Hi 22C° Low 6C° | 
The Wheel Deal
11 minutes ago
Pendock Uncorked
5 hours, 1 minute ago
GabiVille
5 days, 4 hours ago
The Wanderer
1 week agoView all Times LIVE Blogs
The monthly bad news from SAWIS has been posted. Exports of bottled wine over the year to the end of May down from 205m litres to 180m litres – showing a huge positive tendency, as WOSA would say – while bulk climbed from 161m litres to 195m litres, mostly to be distilled into Vodka for the Russian market. Last night Frans Smit, cellar master at Spier, said another huge bulk export will depart shortly. All further entrenching SA as a bulk alcohol supplier, rather than a producer of terroir driven wines.
Speaking of which, would the last grape farmer in the Swartland please switch off the lights? The number of primary producers has fallen 34% from a peak of 407 in 1997 down to 267 today. So much for the Swartland Revolution. Meanwhile Stellenbosch is at an all-time high of 417 producers. Seems like we should be celebrating the Stellenbosch Revolution, even if Oak City could not even get round to organizing an annual wine festival this year. Too many drunk students was the explanation.
Vetplante reclaim lost ground from vines
Ten reasons SA wine should take China seriously:
1. Tomatoes are regarded as fruit in China and are served as dessert along with apples, watermelon and giant sweet lemons. So all those tomato leaf characters of Stellenbosch Cabernets are positive features.
2. If it is not already, China is the largest wine consumer in the world, making it an obvious port of call for exporters.
The about turn by Tim Noakes, UCT Professor of Exercise, that meat is good for you and refined carbohydrates ain’t, comes as no surprise to Rust en Vrede seigneur Jean Engelbrecht. “We knew that 20 years ago” he said as he cut and braai’d a 12-man steak from “Rustenberg, Transvaal” last night.
Surgeon Jean
“Much more forgiving than the Simonsberg” is how Paardebosch winemaker Marius Malan (below) describes the fruit of the Siebritskloof, the funky new ward of the Paardeberg. And he should know after making many vintages for Slaley in that parish. “Swartland flavours are far more concentrated than Stellenbosch. Take Sauvignon Blanc for example. On the Simonsberg you have a 48 hour window before you lose your pyrazines. The Paardeberg is much more robust.” Which could explain why so many Stellenbosch winemakers buy Lammershoek grapes. Even if they forget to mention it on the label.
While the Groot Koppe (big cops) at the University of Stellenbosch nut out the shape and form of an SA Wine Institute, they should remember that the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year for 2011, Johan Jordaan from Spier and Young Winemaker of the Year, Matthew van Heerden of Uva Mira, were both trained at Elsenburg. An inconvenient truth as Al Gore might say.
Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2011 Johan Jordaan
A winemaking position in the Constantia Valley has long been seen as one of the cushiest berths in Cape Wine. Yet in one month, two winemakers have jumped ship – supple Karl Lambour from Constantia Glen is off to Franschhoek and the wine estate/fine dining restaurant/art gallery cum yoga and meditation retreat Holden-Manz (the former Klein Genot) while Adam Mason is leaving Klein Constantia for Mulderbosch in Stellenbosch. His escape up a big oak tree is shown below.
Adam Mason leaves Klein Constantia
Geneva-based financial gnome Adrian Van der Spuy was born on the farm Rainbow’s End in the Banghoek Valley between Stellenbosch and Pniel. Fairy tales locate a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, which would put one on Oldenburg, Adrian’s farm below Rainbow’s End. He opened his new tasting room today with a blow-out lunch catered by Eat Out’s Chef of the Year, Luke Dale Roberts (below).
Blow-out lunch at Oldenburg today
Culture is breaking out all over Stellenbosch. Last week at the launch of Jean Engelbrecht’s toothsome Stellenbosch Ridge 2009 Bordeaux-style blend at Stellenbosch (the restaurant) in Windhoek, the back label proclaimed “Stellenbosch is unique in that it is the centre of fine wine, academia and culture in South Africa” with the only controversial point the qualification of Africa by South. For after the announcement of the winner of the 2011 African Art Prize at Tokara in Stellenbosch last night, who can doubt that Oak City is not the cultural capital of the continent?
The People's Choice, Barbara Wildenboer
Hacks, being only human (well some of them, at least), can only stomach so many lamb shanks with Bisto gravy and potatoes dauphinoise and we’ve had them served from Agulhas to Augrabies. So when Jean Engelbrecht, Gobabis Gourmet turned Helderberg hedonist, wanted to launch his next level wine, he flew a six pack of SA wine writers to Swakopmund for a three day orgy of sea, shellfish and Steen. Wine launches will never be the same again, with the bar raised to the 29 foot long jump level set by Bob Beamon at the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968.
Jean, Etienne and Shane
The back label of the Stellenbosch Ridge 2009 Bordeaux-style blend (the classic varietals minus Cabernet Franc which winemaker Coenie Snyman does not like and so did not include on account of its “steeliness”) says it all: “Stellenbosch is unique in that it is the centre of fine wine, academia and culture in South Africa… Stellenbosch is birthplace and home to many of South Africa’s greatest leaders, intellectuals, artists, scientists, sportsmen and winemakers.”
Coenie Snyman and Jean Engelbrecht
