Tim James: The rise and rise of “vineyard” wines

By , 25 November 2024

Writing last week about the significance of the launch of the maiden, 2009, vintage of the Sadie Ouwingerdreeks, I was suddenly struck by the thought of a possible omission of mine early in the year when I’d been looking at some significant wine anniversaries to note in 2024. And yes, on checking, I found that I hadn’t even so much as mentioned the piece of legislation that belatedly but crucially encouraged the next step in the development of South Africa’s fine wine revolution. So, as the year wearily trudges to an end, with Christmas decorations long since up in some shops, let me remedy that – as it’s quite possible that some people new to Cape wine don’t realise, and that others have forgotten. The change involved was part of the struggle for quality, and that struggle, like political ones, should not be forgotten.

As the new century and millennium forged on, there’d already been substantial movement in the raising of quality levels of South African wine, and in further opening up cooler areas (Hemel en Aarde, Elgin) and starting to reinvent others (Tulbagh and, most importantly, the Swartland). But the best and most ambitious winemakers were looking to express individual sites. Of course, nothing was actually stopping them, but current legislation meant that they would not be allowed to communicate anything about vineyards either in the name or the label description of the wine.

From 1973, the Wine of Origin System had included, as its smallest category, the estate – essentially a single property (of any size) on which grapes were grown, vinified and the wines bottled. The whole thing was never very well done, but it wasn’t in itself a bad idea, taking what we might consider the Bordeaux model of brand/property as its model rather than the Burgundy terroir model of individual, delimited vineyards. It was the latter model, however, that was now the more important one in the South African quality wine revolution.

Hartenberg’s Gravel Hill – what should the regulations be when it comes to the wine from this site?

Many terroir-specific wines had been, in fact, produced by the estates, even if this was scarcely mentioned. But a proud example like Hartenberg’s excellent single-vineyard Gravel Hill was first made for the CWG auction as far back as 1995, for example. Back then, though, in order to protect the supposed value of the estate concept, producers were not allowed to indicate on the bottle that a wine had come from a specific block of vines on the property. Using the word “vineyard” was heavily restricted.

Especially given that the estate concept had never become meaningful – or even intelligible – to most consumers, even locally, it was time for the authorities to finally admit that it’s time was up, and from 2004 it was no longer defined within, and radically protected by, the Wine of Origin system. (“Estate wine” was still a protected term, restricted to wines coming from registered “units for the production of estate wine” – see here for my slightly doubtful note about a producer association, the First 14 Wine Estates, founded last year).

This opened the way for South African producers to at last join the rest of the world in properly marketing terroir-specific wines. It took just a little longer for legislation to come in controlling label reference to “single-vineyard wine” to ensure that wine lovers were not bamboozled by opportunistic producers. Vineyards, up to six hectares and planted with only one variety, had to be registered with the authorities before they could be referred to as single vineyards. (It’s probably about time for mixed vineyards to find their place in the system.)

This development, with the encouragement given, has since been gloriously used by many terroir-focused winegrowers – perhaps especially for chenin, with the likes of Roodekrantz and David & Nadia having up to half a dozen single-vineyard versions (see here). There are now something like 1,800 registered single vineyards – though I imagine that some do not lead to wines offered as such. Many such vineyards are also registered with the old Vine Project (something enabled by Sawis record-keeping). To be able to have a seal on a bottle giving the planting date of the vines from which the vinfied grapes came is a brilliant and unique thing. It’s almost bizarre to think now that it wouldn’t have been allowed twenty-plus years ago.

  • 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.

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