and two American oak barrels. The nose shows a little floral fragrance before cherries, plums as well as earth, spice and a hint of chocolate. On the palate, the fruit is pure and sweet, with no shortage of freshness despite an alcohol of 14.5%, the tannins firm but fine. It’s luscious in the best sense, sleek, the production values suitably high given an approximate retail price tag of R500 a bottle.

Editor’s rating: 95/100.

Find our South African wine ratings database here.

The inaugural Cabernet Sauvignon Report, compiled in 2012, saw four wines rated 5 Stars, these being De Trafford 2009, Delaire Reserve 2009, Graham Beck The Coffeestone 2009 and the standard-label Tokara 2009.

The Tokara caused a particular stir back then in that it sold for the princely sum of R79 a bottle. 10 years on from vintage, how has it held up? Bottled under screwcap and carrying an alcohol of 15%, it shows very little decay. Colour is still pitch black, the nose quite heady with notes of red and black fruit, crushed herbs, oak spice, pencil shavings, and boot polish as well as the merest hint of undergrowth. The palate is full bodied with fresh acidity and smooth tannins, a little heat on the finish a minor criticism. I had the original drinking window as being from 2014 – 2019 but this should go a while yet.

Editor’s rating: 93/100.

Find our South African wine ratings database here.

I’ve previously written about the role of slaves in the SA wine industry, and not only from the point of view of anonymous, thankless, back-breaking labour but also in terms of the slave blood running through well-known ‘white’ wine families as a result of marriage or concubinage between vrijburghers and slaves in those early years.

Against that backdrop, I’ve re-introduced the critically important Colijns of Constantia, whitewashed from history during the Apartheid years because Johannes Colijn – the man who put Constantia wine on the international map from the 1720s – was the son of a black woman, Maria Everts, who was born into slavery yet became an astonishingly wealthy property (and slave) owner in her own right.

So I’m not entirely surprised to find that some of the earliest letters mentioning Constantia wine were written by (you guessed it) slaves.

Historian Nigel Worden says the letters from the freed slave Johannes Morgh, living in Batavia, to his half-brother Arnoldus Koevoet, at first still enslaved at the Company’s notorious Slave Lodge and two years later living in Church Street as a free man, ‘suggest a more widespread literacy than historians have usually been prepared to recognise for Cape slaves and freed slaves’.

Actually slave literacy is not entirely surprising, given that Hendrik Adriaan Van Rheede tot Drakenstein, the VOC administrator who imposed ludicrously low prices on Cape wines in 1685, insisted at the same time that the children of Company slaves must attend school until the age of 12, attend church with their schoolmaster every Sunday, and learn the catechism. (The irony is that slave children probably received a better education than many of the children born to illiterate settlers from Europe…)

And so, in a letter dated 10 February 1729, Morgh in Batavia wrote as follows to Koevoet: ‘Brother dear, please send me a half-aum of wine for my account because wine is unavailable and especially Constansie wine which here [costs?] 8 rixdollars like at Jan Klijn’s the half-aum… See whether brother can make an accord with Jan Klijne for a half-aum of wine on my account. I will send him whatever he wants, fabric or chintz or striped stuff, whatever he wants, he only has to write.’

Jan Klijn(e) was of course Johannes Colijn, who in 1727 had negotiated with the VOC to send an annual shipment to Batavia of 10-12 leaguers of red wine at 80 rixdollars each (10 rixdollars per half-aum) and 20 leaguers of white at 50 rixdollars each (6.25 Rixdollars per half-aum).

Johannes Morgh, meanwhile, had been listed as a mandoor (overseer) at the Slave Lodge in 1727 but by 1729 had secured his manumission (by offering the slave Titus of Bengal as his replacement) and was living in Batavia, working as a coachman and horse trainer.

Despite still being enslaved, Arnoldus Koevoet seems to have been highly skilled and well connected: he was able to deliver letters and parcels, procure christening certificates, crayfish and wine, and even dispatch relatives to Batavia!

Following his manumission in 1731 (which he secured by offering the slave Masinga van Rio de la Goa as his replacement), he worked as a carpenter and builder (his surname meant ‘crowbar’) and in March 1732 he was sent another letter by Morgh, again asking him to acquire wine: ‘Red and white, Constanse wijn, and also other sorts of red and white wine, as much as Your Honour can send me, and annually 3 or 4 vats of salt cabbage and sour cabbage; regarding the money, I will send it to you in cash or in goods, at your Honour’s discretion.’

Was Colijn more open to bartering or reaching an agreement with Morgh and Koevoet because they shared a slave background?

I suspect not, given that Colijn’s mother had been free for over two decades when he was born (in 1692) and he was a wealthy man, having inherited property from his mother as well as his first wife, the widow of Klein/Hoop op Constantia. His second wife was Johanna Appel, a white woman whose parents both came from fairly prominent vrijburgher families (her mother was a Cloete) and thanks to producing the Cape’s best wine (with the assistance of some slaves of his own, needless to say), he was in the VOC’s good books.

It all goes to show, to me at least, that things were less ‘black and white’ in those early days at the Cape, which by no means implies that slavery was ever okay, or that it was easy to achieve freedom and future success in life (on the contrary, Robert Shell says that during the 170 years of VOC rule at the Cape, only 103 out of 4,213 slaves born at the Slave Lodge obtained their freedom).

The point is that there is still so much to uncover about early SA history. Those few individuals who did break free, against seemingly impossible odds, must have truly extraordinary (and at least a couple of them appreciated good wine).

Bibliography
Robert Shell, Children of Bondage: A social history of the slave society at the Cape of Good Hope 1652 – 1838, Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1994

Nigel Worden (ed), Cape Town between East and West: Social Identities in a Dutch Colonial Town, Jacana, Johannesburg, 2012

• Joanne Gibson has been a journalist, specialising in wine, for over two decades. She holds a Level 4 Diploma from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and has won both the Du Toitskloof and Franschhoek Literary Festival Wine Writer of the Year awards, not to mention being shortlisted four times in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards. As a sought-after freelance writer and copy editor, her passion is digging up nuggets of SA wine history.

This is impressive: it’s the hottest day of the year – my car thermometer says 40 degrees – but 1890 House Sushi in Observatory is full at lunchtime.

Sensible people do not eat raw fish in 40 degree heat, especially in a scruffy location like this.

We are a stone’s throw from Lower Main Road – that’s Observatory’s drinking and eating strip. 1890 House – named for the age of the building – is located diagonally across the road from the liquor store and between two of the studenty suburbs’s most bohemian institutions, Café Ganesh and A Touch of Madness.

All credit to the chefs at 1890 House that 18 years in, they have not been budged from the centre of their horseshoe conveyor belt. Six days a week, they make fresh maki, nigiri, roses, sashimi and salads for both lunch and dinner.

The food here is famously delicious. Sandalene Dale-Roberts, wife of acclaimed chef Luke, is a fan. The chefs are traditionally trained, and every morsel is an exercise in flavour balance. Over time, the menu has changed somewhat, offering more vegetarian options.

The seafood salad is masterful. It’s a tangle of noodle-like khaki strands flavoured with sweet vinegar, sesame, ginger, and chilli. The texture of the seaweed is wonderfully unique, like bendy, blanched vegetable stems. The taste of the ocean comes through strongly but the heat of the chilli, the depth of the sesame and the dancing notes of the vinegar and ginger are far from tentative. The spring onion garnish is fresh and sharp.

I adored the vegetarian rainbow roll. The first bite was surprisingly sweet. The sweetness came from the mayonnaise, the rice, and the sesame seeds – but also from the deliciously pickled radish in the centre. The nori seaweed and the avocado added salt and creaminess respectively. The mini batons of cucumber in the centre added coolness and crunch.

On the other side of the conveyer belt, I notice a man order two plates of rainbow rolls, along with a bowl of vegetables in black bean sauce.

There is plenty at 1890 House for vegetarians: bean curd nigiri, a vegetarian California roll, hand roll, and fashion sandwich. There is also miso soup, hot and sour soup, veg stir fry and vegetarian spring rolls.

Tasting what the chefs at 1890 House are capable of doing without the old nineties standards of raw salmon and tuna made me wonder if there’s been enough change at 1890, and at other sushi restaurants.

The menu here is dominated by the following: Norwegian salmon, sashimi-grade tuna and prawns. There’s no question that diners adore these three meats, but why are the sushi chefs here – and elsewhere – not making more of an effort to steer their clientele towards more sustainable options? Indeed, why are 1890 regulars – many of them NGO-workers, academics and all-round progressives – not requesting more sustainable options, like Yellowtail, Albacore tuna and vegetarian sushi?

SASSI (the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) has Yellowtail and Albacore tuna – also known as Longfin – on its green list.

By contrast, local Yellowfin – 1890’s regular tuna – is Orange-listed (“Think Twice”) if caught on a longline. Deep-sea longlines don’t snag just tuna, of course they don’t. The bycatch includes other fish and seabirds.

In 2016, 1890 House posted an image on its Facebook page of a 100kg Bigeye tuna. SASSI reports that in the same year, the catch on longlines set for Bigeye tuna was 60% shark. Bigeye caught in the Indian ocean is Orange-listed. Caught in the Atlantic ocean, it is red-listed (“Don’t Buy”).

1890 House serves farmed Norwegian salmon, grown in sea cages in deep coastal fjords. Norwegian salmon – like Scottish and Alaskan salmon – are types of Atlantic salmon, a SASSI orange-listed fish. Millions of salmon are farmed every year in cages at sea. Naturally their waste and the diseases they catch are a danger to the sea environment in which they live.

Prawn trawling along the sea bed threatens endangered, threatened and protected species, including turtles. Prawn farming has wiped out a quarter of the world’s mangrove forests. Kiddi Shrimp from India, Pink Prawns from Mozambique and Indian Shrimp are all red-listed.

Now consider 1890 House’s popular Mixed Platter. For just R230 one can enjoy 26 thick slices of fish, including four tuna rolls, four salmon rolls, two prawn nigiri and no fewer than twelve thick sashimi slices of salmon and tuna. Is this not the fish equivalent of the 750g steak? Isn’t this a little, you know, last century consumerist?

I have no doubt that 1890’s chefs have the kind of inventiveness that would allow them to be versatile. There are some unusual items here. The bean curd roll with prawn mayonnaise topping is comfort food on a new level: sweet, soft and childish.
The bamboo roll is generous, with a clean and sophisticated finish. The seared, spicy tuna rose has the look and feel of rare roast beef. There is something of the braai and the carvery here that would sing to pescatarians secretly longing for farmyard flesh.

Even if there weren’t ethical issues around luxury fish, from a foodie point of view, it’s exciting to try sushi that looks and tastes different to supermarket rolls.

The wine list at 1890 is unremarkable. However, Japanese sake, Chinese wine, and Tsingtao beer are available.

1890 House of Sushi: 40 Trill Road, Observatory, 7925; 021 447 1450; 1890.co.za

• Daisy Jones has been writing reviews of Cape Town restaurants for ten years. She won The Sunday Times Cookbook of the Year for Starfish in 2014. She was shortlisted for the same prize in 2015 for Real Food, Healthy, Happy Children. Daisy has been a professional writer since 1995, when she started work at The Star newspaper as a court reporter. She is currently completing a novel.

What wine to serve your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day? Mulderbosch suggests its Rosé 2018 – suitably pink but a paler, more alluring shade than before due to slightly less skin contact.

From Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards dedicated to this style, grapes are picked early before being vinified in the same way those for an aromatic white wine would be. The nose shows red fruit and a little herbal nuance, the palate is light and zesty. Serve on its own or with sushi.

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Solace Syrah from Iona in Elgin is an expression of a vineyard in the Elgin Valley, not as high as the majority of this cellar’s holdings and dry relative to the rest of the district. In an effort to achieve something of particular provenance, grower Rozy Gunn works biodynamically as far as possible when it comes to the cultivation of grapes while winemaker Werner Muller takes a light-handed approach in the cellar, fermentation occurring spontaneously and no new oak used for maturation. Tasting notes and rating for the third-release 2016 as follows:

On the nose, red and black fruit, a hint of fynbos, pepper, and spice as well as just a little reductive smokiness. The palate meanwhile manages to exhibit good depth of fruit without sacrificing freshness, something that is becoming a hallmark of this wine. Flavour-packed with nicely grippy tannins, this has a lovely vinosity about it – not too lean, not too plush, just right (alcohol: 13.5%).  Approximate retail price: R290 a bottle.

Editor’s rating: 93/100.

Find our South African wine ratings database here.