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Paul Cluver, CEO of the eponymous wine producer, gave a presentation on Pinot Noir, the heartbreak grape, at Prowein this week. As part of the presentation, he asked three wine writers for their opinion and as is so often the case, the answers reveal as much about the wine writers as they answer the question.
With everyone now thoroughly Swartlanded out, it’s refreshing to note that thick and soupy is not the only style of Shiraz in SA. Alsatian winemaker Julien Schaal and elegantly Elgin’s Paul Cluver showed their new 2010 cool climate Syrah at Bizerca Bistro last night, a Fleur du Cap Top Ten restaurant for Cape Town. 13.4% alcohol, made from a 15 year old vineyard that used to deliver fruit to the Villiersdorp Co-op, the wine bravely charts a new direction for the sexy grape. And at a planned R120 a bottle, it is sure to sell out in record time.
Julien and Paul and their amazing Syrah
Overberg and Somerset West wine producers have to pick up the pieces from a PR fiasco today after the last day of the three day Wines2Whales mountain bike race from Lourensford to Onrus was cancelled due to inclement weather on Sunday. As one participant from the UK put it “conditions on Sunday are what we have to deal with every day. It cost us a fortune to fly out here and then to have the race cut short leaves us feeling bitterly disappointed.”
As does the R1300 taxi fare from the Arabella on Bot River lagoon to La Colombe for a commiseration lunch. At least he didn’t fall for the taxi driver’s offer of waiting for three hours and carrying on to the airport for the special price of R2,500.00. R400 for Excite was a far better deal and confirms that SA wine tourism still has a lot to learn. But what a lunch – fabulous foie gras and Alaskan crab to die for, washed down by a bottle of Beaumont Hope Marguerite Chenin Blanc 2010 for R90 in a restaurant that will surely top the Eat Out list if there is any justice left in SA.
SA producers will be disappointed by the coverage leading UK wine pundit Jancis Robinson gave to Cape Wine Europe 2011 in the Weekend Financial Times. Chris and Andrea Mullineux and GT Ferreira will be doubly disappointed. For instead of a compendium of sharp tasting notes and reflections on SA wines, we get a mishmash of reflections on August’s controversial Humran Rights Watch Report that Jancis thought appeared last month. For the tasting notes, you need to subscribe to Jancis’s pricey Purple Pages, making the FT a pimp for her PPs. After paying R40 for the pink one, it’s a bit of a cheek.
With the Rugby World Cup in full swing, batten down the hatches for a rush of stories of Springboks making wine. But the real interest comes when doctors prescribe Pinotage instead of pills and swap the stethoscope for the spittoon. Dr. Alvi van der Merwe from Alvi’s Drift has both claims to fame: Oupa Alvi was a Springbok flank from the 1930s and his two grandsons were no slouches on the field either. Invited to Rawsonville for lunch, Alvi’s wines confirmed that while media waves battle to penetrate the Du Toitskloof Mountains, wine certainly doesn’t stop at the Huguenot Tunnel and the R26 toll is well worth paying to source some value-for-money gems.
Duimpie's eland
My story on the big disappointment of missing BEE brands at the recent Gugulethu Wine Festival quickly rose to top of the pops on the winenews site last week, even overtaking all the vulgar ego-surfing of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. I had more to say on the matter in the Sunday Times yesterday.
Paul Elgin from Paul Cluver Estate
At the end of a week filled with doom and gloom for SA wine, with commentators calling the industry in decline, a glimpse at a rosy future peaked from behind ominous rain clouds this evening on the roof of a shopping mall in suburban Gugulethu. Ticket sales stopped at 7pm, two hours early, with the tented venue full: “one heck of a way to start a wine show” said Ray Edwards, liquor executive from Tops at Spar and headline sponsor of the event.
glamorous in gugs
As SA generic wine marketing rapidly loses credibility and struggles to get a grip, could a rejuvenated Estate Producers Association [EPA] help? This was one of the many insights offered by Jean Engelbrecht in the Sunday Times yesterday.
Jean Engelbrecht
Memo to Adrian Botha
executive director of the industry association for responsible alcohol use
I was watching Africa Business Report on the BBC last night. The booze business in Botswana was featured and it was glum faces all round after the government imposed a 30% levy on alcohol, since raised to 40%. The largest beer distributor in Gaberone reports volumes down 30% while the Linga Longa bar downtown noted that premium brand patrons were buying down, bigtime. Quite how many punters have switched from commercial to homebrewed shibobos and skokiaan was not reported, but taxed teetotalism runs the risk of making the health problems alcohol can bring, even worse, as budget supplies are driven underground.
Perhaps a little finesse is called for and as cigar aficionado Theo Rudman used to say before he died of cancer “it’s not a question of smoking less but rather of smoking better.” Wine is a fortunate tipple in that alcohol levels can be reduced through careful site and cultivar selection as well as vini- and viticultural and cellar practices. Chatting to Gary Jordan at Paul Cluver’s fairytale wedding on Saturday, Gary called 2010 “the alcoholic vintage. Some of my friends made reds at 18% and I didn’t even know there were yeasts that could survive such alcohol levels.” As to adding water, Gary reports “we were given the green light to open the taps, but then halfway through the vintage, we got a letter banning water.”
But let’s leave technical issues to the technocrats and suggest another angle. A responsible drinking campaign targeted at wine drinkers requires a proactive rather that nanny-says-no approach, rewarding those wines that get it right. How about a case of six moderate alcohol wines called A Little Light Relief, perhaps, to showcase the pleasures of lower alcohols and to make the point that moderate alcohol does not have to mean weak and wimpy. As the ancients showed us in the eighties before the prophets of ripeness and profit started singing their Australian siren songs, full flavour, complexity and balance can be achieved at 12.5% and lower and the proof is available for tasting.
Use the case as a case study and show it at ProWein, VinExpo and the Soweto Wine Festival. Heck, go the whole hog and smuggle it into the “beer & biltong” get-together WOSA is planning at the London Wine Trade Fair in May, like a teetotal Trojan Horse.
My first candidate wine for A Little Light Relief:
Drinking Mojitos with Gary Jordan at the Cluver wedding on Saturday, Gary observed “I can buy quality grapes and wine from any varietal far cheaper than I can grow it myself.” Nowhere is this more obvious than with Sauvignon Blanc with the Cape awash with quality Sauvvie and widely discounted by online retailers like Johan Wegner at Getwine.
