South African variety: a blessing or a curse?
Friday 3 September
The strapline for generic body Wines of South Africa (WOSA), is ‘Variety is in our nature’. Until you visit the wine regions of South Africa, it’s not really clear how wide, and confusing, its variety is.
It’s easy enough to pinpoint a wine style from Rioja or Bordeaux, and explain it to consumers but how do you communicate what a ‘Stellenbosch style’ is? The answer appears to be you can’t. The sub regions of the area like the Jonkershoek Valley and Simonsberg have certain stylistic styles but trying to find a common thread across the region’s diverse vineyards with their vast range of varieties, from Sauvignon and Chardonnay to Barbera and Shiraz, is virtually impossible.
Wine producers admit other visitors have the same problem.
James Dare, sales and marketing manager at Warwick Estate says, “It’s very difficult to get foreign journalists to get a grip on South Africa because it is so diverse; trying to get a handle on Stellenbosch is just as hard – there’s no regional style.”
So how can you communicate this, I wonder? Francois Haasbroek, winemaker at Waterford Estates claims it’s virtually impossible to provide a ‘This is Stellenbosch’ guide to the outsider. “This is our problem,” he said.
“The only thing you canll sell in South Africa is your own brand and it’s enormously frustrating” “We have amazing potential but I can’t go to Stockholm and say this is our example of Stellenbosch Cabernet; it is our Cabernet. We can’t talk for the region or country,” he added.
While I only had two days to get a handle on Stellenbosch, I’m not sure a lifetime would be enough.
Waterford Estate’s wine range impressed including its 2009 Sauvignon Blanc with a friendly 12.3% alcohol (18.5/20 rating) and the fresh, lean 2008 Kevin Arnold Shiraz (19/20).
Raats 2008 No 1 Chenin Blanc was also a star with apple, marzipan and musk on the nose, zippy freshness, linearity (if that’s not too much of a snobby wine word) and lovely minerality (19/20).
South Africa: Safari so goodie
Tuesday 31 August
So I’ve finally made it to South Africa after eight years working in the wine industry and this being Africa, day one meant safari.
I’m not sure what I was expecting as I boarded the Big 5 Wine Safari vehicle at Warwick Estate in Stellenbosch but it wasn’t a comparison between a white rhino and Sauvignon Blanc, that’s for sure. But life is full of surprises.
Wrapped in a fuchsia pink blanket to stave off the cold spring day, our tour guide Ivan took us around the wine safari, also known as a vineyard tour.
“Cabernet Sauvignon,” he said “is like a lion. The lion is the king of the jungle. When Cabernet is young, it is aggressive on the palate; as it becomes older, the tannins calm down, just like when a lion ages.”
Hmm, a bit tenuous, but I see what you’re driving at Ivan and I’ve never heard a wine compared to a wild animal before. It’s refreshing for a wine journalist who has seen enough stainless steel tanks and barrels to last a life time.
Sauvignon Blanc…which of the Big 5 safari animals would it be? The white rhino, of course. The link was fresh green grass: the rhino eats it; the wine smells like it.
Cabernet Franc is apparently like an elephant because they both have thick skin and you can keep the wine for a very long time. Warwick does a single varietal Cab Franc, a relative rarity in South Africa, but I couldn’t see any relation to Dumbo or Nelly.
The buffalo is another safari favourite but it’s unpredictable and wild hence the comparison with Pinotage. And last but not least Merlot gets likened to a leopard – because it’s smooth. For wine connoisseurs, it might seem a bit silly but the wine industry needs a bit of fun injected into its rear end. It’s a great way to educate the consumer, link the wine trade with a successful tourism industry - and make wine seem less elitist.
Kiwis face up to challenges
Thursday 26 August
It’s good to see the New Zealand wine industry facing up to the challenges it faces rather than bury its head in the sand or, worse still, deny things aren’t smelling of roses.
So, at today’s Romeo Bragato conference in Marlborough, Stuart Smith, chair of New Zealand Winegrowers, made a balanced and wise speech.
Falling profitability, oversupply, and the strength of the NZ dollar have been the crux of the problems the industry now faces, leading to Kiwi wine companies struggling or going out of business. Winegrowers also called for another harvest of 265,000 tonnes after two record harvests of 285,000 tonnes in 2008 and 2009.
Having spent seven months in New Zealand I don’t profess to be an expert but there are things I have noticed on my way round the country’s wine regions that have surprised me. I believe there’s naivety among the smaller players of the trade. No doubt, that occurs in many other wine producing countries. Consulting for an independent wine merchant in the UK for the past seven months and looking for new wines for its portfolio, there’s a lack of awareness of what’s going on outside New Zealand. Poor branding (or lack of it), dated labels, and an unwillingness to negotiate on ex-cellar prices makes you wonder if they’ve ever been to the UK, US or Australia to look at what’s on the shelves and the competition they’re up against. Obviously, many New Zealand producers are on the ball but many smaller wineries are making wine for themselves.
Here’s some snapshots from Smith’s address, offering another insider’s insight into the industry:-
After two decades of sustained growth, we are all now experiencing the worst trading conditions since the mid-1980’s. The global recession and markets trading down combined with issues specific to our own sector have seen grape and land prices fall sharply, bulk exports lift, in-market wine prices down, the NZ dollar is high against the UK pound and the US$ … times are tough, very tough indeed.
He later added: “Falling profitability is the major issue for growers and wineries right now. It is the issue that must be addressed – but it in turn is a function of a number of different issues. Supply and demand, the value of the NZ$, tax rates, compliance costs - these are all issues affecting profitability, so we need to have a range of strategies to address these issues as far as we can.
“...So going forward we must continue to be market led, harvesting no more grapes, making no more wine than the market can profitably absorb.
In that vein, we have been asked frequently in recent weeks ‘What is the demand for New Zealand wine out of the 2011 vintage?. Our assessment at this stage based on information from our wineries and looking at market trends is that a vintage of 265,000 tonnes which is the same size as 2010, would be sufficient to meet demand for NZ branded wine in the next year.”