An e-mail from André Morgenthal, communications manager at WOSA (Wines of SA, the exporters’ mouthpiece) this morning forwarding foreign reaction to a story I ran on www.winenews.co.za on a tasting of 25 Pinotages at last month’s London Mega-Tasting. The story soon attracted over 1000 hits and many comments and rocketed to the top of the winenews pops, where it stubbornly stays. An accusation is made that I’m “always anti-WOSA” and the question is asked whether I have a grudge or am I simply anti-SA wines? A bit rich, coming two days before the launch of The People’s Guide, a blind-tasted guide to SA wines I’ve written with Michael Olivier and Aníbal Coutinho. WOSA itself obviously didn’t think the story was intended to bash them as they posted it on their website.

I’m re-posting the story below so you can make up your own minds as to whether this is anti-WOSA, but I’m saddened that I only qualify for an e-mail. The last time WOSA tried to censor local coverage of their activities, the lucky journo got a slap-up lunch at 96 Winery Road with French wine. “But isn’t that expensive? Don’t worry, WOSA is paying!” On the contrary, I’m a great fan of some WOSA initiatives like the upcoming Braai Book, a project Beyers Truter (the most famous braai face in SA) said he would love to participate in when I told him about it yesterday.

WOSA Mega-Tasting: what was in the glass?

Neil Pendock reports on foreign feedback from last month’s WOSA Mega-Tasting in London and comes up with some disturbing observations.

Last month’s WOSA Mega-Tasting in London was the bi-annual haal uit en wys (show and tell) for SA producers to customers and the press in the most important export market for SA wine. Yet from the limited press reaction that has appeared thus far, it looks like SA shot itself in the spittoon. The reaction to Pinotage on the subscription-only blog site of Jancis Robinson is a case in point.

Penned by Richard Hemming, the report on 25 Pinotages tasted in London refers people interested in Pinotage to the Pinotage Association website as starting point. Yet of the 25 wines written up, only one is an ABSA Top Ten Pinotage for 2009 – the Beyerskloof Diesel 2007 which was also a Platter five star stunner for 2010. As all the 41 Platter top rated wines were showcased at the Mega-Tasting, it was Platter rather than the Pinotage Association that was setting the agenda. Bruce Jack’s Writer’s Block was also mentioned in dispatches but it was the 2008 vintage which Richard wrote up while the 2007 got the Absa accolade.

It’s the same story for the ABSA Top Twenty – only one of ABSA’s Top Ten runners-up was tasted by Richard: the Simonsig Redhill 2007 (a wine he preferred to the Diesel, by the way). There was also a vintage mismatch – Niel Groenewald’s Bellingham Bernard 2008 was written up while it was the 2007 that Absa adored.

The message for Pinotage relayed to the well-heeled subscribers of the Jancis Robinson site (a very important market in which to make a good impression, I would have thought) is “[Pinotage] is the go-to punchbag of wine criticism. Many opinions are resolved that it is a total write-off, incapable of producing serious or worthy wines. Having tasted 25 at the recent South Africa Mega Tasting, I disagree – there may not have been wines to compete with the best in the world, but there was plenty of well-made, interesting, complex, balanced and tasty stuff on show. Unfortunately, there was just as much ropey, average, disappointing plonk, but that’s not the principal problem – after all, every variety makes examples of it which are below par.”

No wonder Richard failed to find Pinotages “to compete with the best in the world” – he didn’t get to taste 90% of this year’s ABSA Top Twenty! As for “ropey plonk” he does confirm the “burnt rubber” character some UK wine commentators find in SA reds. No fewer than 13 of his tasting notes mention “rubber” – including his best rated wine, the Diemersfontein 2009 scored 17/20 and described as “feral, rubber, coffee, smoke. Redcurrants and raspberries, then loads of milky coffee qualities on the finish – quite remarkable definition – goodness gracious, what a persistent mocha coffee finish.”

I had a Kanonkop 1995 Pinotage with some stolen lamb for dinner last night – it was incredible, nearly as incredible as the fact that a 2009 vintage can be punted as the best Pinotage on show at a generic tasting of SA wine. Quality Pinotage needs 10 years to show the complexity of its parent, Pinot Noir. No wonder then that Richard notes “the Pinot Noir style [of Pinotage], whilst often tasty, didn’t seem to contribute anything new or unique, and will never reach the pure excellence of its progenitor” – the oldest wine he tasted was from the 2006 vintage. Pity Anthony Hamilton Russell, present at the Mega-Tasting to argue the merits of blends, didn’t take along a bottle of Ashbourne.

Richard was not the only pundit to bemoan this lack of quality. Chris Losh, writing in Just Drinks magazine, challenges WOSA’s contention that “SA is recognized world-wide as producing premium quality, interesting and distinctive wines.” He begs to differ. “This simply isn’t true. The wine producers in the Cape might like to believe it, but it’s not the case either in the trade or among the consumers pretty much anywhere else in the world. The country’s few big brands are unremarkable at best, and there is a dearth of trade-up wines. The on-trade, meanwhile, is a dead zone.”

Chris’ report kicks off with the observation “I have not been out to the Cape for a few years, so it was good to be able to take stock of how SA is coming along at its big Mega-Tasting”, confirming that his bleak assessment of the top-end of SA wine is based on his London tasting experience. Perhaps if the Veritas Double Gold medalists had been on display, the favourable reaction to “big brands” experienced at the public tastings in SA would have been repeated.

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