Tim James: The focused few of the Cape winelands

Writing last week about Chris Keet’s First Verse, and having mentioned how rare it was for a producer to have a portfolio of just one wine, I was a trifle bemused to find that some of the other (closely or loosely associated) wines I mentioned were also solo efforts. It was only a few, but still. So I put my mind, with the help of a few better ones, to see how many more I could think of. Not many, it turned out, though I suspect we might be missing a handful.

A famous one is Porseleinberg, undoubtedly one of the Cape’s leading syrahs. A single, standalone label it might be, but it has all the power of Boekenhoutskloof to cushion it. That level of comforting support is true too, of course, of a few I mentioned last week – Pink Valley Rosé and Taaibosch Crescendo have a substantial French business as owner. Similarly, the Delheim & Hammel Staying Alive Riesling, certainly a solo wine, is a collaboration between a large local winery and a German one.

Contrasting with these, First Verse, especially, is in a much smaller category. Joined by very few others that I know of, but including Francois Naudé’s Le Vin de Francois Pinotage.

Many other solo ventures are what one might think of as hobbies – though I wouldn’t want to imply that they are not seriously or passionately undertaken. Some, indeed, are garagiste wines in the true sense, wines that you and I are probably unlikely to hear about, unless we’re friends of the winemaker.  Many better-known examples are sideshows of another, sometimes wine-related, business, and in at least a few cases I’d guess that profitability, while desirable, is not quite as needful as it would be for Chris Keet. Celestina, for example, the lovely sauvignon-semillon blend made by Cape Town wine merchant Caroline Kilian (Rillema), or, from the same part of the windswept south coast, Stamboom, the own-wine of Strandveld’s Conrad Vlok. Talking of profits, those from Thunderchild, the pro bono wine from various Robertson vineyards, go to Die Herberg Children’s Home in Robertson – so they are certainly important there.

But I shouldn‘t speculate about any profit motif in these wines, or about the “mereness” of the hobby element. Let me list a few more. There’s Dainty Bess from Jane Ferreira-Eedes of Ex Animo distributors (this bubbly was briefly in recess but I believe is due for a comeback to please its fans). And another Francois-made pinotage – that under the label of Francois van Niekerk, CEO of Wellington Wines. Skylark Cinsaut, light and charming, made by Cape Town Lawyer Adrian Dommisse. There’s Dalsig, the label of Ansgar Flaaten (fairly described by Platter’s as a “seasoned wine man”), which consists just of a chardonnay at present, made with the help of Adam Mason, though I think there are plans for expansion.

If we’re looking for focus, there are more producers with just two, though I haven’t tried to number them. It’s interesting to note, however, that Hamilton Russell Vineyards started off with more than the two varieties they currently grow and bottle and, as I put it elsewhere, “decided that two wines were the maximum that a serious producer should market from one estate”. (I wonder whether Anthony H-R would say the same thing out loud now.) So two other properties were developed in the Hemel-en-Aarde (Ashbourne and Southern Right) to each offer two other wines.

“From one estate”, I said, rather than from one producer. There is, in fact, a much greater degree of specialisation from the larger estates than there used to be, when it was often pretty ridiculous to observe that one more-or-less circumscribed property could produce wines from a great many varieties, not to mention in a number of styles. Greater respect for basic conditions of soil and climate have tended to reduce the offerings. But overwhelmingly, in an area like greater Stellenbosch, which has shown itself capable of producing good and often excellent examples of most varieties and styles, the larger estates still mostly aim to cover a lot of options, in catering to the market. It’s worth noting, for example how Morgenster, rejuvenated around the start of the century, seemed initially set on making just a Bordeaux-style red (with the traditional “second” label), yet before long had added a couple of wines from Italian varietities, and now makes a fairly wide range of wines from French and Italian varieties.

So much for focus and specialisation. The new wave of ambitious winemakers has mostly bought in fruit from a range of sources rather than being based on a single property – thus allowing them to have a more-or less broad range of red and white wines while still explicitly invoking the claims of terroir. Perhaps Eben Sadie is the great exemplar here: with two as yet unannounced new wines set to be released this year, the man who started off with one and then two blended wines aiming to express the Swartland, will now have a core portfolio of 13 (I think) wines. And yet there is a degree of focus, with West Coast appellations providing most of the grapes. Sticking to a look at the new-wave Swartland, David and Nadia can have perhaps ten wines, yet with a focus on variations in the terroir expression of just chenin and grenache – while Raats does something similar with chenin and cab franc in the Polkadraai Hills of Stellenbosch. With even more commercially available wines than Sadie and a varietal mix, Mullineux also has a regional and, correspondingly, varietal focus.

It seems a long way from a focus on just a few wines, let alone Chris Keet’s devotion to the Bordeaux red grapes in just one, but I think the motivations are linked.

• 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.