Tim James: Looking behind the news
By Tim James, 9 December 2024
-
Share:
8
You hear the news, perhaps read a media release, and sometimes you wonder: Why? Why did this happen? Why did this person or this winery take this step? What’s the true story behind the evasive blandishments of the announcement? The minor anxiety persists even while you admit that the PR gushing might, now and then, reflect a simple truth.
There’s been quite a bit of wine news recently that has piqued my curiosity, or just made me scratch my head and raise my eyebrow (sometimes simultaneously, not something to do in public). No real mystery, indeed, about Van Loveren acquiring the Overhex facilities in nearby Worcester to help them make more and more wine. They’re on a roll. And no mystery about their buying the Survivor brand (and taking over Pierre Wahl too, to continue making the wines). It’s a prestigious range and Van Loveren is seemingly intent on not only expanding its range and escaping ever more from the confines of the Breede River Valley, but also wanting to acquire rather more lustre than inheres in their home-brand – let alone in you-know-what.
That would also easily explain the recent acquisition of a majority stake in Neil Ellis Wines, something which came even as a shock, raising numerous eyebrows – the wondering directed not at Van Loveren but at Neil Ellis. Clearly Neil Ellis Wines needed money for something or other (possibly just to keep going or to forge ahead), but you’d have thought they could have found it somewhere closer to home, as it were. But money isn’t mentioned. The press release quotes Neil himself as speaking of the partnership as “a meeting of like-minded values”. Wow. I’d guess he must have swallowed hard before allowing this to come out as his own assessment.
He went, it seems, further: “Van Loveren and Neil Ellis Wines share a deep respect for heritage, family traditions and a mutual passion for creating exceptional wines that tell a story of place.” Yes, especially Four Cousins, which tells the story of vast volumes of cheap wine, much of it sweet, the place it tells of being the million-litre blending vats of an industrial wine complex and, for all I know, imported sweet concentrate. Van Loveren is a splendidly successful machine, very good at what it does – claiming that, even before the latest few agreements and acquisitions, it “exports to 68 countries and had a production capacity of 17 million litres and cellar capacity of 22 million litres”. Excellent, but how much of what it does has anything to do with “exceptional wines that tell a story of place”? It’s notable that the media releases about the latest Van Loveren acquisitions and deals don’t even mention the dread words “Four Cousins” – whose significance as the best-selling brand in the country is presumably behind the bulk of the Van Loveren money. (The French novelist Balzac is often misquoted as having said that “Behind every great fortune is a crime”, and of course I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that producing Four Cousins is a crime against wine, but, well, the quote did pop into my head.)
Surprise comes with smaller bits of news too, like winemaker moves. The tale in recent years of Brookdale Estate in Paarl and their young winemaker Kiara Scott (the eminent Duncan Savage consulting pretty effectively, I’d say, though modestly not sharing in Kiara’s Young Winemaker Award) has been a really good one, the two of them jointly starting to build consistently fine reputations. And then, suddenly, it’s over. Amidst a shower of kind words spoken by Brookdale (who’ve taken on a next-generation Sadie as winemaker), Kiara is off to Hazendal, which has been transformed over the years into a multifarious “destination offering culture, cuisine, golf and entertainment for the entire family”. Wine, presumably to be considered under “cuisine”, has not recently figured gloriously or perhaps importantly here. The current top-end Hazendal releases, in odd-shaped bottles, seem to be mostly the 2017–19s I reviewed in the 2021 Platter’s. Clearly not great sellers. Perhaps Kiara’s appointment will be great for wine production here. I hope so. But if she’s come just for the better salary I trust she’s getting, I suspect she’ll pay the price, in the short term at least, of finding that a little fame can quickly disappear.
But, again, we can have no real idea of motives and story.
As with my last puzzlement, which moves back in the direction of big business winemaking, though not as big as Van Loveren. The Krone bubbly plant at Twee Jonge Gezellen in Tulbagh had no managing director when I reported on it in some awe in July 2023, but it decided it needed one and so now there is (as of November, without public fanfare). Strangely enough, they’ve appointed an MD who was a winemaker and viticulturist with, as far as I’m aware, no significant experience in sparkling wine. He was presumably head-hunted by owner Vinimark, as the winemakers I’ve asked hadn’t noticed any advertisements for the job.
Jacques de Klerk had been at Radford Dale for some 15 years, making very good, serious wine in a more or less natural fashion, latterly based on the organic farm in Elgin. (Not much fun for them losing their chief wine and vineyard person as harvest looms, but no announcement here either, though Jacques has disappeared from the online “team” list.) Some fine chardonnay and pinot involved, of course, which is a bridge to the Krone staples, but you don’t get much further away from non-interventionist winemaking than big-business bubbly.
There’s great backup in place already at Krone and Vinimark, and Jacques is an eminently personable and likeable presence, and people I’ve spoken to say that he’s good to work with – so if Krone mostly needed a face, they’ve done well. Jacques will look great in a suit and be charming. Again, as to why Jacques gave up winemaking for now at least and took the job (apart from making lots more money than Radford Dale could likely afford, one presumes, and perhaps that’s enough), who knows? Change was welcome and exciting, I dare say. After I last wrote in some puzzlement about winemaker moves (somehow arousing some ire from one estate owner to my great surprise), a winemaker told me that I’d missed out the possibility of sheer boredom as at least a partial frequent motive.
Who knows? Generally I’ll remain puzzled, while wishing all these characters well, from Kiara all the way up to the four rich cousins.
- Tim James is one of South Africa’s leading wine commentators, contributing to various local and international wine publications. His book Wines of South Africa – Tradition and Revolution appeared in 2013.
-
Share:
Related articles
Opinion & Analysis
Tim James: Wine ladders and entry-level wines
20 January 2025
There’s a well-worn but good joke that’s relevant to my theme – but a joke is anyway surely nice to have early in the year. It’s set in rural Ireland,...
Opinion & Analysis
Tim James: Looking back from 25 to 100 years ago in Cape wine
13 January 2025
If you haven’t already heard the portentous rumblings, be warned that the next sentence is unquestionably not the last you’ll be hearing of this matter. A hundred years ago, pinotage...
Opinion & Analysis
Tim James: A quest for wine quality without breaking the bank
2 December 2024
I’ve just bought some modest, but hopefully pretty decent, wine for those days or evenings when I’m feeling a bit mean either with myself or others. It’s fine to say...
Flem | 13 December 2024
This article and some of the responses puzzles me to no end. This merger is not the first of it’s kind and certainly won’t be the last. Globally I can point to Penfolds Grange Shiraz residing in the stable of Treasury Wine Estates, which used to be the wine division for Foster’s Australia and also includes cheaper, consumer friendly wines. Surely also a big corporate entity housing on the most iconic wines in the world. Why then, should it raise eyebrows that VL has moved to acquire stakes in brands like Survivor and Neil Ellis? If anybody “closer” to Neil Ellis could have jumped in, why didn’t they? Imho VL and Neil Ellis should be lauded as being forward thinking and brave.
I’m sure everybody involved with VL knows where the Four Cousins range fits within their business model and the greater scheme of things in the wine industry and bringing the FC brand into this discussion is irrelevant and drives an unnecessary narrative.
As to one of the commentator’s assertion that Survivor will suffer under the VL umbrella …why would that be? Overhex, the previous owner, like VL, is also situated on the “other side” of the Du Toitskloof Pass. Pierre Wahl is still making the wines from the same selected vineyards. Both the Neil Ellis and Survivor brands will benefit from increased financial, operational and logistical backing that a company like VL can provide whilst staying in the hands of local companies. I would say drop the eyebrows and raise the glasses! Cheers.
Colyn | 12 December 2024
Tim, i will leave this with you. You said to me a number of years ago when i invited you to please come taste the new vintages of Arendsig Single Vineyard Wines…” it is too far to drive for such an insigficant producer…” eventually months later you did come still dont know why, but that showed your respect for the region! Perception is this industry is the biggest drawback and killer….have a lovely Christmas Holiday!
Tim James | 11 December 2024
Criticism of me is always OK – just as it should be for wine businesses and people that offer themselves to the media. I don’t think they need kneejerk defence.
Just a few points in response. Firstly, comments from Margaret and Colyn make me realise that I want to write my thoughts on the nonsense talked about wine ladders. Will do so. Basically I tend to regard wines like 4th Street and Four Cousins (unlike, eg, Tassenberg, Wolftrap, etc) as a confinement rather than a possible step on a ladder. That’s why I hate them. Further, to both of you, I can’t see the need to react as though I’d attacked the Breede River Valley. I’d be very happy to argue in whatever detail you like that the vast majority of what it produces is neither interesting nor good (which is what I am mostly concerned with in my work and personal life); but I’m fully aware that some fine wines emerge from there, especially chardonnays and bubblies. It doesn’t mean that an ambitious large producer might not want to escape its confines – ie, look wider – for reasons noble and otherwise.
In other respects too, Colyn might have written more usefully if he’d bothered to read and understand rather than just react to some button of his being pushed. Colyn, if you really think that “tasting small batch limited release wine that mostly never sees the market” is my sole concern, I suggest you read my previous article, about the cheaper wines I actually bought for myself. I’ve written many articles about finding good wines (foreign and local) at bargain prices. Cynical industrial dreck has never featured, I admit.
As to Colyn’s suggestion that I say that people “leave positions just for the money”, that is precisely incorrect. I never said that. The whole point of what I wrote is to suggest puzzlement about their motives. (And with regard to Jacques, it was, if anything, more puzlement, frankly, about why he was appointed!) Try reading intelligently, if you can, before lashing out.
Jacques de Wet | 11 December 2024
Also wondering why people are so quick to rap the writer for this open-ended opinion piece. VL has been overcapitalising for the last few years with no end in sight and the merger with Neil Ellis also caught me and my colleagues off guard. I do suspect that the Survivor brand will suffer under VL. Everything about VL, the tasting venue, the wine itself and the brand screams commercialised. Tim is simply writing what a lot of use are thinking.
Vernon | 10 December 2024
Wow, this website has some thin-skinned readers.
Is the questioning of “wine business” to be off limits? OK, business is the deployment of resources but individuals determine how that happens. This article isn’t character assassination (argumentum ad hominem) it’s just a bit of wondering aloud … or in print anyway.
Is there no space allowed for a little scepticism nowadays?
Kwispedoor | 10 December 2024
I’m not sure why some people are so up in arms about this article, as if the Four Cousins range is the jewel in the crown of SA wine, the Breederivier is the center of quality wine (listen, there are some fantastic wines coming from there, but also plenty of bulk wine – it certainly isn’t the absolute pinnacle of South Africa’s winelands), the press release of Neil Ellis rings 100% authentic and untouched by corporate speak, people never change jobs for money, and Tim is the nasty journalist who looks down at everyone. Then you only focus on certain parts of the article, not the whole thing (especially not Tim wishing everyone well).
The wine friends I spoke to and I were all surprised and wondering about the exact same things that Tim’s pondering in this article, so it’s extremely refreshing that someone’s writing about it in a frank and open way. One might also keep in mind that the readers of Winemag are generally highly involved in the finer side of wine, while very few Four Cousins (and the likes) drinkers would even subscribe to Winemag, so this wasn’t aimed at them. Did Tim say anywhere that the entry level market is useless as a gateway to finer wine? Or that cheap wine is unpopular with the masses? Not that I can see.
Absolutely nobody did anything wrong here (and neither are they criticised for doing anything wrong in the article), but these developments are definitely interesting ones to contemplate.
Colyn Truter | 9 December 2024
Tim i would suggest getting closer and more in tune with the REAL wine consumer market rather than just tasting small batch limited release wine that mostly never sees the market! Have you heard of White Zin in the US, do you know how HUGE it is?? Do you know how many current wine connoisseurs and novices started drinking wine at 18 or 21 in the US case because their palates were tuned into that style of wine?
Yet as they started to taste more wines their palates changed, developed and became more “mature” for lack of a better expression.
To devalue the Retief Family as cheap plonk wine growers and makers and, the way i read your article, pulls down the Ellis Family in how and why they would partner with a bulk cheap wine producer leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. It clearly shows your lack of understanding what it takes to be a successful scalable wine brand in a very very tough economy and market! Theres much more to a wine business than making it…if you didnt know, thats the easy part!!!
Similarly commenting on and assuming people leave positions just for the money…thats all personal and i would guarantee you have been tough decisions for each one of these individuals. Anyone i guess this website need to post information and articles but this is not what i signed up for.
Margaret Louw | 9 December 2024
Winemag is clear in its policy on comments that would be allowed here. No abusive remarks, and contributors are to remain civil. Granted.
However, referring to only one section of his article, how come that the author is allowed to spout not-so-veiled insinuations and suppositions about Van Loveren and Neil Ellis? His comments about quality and motivation, disappointingly verge on the snide. Whose business is it, but their own, as to why those two wineries have gone into partnership? Why the suggestion that money was the motivation? Friendships and mutual respect could also lead to mergers. What does it matter whether they have merged? Surely they don’t owe any explanation to anyone.
As for “escaping the confines of the Breede Valley”. The area, notably, for years, was known as the Champion White Wine Region of SA. Then, many years ago, Roodezandt Winery, contrary to beliefs about red wines produced here, won the Paul Sauer trophy, for a red wine. A Shiraz, if I’m not mistaken.
There’s a market for all kinds of products, not only in the revered world of wine. Diversity and variety are key elements in any enterprise. Price range follows, and creativity and proactive management save the day.
Van Loveren does not need to produce only Reserve ranges. Easy-drinking wines are extremely popular.
Four Cousins is perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, but many a novice was introduced to appreciating wine, by exposure to precisely those products.
Let’s play the ball in this industry, wine as the core, and not the man, being private businesses that have every right to move with the times to preserve, expand and survive.