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Is SA wine serious about China? The list of 27 exhibitors at next week’s VinExpo in Hong Kong – or Hong Kok as my dyslexic friend Pinky calls it (with Bang Kong presumably the capital of Thailand) concentrates very much on terroir by truck wines. Commercial wines sold mainly on price.
Where are the terroir treasures, the Kanonkops, Vergelegens and Meerlusts? Not a single one of the controversial UCT Top Twenty wineries are attending, although UCT’s self-appointed professor of wine, Tim James, has at last done the decent thing and signed up for a non-UCT e-mail with which to communicate with the industry. Perhaps the Platter guide will send Professor Tim east to present this year’s 5* stunners in the next chapter of the unseemly commercial luv-in between the guide and WOSA, the exporters’ mouthpiece.
The Sanhedrin of SA wine expanded by 15 last night as the Commanderie de Bordeaux intronized the latest batch of Bordeaux worshippers at a glittering function at De Grendel. Sir David Graaff and De Grendel winemaker Chas Hopkins had a home team advantage and their Koetshuis CWG was nailed at the Bordeaux-style tasting afterwards by Arthur McWilliam Smith whose laser-like taste buds detected the serious Sémillon component, as did mining financier Gerard Holden who was amused to be addressed in the Afrikaans fashion: Gheritt rather than Jerard. He flew down to Cape Town from London yesterday, especially to join in.
As expected, the Weekend Argus had to back-track madly from last weekend’s Cape wine farm implosion story quoting François Malan and Johann Krige of Simonsig and Kanonkop respectively who denied their scoop. Wonder if I will receive an apology from the VinPro employee who accused me of “incompetence”, blasting me in bold type, nogal, with “can you really believe for one moment we would have stated something like this!?” But then shooting the messenger is a favourite sport in the Winelands.
Today’s Weekend Argus claims “Cape wine farms fight to survive” in a front page feature quoting producer representative VinPro which singles out Simonsig, Delheim and Kanonkop as three producers “in a serious predicament.” But rather than the financial squeeze occasioned by economic conditions, the serious predicament faced by producers is the amazingly incompetent PR skills of bodies such as VinPro, judged by pronouncements such as these, if they are correctly quoted.
Washington wine blogger David White will open the Nederburg Auction tomorrow with a powerful popularist message: the gatekeepers of wine, sacred palates like Robert Parker, are on the wane, with social media filling the void. I chatted to David this evening over crayfish risotto, pork cheeks and vertical Kleine Zalze Chenin Blanc – vintages 2005, 07, 08, 09 and 10 with the 08 David’s favourite. “A full page ad in Wine Spectator will cost you $40K. For the same price you can hire someone full time for a year to blog and tweet your brand, engage with customers and offer to plan tours to South Africa. You can directly measure their impact, something very hard to do with a magazine ad.” Food for thought for producers being offered a chance to buy pricey “editorial” in the Mail&Guardian earlier in the week.
David White
Peter Finlayson pointed out that posing the question “are SA wines getting better?” is like asking the question “are women getting prettier?” and of course it all comes down to style and personal preference. Janis Joplin v. Amy Winehouse; Marilyn Monroe v. Paris Hilton. That said, I do think the 2011 CWG wines are better than last year, especially in the red division.
Louis Strydom and Bernard Veller start the CWG blind tasting
Portuguese wine guru Aníbal Coutinho and I have a running joke. Every time we hit a quintessential Portuguese wine producer/village/appellation on our annual tasting trips around the land of presunto and octopus rice, it becomes “the St. Émilion of Portuguese Wine.” There are several so far: Santar, Estremoz, Baccalhôa… The back of Hall B at last weekend’s Stellenbosch Wine Festival – which for a while was billed as the 10th when it wasn’t – convinced me that the Helderberg is the St. Émillion of SA.
For starters, the earnest young pourers in their buttoned down preppy shirts from Rust en Vrede and Ernie Els have a smart self-confidence and bushy tailed enthusiasm that goes a long way to justifying the prices asked, which are not cheap. But what wines: the Rust en Vrede 2008 red blend narrowly beat the Meerlust Rubicon 2007 and Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2008 as Red of Show in my humble opinion – but then it does contain Shiraz, which is outrageously promiscuous when young. Perhaps the others will be more attractive with some bottle age, so it looks like I’ll have to buy all three. Forget about using terroir to sell wine – testosterone is so much more effective.
Ernie's rugby white at RG's Kebab Mahal in Sea Point
Secrecy and Pinotage are not two concepts that gel. After being told we’d have to wait until August 25th to find out the ABSA Top Twenty Pinotages for 2011, industrial scale leaks caused the list to be released one month early. Guess Pinotage is just so explosive, it can’t be kept bottled up.
Pinotage judges
Kanonkop produces around 1 million bottles of wine a year and exports roughly two thirds of them. Owner Johann Krige is also chairman of WOSA, the exporters’ mouthpiece and the farm’s recent newsletter provides a succinct summary of the current state of play.
Behind the scenes at Kanonkop
This from last week’s Financial Mail: As Lex pointed out in the Weekend Financial Times at the end of April, gold and wine have both proved to be excellent investment vehicles. “Since January 1997, booming demand from Asia, particularly China, has helped push up prices – 422 per cent for investment grade Bordeaux and 418 per cent for the metal. In comparison, the S&P 500 is up only 70 per cent.”
