As the conversation flurried around the circular lunch table at La Colombe yesterday like the low flying clouds rushing around outside in confusion as yet another cold front hit the Cape peninsula (Duncan Savage has already lost half the potential fruit from his Cape Point Isliedh vineyard), conversation turned to wood. And new French oak, in particular. Saronsberg winemaker Dewaldt Heyns confirmed (with a Malmesbury bray) that the wooding regime on the five vintages of his Shiraz/Mourvèdre/Viognier blend Full Circle being tasted, was the same – yet the current release (the 2007) is all coffee and mocha (“hello Diemersfontein!”, as he joked) at the moment. Descriptors lacking from the tight and elegant 2006, which was the best wine of the lunch. “Give it some time and that dominance of wood fades” was his advice.

Dewaldt Heyns, Sage of Saronsberg

So the punters at WineX Johannesburg who voted the Diemersfontein Pinotage 2009 “Wine of Show” last week, should drink up their 2007 Full Circles before the coffee goes cold. As should Richard Hemming, Pinotage pundit on the Purple Pages of Jancis Robinson’s $99-a-year Pay-to-View website. For the Diemersfontein 2009 was Dicky’s top Pinotage among 25 at last month’s London Mega-Tasting arranged by WOSA, Wines of SA, the exporters’ mouthpiece.

WOSA’s message is “diversity is in our nature” and clearly wood regimes that make Shiraz from Tulbagh taste like Pinotage from Wellington (and all over) is reducing diversity. As is the predatory pricing policy of supermarket chain Makro who sell Barista Coffee Pinotage 2009 at the trade price it is offered to boutique retailers. “We sold out our first order” said one Cape Town retailer necking her tarte fine of smoked ox tongue, black mushroom in soy pickle, mushroom à la Grecque, grated pecans nuts, condiment of Shiraz and pickled tongue, with a sigh, “but given the price at Marko, we will not be reordering.” As you can see, financial meltdowns are no reason for an austerity diet.

Comfort Food

This coffee crisis is a pity, as boutique retailers are the canary in the coal mine of wine, alerting punters to undiscovered gems and adding value to tourists and the confused about what recent releases taste like. If they are to go the way of the quagga thanks to supermarkets flexing their muscles, it will be a sad day indeed to SA wine.

Some concerned Cape retailers

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