Greg Sherwood MW: SA wine gets all the attention in London this May

By now, readers must surely be tiring of hearing about the trials and tribulations of the Bordeaux En-primeur 2024 campaign. I know I certainly am. While the campaign rattles clumsily on with relatively little interest from merchants and fine wine collectors, there have apparently been a few reported rays of sunshine at the end of the dark primeurs tunnel with successful sales reported for most of the first growth Bordeaux that have already been released, including Lafite-Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild and Haut Brion. I suppose the wealthy will always have money to spend and the 2024s do now look invitingly cheap compared to some back vintages.

April, May and June are of course traditionally known to be dominated by Bordeaux En-primeur releases. However, this year, May also became a somewhat surprising bonanza month for South African wines in London with four noteworthy events all happening withing the space of four days.

First up, Monday 12 May saw Tim Atkin MW’s mammoth “The Best of South Africa Trade & Consumer Tasting”; Tuesday saw Meerlust Estate’s 50^th Anniversary Masterclass and Reception held in Berry Brothers and Rudd’s Sussex Cellars in St James’s; Wednesday witnessed the inaugural Chardonnay Association Tasting at South African restaurant mecca High Timber with many producers in attendance; and finally, Thursday saw a select group of journalists and merchants invited to participate in the inaugural “South Africa’s New Wave 2015 Vintage – Ten Years On” deep dive blind tasting featuring close to 80 wines served in twelve flights, once again in Berry Brothers and Rudd’s Sussex Cellars.

I feel exhausted just writing out the above line-up of events, so you get no prizes for guessing how shattered I felt come Friday morning, sitting behind my laptop with a big cup of coffee trying to catch up on a weeks’ worth of missed work emails. With most tastings usually preceded or followed by lunches or dinners with yet more wine, and any intermission in the day’s schedule refreshed by several cold cleansing beers in local Pall Mall watering holes, this was certainly not a week for the faint hearted.

Monday’s mega event was titled “The Best of South Africa” as opposed to “The Tim Atkin 95+ Point Tasting” as many producers invited to attend ended up showing a wider selection of their wines other than merely the highest scorers. On the one hand, it made the number of wineries and wines on show quite impressive, but also a little bit oppressive especially if you wanted to try and taste through most of the wines. I ended up staying through the entire morning trade tasting and into the subsequent consumer session, intent on speaking with as many producers as possible as well as tasting their wines.

With 34 tables and over 60 producers showing wines, not to mention an extra multitude of mixed producers’ wines on the ‘Rising Stars’ table, it was an impressive lineup of South African talent. In Tim’s own words, it was pretty much a perfect selection with the exception of Sadie Family Wines and Alheit Vineyards, neither of whom were present presumably because of the lack of available wines to pour.

For all the past weeks and months of wine trade chatter about a faltering fine wine scene, witnessing the latter consumer portion of the event and the corresponding excitement of the tasters felt very reassuring from a South African wine industry perspective. Many wine producing regions around the world are indeed experiencing serious downturns in consumer demand, but it seems South Africa’s best producers can, for the time being, sleep easy knowing that the clamour for the best SA wines in the UK remains as strong as ever.

Looking briefly through my notes, here are some of my top scoring red and white wine highlights:

Tokara Directors Reserve White 2021 @ 96/100 GSMW

Tokara Simonsberg Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 @ 97+/100 GSMW

MR de Compostella 2022 @ 96+/100 GSMW

Graham Beck Cuvée Clive Cap Classique 2018 @ 96/100 GSMW

Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 @ 98/100 GSMW

Thelema Rabelais 2021 @ 97/100 GSMW

Capensis Fijnbosch Chardonnay 2020 @ 96/100 GSMW

Creation Glenn’s Chardonnay 2023 @ 96/100 GSMW

Lismore Valkyrie Chardonnay 2023 @ 96/100 GSMW

Rall Ava Chenin Blanc 2023 @ 97/100 GSMW

Storm Ridge Pinot Noir 2023 @ 96/100 GSMW

Restless River Main Road & Dignity Cabernet 2021 @ 95+/100 GSMW

Restless River Ava Marie Chardonnay 2022 @ 97/100 GSMW

Mullineux Schist Syrah 2021 @ 97/100 GSMW

Meerlust Rubicon 2021 @ 96+/100 GSMW

Damascene Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc 2023 @ 96+/100 GSMW

Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2021 @ 97+/100 GSMW

Natte Valleij Stellenbosch Old Vine Cinsault 2023 @ 96/100 GSMW

Angus Paul Barbary Fictions Chenin Blanc 2023 @ 96/100 GSMW

Glenelly Lady May 2019 @ 96/100 GSMW

Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2021 @ 98+/100 GSMW

Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 @ 96/100 GSMW

Savage Follow the Line Cinsault 2023 @ 96/100 GSMW

I understand from Tim Atkin that his annual “95+ Point Tastings” will take place as usual in Johannesburg and Cape Town later in the year.

After a very long day of tasting on Monday, Tuesday’s Meerlust Estate 50^th Anniversary Tasting at Berry Brothers and Rudd was a somewhat more sophisticated, and thankfully, sedate affair with both owner Hannes Myburgh and cellar master Wim Truter presenting an impressive array of older wines including the iconic maiden release 1975 Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon together with the maiden release Meerlust Rubicon 1980.

Once again, the who’s who of the wine trade was in attendance including Neal Martin, Jamie Goode, a rejuvenated Tim Atkin… and for good measure, a bit of celebrity excitement with the attendance of actor / comedian, and old friend of Hannes’s, Stephen Fry, who is apparently a massive Meerlust wine lover having visited the estate several times before.

All the old bottles were showing exquisitely well having been checked and recorked by Amorim in South Africa prior to making the journey to London. The 1975 Cabernet Sauvignon was fresh, elegant and graceful, defying its 50 years of age with ease. The 1980 Rubicon was also a class act, showing all its classical splendour at a mere 45 years of age. The anniversary tasting was closed out with a full current release tasting where once again, the Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 proceeded to shoot out the lights. It is very reassuring to see Winemag’s editor award this superb wine a suitably high score recently as well. It is a benchmark example worth buying.

Wednesday’s activities were equally exciting if not a little more relaxed and jovial, with the newly launched Chardonnay Association of South Africa hosting their first event in London for journalists. An impressive line up of circa 36 wines were poured in blind pairs with several premium international examples thrown into the mix for added benchmarking interest. Ex-WOSA and ex-Old Vine Project campaigner André Morgenthal is a leading figure behind the new Chardonnay Association, a body that in the future could prove pivotal in helping South Africa’s finest examples gain greater publicity on the international fine wine stage.

Finally, Thursday’s “South Africa’s New Wave 2015 Vintage – Ten Years On” tasting was a massive undertaking pulled together by South African wine industry champion Victoria Mason MW (ex-Waitrose, Bordeaux Index, now at The Wine Society) and Mark Dearing, the South African buyer at Justerinis & Brooks. Organised in a similar way to that of the annual Southwold Tasting which looks at the top Bordeaux reds 10 years on in a blind tasting, it is hoped and envisaged that this South African tasting will also become an annual event to highlight the age worthiness of the Cape’s top producers.

The ‘10 Years On’ tasting merits its own write up, and with the blind score results only just landing in my inbox this morning, this fascinating tasting will require further unpicking in a subsequent, more detailed, dedicated feature.

I certainly can’t remember when last London was invaded by so many top South African producers, who along with their importers, hosted endless mini-tasting events in the trade all week. Times may be tough for wine sales globally, but it is very heartening to see that there is plenty of fighting spirit still left in the South African wine industry.

• Greg Sherwood was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and as the son of a career diplomat, spent his first 21 years traveling the globe with his parents. With a Business Management and Marketing degree from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Sherwood began his working career as a commodity trader. In 2000, he decided to make more of a long-held interest in wine taking a position at Handford Wines in South Kensington, London, working his way up to the position of Senior Wine Buyer over 22 years. Sherwood currently consults to a number of top fine wine merchants in London while always keeping one eye firmly on the South African wine industry. He qualified as the 303rd Master of Wine in 2007.