Melvyn Minnaar: Why we want wine books

The library is being packed up. It struck me how large the number of books on wine now leaving this home’s shelves. (I’m moving house.)

Of course it signals personal interest, but the variety and extend also indicate that, generally, there was and is a wide and well-inspired team of writers out there who provide the words, publishers who produce the tomes, not to mention operators money-gaming the popular vinous show.

Publications on wine are clearly a well-paying and well-read endeavour.  Perhaps the subject matter is so delightfully soaked in mystery, despite all efforts to science, so closer to the charm, challenge and charge of poetry and good prose, that it makes sense so many words are vital in the experience.

So the departing books on wine, on my emptying shelves, can broadly be classified (not that in the present scramble the Dewey or whichever library system was ever held up) as the philosophical, the technical, the flashy informative, and then the show-off, grand pictorial types. 

And, perhaps like for all book enthusiasts, there are treasures – books to return to time and time again. South Africa, interestingly, has numerous such classics in the wine library.

If occasional nostalgic indulgence is a temporary panacea for aging (particularly with a good glass of wine), how jolly in revisiting older guides when something unusual is poured.

The first one to turn to: the current wine book library has a complete, up-to-date set of what started out in 1980 as John Platter’s Book of South African Wine, intended as the 1981 guide. (Mine was bought on September 26 of that year and cost R6.95 at Exclusive Books.) The following year’s was offered as a “revised edition”, and it never stopped after that – a collector’s treasure, from beginning to today, year after year.

It would be fair to say that remarkable, enduring Platter’s publishing history is due to that undeniable allure of wine opinion, information, and, yes, evaluation. The same accounts for the other annual wine guides on the hoarder’s shelve – also the Nederburg and CWG auction catalogues and perhaps you remember Icons that used to arise out of the Trophy Wine Show? These are the minutes and records of South African wine history.

Of course, many ‘wine histories’ have been written over the years. Our friend and colleague Tim James’ Wines of the New South Africa is probably the last most comprehensive. But published in 2013, the time might well be right for someone (if not him) to an update. Nevertheless, it counts as a (modern) classic on my shelve.

Among other classics are, of course, Louis Leipoldt’s 300 Years of Cape Wine (1952). Just the other day I reread his impassioned plea to local wine to “be regarded as a national asset and a communal boon”.

Leipoldt’s elegant, easy-reading prose may well be something to inspire those who, these days, so often complain about “uptight wine-writing”.

As informative and yet also so charmingly engaging (because of the humour) is the famous Wines of the Cape by C. de Bosdari (also 1952). Published by the famous Dutchman August (‘Guus’) Aimé Balkema, it utilised the skills of the Count Cosmo Diodono de Bosdari to write to delight and inform. (Balkema employed him for a number of other ‘cultural’ guides, including architecture.)

Other classics often paged, include The White Wines of South Africa  (W.A. de Klerk, Krige & McNally, Balkema, 1967), Spirit of the Vine (Opperman, H&R, 1968, for the KWV), Wynland – Padlangs  deur die Wynroete (Scholtz & Breytenbach, Buren,1969), Red Wine in South Africa (Biermann, Buren, 1971) and one of my all-time favourites The Complete Book of South African Wine by John Kench, Phyllis Hands & David Hughes (Struik, 1983).

If you wonder about my librarian details in the previous paragraphs, it seems apt to pay some form of tribute to those who did set out to write lyrical prose and/or give insightful information about that “natural asset” which should be toasted during these year-end festive times.

By the way, second-hand copies of wine books make excellent festive gifts. Do check out your local book hawker. 

• Melvyn Minnaar has written about art and wine for various local and international publications over the years. The creativity that underpins these subjects is an enduring personal passion. He has served on a few “cultural committees”.