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“You turn down being a taster but still crack an invite to the awards” was my greeting on Friday night from Ronell Wiid, one of the Classic judges at the Top Ten Chenin awards. Which is true, but it was my birthday and not stage fright that was my excuse to bow-out back in December. Looking at Classic’s Top Ten, I wish I’d been born the previous week as while believable, two things about the Classic selection worried: all the wines were wooded and none were from the Swartland. And the Paardeberg in particular, that fiery Mount Doom in Mordor (JRR Tolkien’s Black Land) that some would call the natural home of Chenin in SA.
The top table at Friday night's elegant affair
Do you need a license to make love? A diploma to become a dad? A certificate to call yourself a chef? Authority to become an artist? So why is the world of wine so obsessed with “qualifications?” Heck many of the Cape’s best winemakers like Arco Laarman (Glen Carlou) and Johan Kruger (Sterhuis) are self-taught and exactly what vinous qualifications do commentators like John Platter and Michael Fridjhon have?
Yet the battle for the big bucks of wine learners has been joined. In the red corner, former wine bar proprietor turned vinous wordsmith Cathy Marston is offering WSET courses which she tweets are the only qualifications with international recognition. In the white corner, the Cape Wine Academy offers various diplomas with the Cape Wine Master ticket, top of the pops.
Artist and winelover Luan Nel and CWA Principal Marilyn Cooper at the 2011 Soweto Wine Festival
Drinks Business magazine hit the ground running in January with the news that after centuries of serving fizz in cups based on the left breast of Queen Marie Antoinette and latterly in narrow flutes, “the Champenois are starting to serve their sparklers in white wine glasses as the larger surface areas give more aromas, complexity and a creamier texture” according to stemware manufacturer Georg Riedel.
Although Marie’s embonpoint was abandoned precisely as the surface area was too large and the bubbly went flat too soon. “Flutes are too narrow and don’t allow the aroma and richness of the Champagne to shine as there isn’t enough air space,” Georg continued, noting that flutes are often mistakenly filled to the top, leaving the wine no room “to breathe” as enthusiastic waitrons seek to ensure another order.
Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy or Sean Combs, fans of the US hip-hopper may not know what to call him and now they don’t even know what to order in a club. Talk about confused brand and hair extensions. Back in 2005 Diddy was telling people not to send him Cristal Champagne (imported into SA by wine impresario Michael Fridjhon) in a refusal of freebees a winehack like Mr. Min would never be convicted of.
“I don’t drink Cristal anymore. I haven’t drank it in four years. You could out that out there so the people stop sending it to me. It’s another myth, like the one that I wear white fur coats all day. I like authentic smooth Russian vodka and quality tequilas. I’m trying to learn about fine wines. As you get a little more mature, you realise that the wine game is ultra sexy; the wine experience is definitely one of the sexiest experiences going.”
Ciroc, not Cristal for P. Diddy
Mixed signals from Vindaba, the wine tourism conference scheduled to run in parallel with Cape Wine 2012 next September. WOSA media apparatchik André Morgenthal is quoted by the Whale Cottage blog as claiming that Vindaba will be a “stand-alone self-funded event, which will not be funded by WOSA” from their R25 million honey pot. But quite why a producer would pay R20K for a 2x2m stand at Vindaba when they already pay for a stand at Cape Wine 2012 is moot as there will be “free flow access” between the two exhibitions. Certainly a Vindaba presentation doing the rounds paints a different picture of WOSA’s involvement:
Anoraks experienced a wobble in their woggles this week over accusations that tasters for the 2012 Platter sighted guide do not have enough exposure to international wines. This surely does not apply to one high profile Platter pundit Michael Fridjhon who is one of SA’s leading wine importers and he presumably tastes what he buys. Of course his claim in yesterday’s Business Day that “The Platter Guide… reviews all the South African wines likely to be available for sale in the year ahead” is simply not true as the country’s largest wine retailer, Tops at Spar, does not allow its Olive Brook, Country Cellars and Carnival brands to be rated sighted by Platter while quite recently Dana Buys from Vrede en Lust threw the circus out of town. And there are many others like Aaldering and Deetlefs who have no confidence in luvvies looking at labels.
That said, there was surely something wrong this year with three Pinot Noirs getting high fives (two 2010 babies, barely out of nappies) while not a single Pinotage, Sémillon, [fill in your favourite brand here] got a mention. Isn’t it amazing how brands which do not enter competitions do so very well in Platter? Smells fishy to this Piscean.
judges' competence questioned
SA wine got off to a terrific start at the end of the 17th century when a brave band of Huguenots arrived in Franschhoek and established vineyards and started making wines. Four centuries later and the French are coming again, this time to establish a chapter of the Commanderie de Bordeaux in South Africa.
As importer Michael Fridjhon noted in Business Day yesterday “the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (and, within this, the Conseil des Crus Classés en 1855 de Médoc et Sauternes) represents some of the wealthiest and most successful wine producers in the world” and the president of the Grand Conseil du Vin de Bordeaux, Emmanuel Cruse, has invited Bordeaux boffin Tinus van Niekerk to establish a branch of the Commanderie in South Africa.
Tinus van Niekerk to establish a chapter of the Commanderie de Bordeaux in SA
David Eley, artist responsible for an acclaimed new map of the Douro, asks whether the acronym WOSA works to market SA wines. WOZA would be better as its more ethnic, means “come!” in Zulu and besides, SA is easily confused with South Australia. ZA comes from Zuid-Afrika and were the two letters people stuck on their car boots in the days when tourists took their jalopies on holiday. David suggests S.A.W as in “we came, we S.A.W, we conquered” which seems to have been the result from the first two days’ play at VinExpo. Cobus Joubert reports that the stand of the SA Independent in Hall 3 was the busiest attraction for the first two days of the show and makes the point “afwesigheid van Aus, NZ (en WOSA) tel in die guns van produsente wat op eie stoom hier is.”
The SA Independent in Bordeaux
An incredible admission from Michael Fridjhon, owner of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show in Business Day yesterday, that Spier, top performing winery at his show, would not make it to the Olympics. Just like the two top performers at competing tourney The St. James Top 100: Saronsberg and Cederberg. Incredible, as it undermines the whole raison d’être of wine shows. It’s like Sepp Blatter admitting the best team doesn’t win the World Cup.
Media guru Emile Joubert compares the latest Shoprite/Checkers TV advert featuring wine impresario Michael Fridjhon to that supermarket’s embracing of Afrikaans cultural chiskop Nataniël to promote boerewors. Matching food and wine could find them both around the braai, which could have serious comedic potential.
