Post on 24-Mar-2016
description
Checkers Good Value Guru Hot Hundred
100 value-for-money wines for 2010 from the Sunday Times Good Value Guru
as reported by Neil Pendock
GVG Manifesto
It‟s not often that poems come true. Robert Frost‟s Road Less Traveled has a physical
realization just outside Beaufort West, that unlovely town of child prostitute billboards,
take-away deep-fried chicken and pre-dawn bus crashes in the middle of the Great
Karoo: N1 to Cape Town or the R62 to the Mother City. The Sunday Times Good Value
Guru and I took the road less traveled this winter, and as Robert noted “that has made
all the difference.”
On the track of value-for-money wine supplies for friends in Jozi, we
stumbled across a Major in Ida‟s Valley with a bottle of Riesling from
Hitler‟s bunker. We heard about a lady with blue hair who lives
stoksielalleen on a farm outside Montagu sans electricity and
another who is 86 in the shade and drinks two bottles of Sauvignon
Blanc on her stoep everyday.
Why? Because glossy lifestyle magazines are the Paris Hiltons of hedonism, they may
have left their smalls in the suite, but they‟re one big tease. We were heartily sick and
tired of Groot Gimmick Estate on the Helderberg and their blend of Trincadeira and
Ruby Cabernet, awarded more gongs than Big Ben by a panel of bow-tied boffins and
unavailable unless you‟re the winemaker‟s PR‟s aroma therapist. And besides, it‟s
cheaper to source your own gems, as illegal miners all over the goldfields are finding
out. Try and nationalize that, Julius!
Our inaugural road trip went down last year and 500
000 copies of the Good Value Guru Diaries were
included in the Christmas edition of the Sunday
Times last year. The largest circulation SA wine
guide in history (ten times the print run of John
Platter) and this winter, the Ultraliquors catalogue
gave two pages to GVG selections and that one ran
to 600 000 copies. So we were on the money
thinking that SA was thirsty for value-for-money
wines. And we‟re betting you still are.
Who is the GVG?
The GVG is no wine snob. He has trouble easing his
moobs into an anoraque and fastening a bowtie is
out of the question. He prefers black PT shorts,
gardening T-shirts and floppy fishing hats. More Vernon Koekemoer than Oz Clarke.
Accidental connoisseurs, perhaps. Anoraque, never. Which is why GVG ferociously
defends his anonymity. A quaint eccentricity perhaps in these days when the Brian
Ferry of the Cape Town restaurant scene, Jean-Pierre Rossouw, is a kitchen pin-up and
columnists on WINE magazine (mea culpa) get a picture by-line.
Celebrity tipplers and noshers are no local phenomenon. The restaurants of London
famously have photos of the town‟s reviewers discretely posted so the Maître d‟ can
prevent any CIPs (that‟s even grander than a VIP – a commercially important
personage) from getting standard service or fare. When the London Sunday Times‟
reviewer AA Gill, fronted up, he announced “Oxford, party of two.” To which the
response was “actually, Mr. Gill, you booked under the name Cambridge.” Wine tasting
has more than a bit of this too, with discretion rarely part of an anoraque armory.
So we thought we‟d do things a bit differently. No business class air
tickets to the winelands, helicopter flips over the Helderberg and
guided cellar tours. Our chariot is a non-descript white Honda in
which we arrive at tasting rooms unannounced, to sample public
bottles and spit in the communal spittoon bobbing with cracker
crumbs. No special treatment, no special drops, we even pay for
tastings (up to R50 a person) and even shelled out the R10 admission
fee to gain entrance to the hallowed grounds of Vergelegen. In fact quite a few tasting
rooms were closed: Coleraine, Ridgeback, Haskell Vineyards, Somerbosch, Topiary and
Haut Espoir while some were open but there was nobody home like Vêndome and Lynx.
GVG has been doing this road thing twice a year for as long as I‟ve known him. It
started back in 1983 when tasting wine was a more leisurely activity. The number of
wineries was a third the tally of today but the 80 Km/hr speed limit and curfew petrol
station hours (on account of countrywide fuel restrictions) limited the number of cellars
reachable in a day. Today that wheel has come full circle with electricity rather than
fuel the limiting factor, although with the petrol price screaming into the stratosphere,
the sheiks are still applying the brakes.
This winter, we spent ten days on the road, sipping and spitting our way from Aan de
Doorns to Ziggurat Vineyards, buying the odd case here and there as value for money
dictated. Volumes have grown from a boot load to a container per trip - that‟s 30 or 40
cubic metres of vino, eagerly awaited by legions of colleagues, friends and those who
want a good deal and are heartily sick of gushing stories about labels they‟ve never
seen and brands they didn‟t even know existed.
Orders are placed on the GVG‟s recommendation, orders are consolidated at the
Vineyard Connection in Stellenbosch and the container arrives the next month.
Emptying it is like that episode of Little House on the Prairie where the community
builds a barn. From an upcountry point of view, SA wine distribution looks like it is
managed by the people who couldn‟t get jobs at Eskom. GVG is the antidote.
He has serious wine amateur credentials: a stockbroker father dragged him kicking and
screaming through the Michelin starred restaurants of France at an early age. A self-
taught sommelier, GVG was part of the downtown Johannesburg gastronomic scene in
the eighties, moving out to the burbs in the nineties, along with the dining crowd. A
cricket fanatic, GVG has the memory of a small elephant. He is a walking wine guide of
vinous information, without the usual conflicts of interest.
Last year, I hitched a ride with the GVG and as the Aussies would say, explored the
wines and wineries “Beyond the Black Stump.” This year we‟ve done it again to atone
for some of the sins of omission. In fact this is my third expedition: I did it first a
decade ago and still can‟t drink a liqueur after Danie Grundlingh opened his entire
range one unforgettable Tuesday afternoon at Grundheim, outside Oudtshoorn.
This then is the travel diary of a July tasting expedition: 10 days, 100 wineries visited,
1100 wines tasted, 100 written up. You won‟t find the “immaculate” Vergelegen V or “a
delicately poised” Waterford Jem – too pricey. Nor will you stumble over too many
alcoholic blockbusters or fruit bombs – too boring. What you will find are decent wines
of character at a decent price.
This GVG is unashamedly opinionated, outrageously prejudiced but honest, with no
kickbacks solicited or accepted (or offered, if truth be told). And not a single wine is
starred or scored. After all, wine writing should be about language, not arithmetic.
GVG Awards Of the 1100 wines we tasted over ten days, the GVG established a few value-for-money
benchmarks. Here they are. In addition, each day I chose a particular wine which blew
my hair back and I‟ve included one per episode as my personal Coup de Coeur.
Best Value White: Koelenbosch Wooded Chenin Blanc
2008 R35. Bottelary Hills is Ground Zero for good value
Chenin Blanc. At the WINE magazine Superpure Chenin
Challenge earlier this year, the top three were all made with
at least some grapes from this appellation, the most
unfashionable in snooty Stellenbosch. This one is packed full
of honey and toasted nuts. Martin Stevens made it (that‟s
him to the left on the right, alongside red winemaker Wilhelm
de Vries) and this co-operative cellar just gets better and
better.
Best Value Red: Blouvlei Droë Rooi 2008 R25. A classic
Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from
deepest Wellington by the empowerment label of
Johannesburg legal eagle Stef du Toit of Mont du Toit fame.
This juicy red exhibits good depth of ripe red berries with a
opulent cocoa chocolate powder finish. Totally moreish.
Best Value MCC: Weltevrede Entheos R60. Philip Jonker is a
poet with the sensitivity of Constantine P. Cavafy which could
explain the Greek name he chose for his fizz. “Entheos” is Greek
for enthusiasm which is how the GVG reacted to this rich and ripe
bubbly with a vigorous Athenian bubble.
Best Value Stickie: Slaley Noble Late
Harvest Chardonnay 2007 R45. Marvelous
Marius Malan makes this sinful Chardonnay at
Slaley on the Simonsberg. It costs winery
owner Lindsay Slaley R65 for Marius to make
each bottle, but then Lindsay is a generous chap. Lemon/lime
marmalade flavours with a sweet and sour acidity avoid a cloying
denouement.
Episode One: Going to the Dogs GVG itinerary: Johannesburg-Kimberley-Oudtshoorn-Calitzdorp-Montagu. Saturday morning to Monday night.
Everything is turned on its head – snow has painted the Swartberge wit, foreign tourist
numbers are down 70%, Grande Marque Wine Brands are discounted 80% and
homeboy Pocket Power runs out of juice in the Durban July.
The border between the North West and the Northern Cape is an aural one. A single
lane donkey track of potholes and broken tarmac has replaced large parts of the N12
highway linking the City of Gold to the Big Hole, which is even more aptly named now
that the diamond market is down 90%. So much for girls, compressed carbon and
friendship being forever. As you cross the border, the shake rattle and roll of the North
West is replaced by a most satisfying roar as your vet tekkies get a grip on the tar of
the Northern Cape. No wonder BMW speed trial their autos here.
We‟d left Johannesburg at 9am, one week after the Winter Equinox and like the sun,
were heading south. Like the sun, it was slow progress thanks to five stop-and-goes
(average waiting time 15-20 minutes each) and if it wasn‟t for the spicy wilds droë wors
(R70/Kg) at the Wolmaransstad Slaghuis, the GVG swore that next time, he might be
forced onto the N1 via Bloemfontein.
After overnighting in the Kimberley Protea Hotel next to the Synagogue and a Mexican
pizza at Mario‟s across the road plus a bottle of Jordan Cabernet 2006 (R160, pleasant
chewy blackcurrants and
vanilla) we set the GPS
for Oudtshoorn. The
border between Big and
Little Karoos is the
impressive Swartberg
range of mountains
which after a midwinter
snowstorm, looked like
the set of a Heidi movie.
We crossed the
Swartberge at
Meiringspoort into
another blast of
surreality: the dessert
was in green drag looking
like the Emerald Isle. At the gala dinner of the SA Brandy Foundation, which drew
down the curtain on the GoodLife Brandy Festival in Sandton recently, Outdshoorn old
boy François Ferreira was inducted into the SA Brandy Guild to join other members
Kgalema Motlanthe, Trevor Manuel and André P Brink (the best SA writer not to win the
Nobel Prize) holding up the bar.
The Klein Karoo National Arts Festival
(KKNK) is the biggest week on the
Oudtshoorn kalender and this year
Ferreira‟s performance Brandy, Bokkems
and Blues was the hottest ticket in
town. So when he recommended the
rack of Karoo lamb at the Colony
Restaurant in the Queen‟s Hotel in
Baron van Reede Street, we felt
culturally obliged to book a table and
stay over in the Victorian opulence of an
overstuffed hotel from a bygone age.
The first stop the next morning was Boplaas in Calitzdorp.
Oom Carel was in Croatia, which may sound like the title
of a Kooperasie Storie by PG du Plessis, but was also the
greeting from Leon Coetzee, boyfriend of Oom Carel‟s
daughter, Margaux, who now makes the wine and Port.
Boplaas is a real family affair and the recently released
Sauvignon Blanc 2009 is Oom Carel‟s mom‟s stoepsit wyn:
she may be 86 in the shade but is still good for a couple
of bottles a day. The GVG also gave it a thumbs up! and
praised the decision to go Sancerre – minerality and
greenness certainly most appropriate given the green
flush of vegetation after the recent rain.
Oom Boets at De Krans next door was fighting off a dose
of „flu so the GVG kept his distance, muttering about pigs.
GVG was impressed with the novel Pink Port which at R28
a bottle is great fun.
Just after Barrydale, Beate Joubert‟s Joubert-Tradauw deli is
an oasis of handmade food in an ocean of Niknaks and Red
Bull. Husband and winemaker Meyer was in Robertson
writing an exam to keep his dad‟s rifle. “The BS you have to
go through to be able to hunt” she remarked, but I‟m sure
she‟s on the hairy sandal side of this issue.
We whizzed past Rietrivier Wine
Cellar after being told they‟ve gone
over to the dark side, only producing
papsak wyn and stopped at
Zandvliet to get the odds of Pocket
Power winning the July. The tasting
room features an altar to the
racehorse which was born on the
farm and has made well over R8
million in winnings. “But the owners
get that” laughed Paul de Wet, “although it does help with stud
fees and yearling sales.”
At Kranskop in the Klaasvoogds Valley we bumped into Jono, a
Great Dane nearly as large as
Pocket Power. Newald Marais of
Nederburg fame is cellarmaster
and his daughter Mare-
Lee showed us a quintet
of hugely impressive
wines.
Goedverwacht confirmed
the good news that this
year‟s whites are a huge
step up on 2008: more fruit, better acid balance, more
depth.
The day ended with us checking into the Montagu
Country Hotel whose proprietor Gert Lubbe and his
pooch Salomiena share a birthday: 9/9/something 9
which makes them biodynamically compatible.
Gert describes this winter as “terrifying” for instead of the usual floods, it‟s a drought of
tourists that has him nervous. “Overseas tour groups are down 70% since May but
we‟ve discovered the conference business and have had a couple of groups drive
through from Stellenbosch.”
So while roads, tasting rooms and tourism go to the dogs, there‟s one lapdog in
Montagu who‟s not complaining: Salomiena Lubbe.
Coup de Coeur: Rietvallei Rhine Riesling 2008 (R33)
Robertson must rate as one of the last places you‟d choose to grow grapes for an
elegant Riesling – just ask Riesling revivalist Jörg Pfützner who has embarked on a
brave new career punting the noble varietal to restaurants and tasting clubs. Until
grapes are planted in the Koo Valley, elegant Elgin is the boffin‟s best bet for the steely
white grape of Northern Europe. Yet Robertson, famous for value for money reds and
tropical expressions of Sauvignon Blanc, is where the grapes for this elegantly floral
little number were grown.
On first impression, this is Appletiser without the bubble, for grown-ups and those
prone to flatulence. Very expressive, floral nose with a fresh and lively palate of apples
and pears. Needs time to develop complexity. With over 14 g/l residual sugar there is
serious palate weight although thanks to high acids, the wine tastes dry. Kobus Burger
demonstrates all the balance of a circus trick cyclist with this performance. Close your
eyes and you‟d swear it was Alsace in your glass. Bring on the presskopf (squashed
salted pig‟s head) and spicy bludwurst!
Abdullah II is King of Jordan (www.kingabdullah.jo, I kid you not) and a great fan of
Appletiser. His majesty likes the stuff so much, he even tried to buy the company, but
it‟s not for sale (yet). As a 43rd generation direct descendant of the Prophet
Muhammad this bottle will never grace the royal dinner table but would make a handy
aperitif at state banquets when the Sarkozy‟s stop by.
The best way to rile anoraques and boost comments on a
wine blog is to say “what a pity SA winemakers now have to
qualify wines made from Crouchen Blanc with „Cape‟ added to
the traditional „Riesling‟ on the label.” Of course blind tasters
have no such language problems, relying on senses other
than just their eyes to make decisions for them. On this
novel basis there is no Cape Riesling to hold a candle to this
Rhine maiden at this price point.
Paul Cluver IV from Elgin is a committed True Believer in
Riesling. This year, he is planting 3.4 Ha of new vines to
bring his total Riesling vineyard to over 10 Ha, the largest in
SA. When his 2009 vintage is released at R65 a bottle, clear
some space at the back of the cellar.
Local Hero: Gert Lubbe
“Not yet” is the correct response to the
question “do you have an espresso
machine?” hissed proprietor Gert Lubbe to
the waitress in the art deco dining room of
his grand pink wedding cake aka The
Montagu Country Hotel. As the bête noir
of SA wine Jane MacQuitty of the London
Times told New York Times Johannesburg
bureau chief Barry Bearak “unless the
South Africans track down this burnt
rubber taste, they will never be a real New
World player in wine” so too will the R62
never become a fully charged tourist
magnet until those burnt rubber aromas
are coming from an espresso machine.
Filter coffee just doesn‟t fill the aspirational
hole and if The Queens Hotel in Oudtshoorn and The Montagu Country Hotel want to
attract foreign tourists of the ilk of Jane MacQuitty, they‟d best wake up and smell the
coffee.
After all, Adi Badenhorst, winemaker with the most impressive lamb chop sideburns on
the Paardeberg admitted “an espresso machine is the most important piece of
winemaking equipment in the cellar.” Could espresso machines be the mysterious
source of burnt rubber in SA reds fingered by Jane and her pasty imitators? Something
for WOSA to look into, methinks.
Episode Two: But is it Art? GVG itinerary: Montagu-Robertson-Worcester-Tulbagh. Tuesday morning to Wednesday afternoon.
Could Fine Art be a bigger threat to SA wine than leaf roll virus? Winelands tasting
rooms are bursting with the stuff. As wineries morph into Art galleries, Dylan Lewis cat
sculptures are replacing vines.
Whatever is a Golden Kaan? I wondered as we rolled
down the main street of Robertson. We‟d drawn a
blank at Uitvlucht Co-op as
winemaker Alwyn
Liebenberg was tasting in
Stellenbosch. Not at
Springfield was Abrie Bruwer
(he was in Turkey) so we
couldn‟t tell him his 2007
vintage Whole Berry
Cabernet (R85) is the best
yet and the time has come for his walrus-like Work of Time
2003 red blend (R100).
At Ashton Co-op, stocks of unwooded Chardonnay 2008 (R25)
have evaporated faster than dew in the Klein Karoo after some
French wine judge with a badger hairstyle recently hailed it a
Chablis lookalike. “Humpf” humpfed the GVG “we picked it last year” confirming that a
prophet is not recognized in his own land.
Which forced the GVG to raise his sights R10 to the Bon Courage
unwooded Chardonnay 2009 which another French fundi may
“discover” next year. Ashton AWOL was BC‟s gain as GVG was
blown away by their whites, hailing 2009 as the vintage of the
decade to Mavis pouring glasses to a soundtrack of Tracey
Chapman and Laurika Rauch.
Was a Golden Kaan perhaps an idol the Israelites
worshiped in the desert that caused Moses to smash the
freshly minted Ten Commandments to smithereens? A
loyalty card from Absa? The GVG thought it Afrikaans
for a rooster, but then he was brought up in Jozi.
Whatever it was, why Robertson, opposite Roodezandt
Co-op?
Sharon Mason manages Golden Kaan (the venue)
and explained it is a multifunction space: you can
hire it for a presentation, it‟s an artists in the shade
gallery for showcasing local Picassos and Pinotage, as
it‟s also a tasting room for Golden Kaan (the wine) a
joint venture brand between KWV and Racke, a
German wine company. The imported stainless steel
tasting island looks like a Damien Hirst installation
from his medical period of pill paintings.
Things revert to normal across the road at
Roodezandt while at Robertson Winery next door, GVG joshed with a quartet of Scottish
supporters of the British and Irish Lions, confirming that foreign rugby supporters do
venture further than the Waterfront.
Conradie Family Vineyards outside Worcester are well
worth the ten minute diversion off the R60, if only to buy a
bottle of Journey of the Penguin 2007 (R28), a juicy
Pinotage blend that commemorates the journey of three
penguins, Percy, Peter and Pamela. Polluted in Table Bay
when the MV Treasure sank in 2000, they were relocated
to Port Elizabeth.
Rejecting the pleasures of PE, the trio swam home with
thousands of internet surfers following their progress as
satellites tracked their radio transmitters. When 2010 moves into the frame (and if
Australia qualifies) Conradie FV will be a magnet for Aussie supporters wishing to point
Percy at the porcelain.
Du Toitskloof Winery were in fine spirits as they‟d just landed a deal as house-wine of
the Ocean Basket restaurant chain, although GVG did have them worried when he
ventured he thought the chain was becoming more Halaal. Talk turned swiftly to bulk
prices, up to R5 a litre from R4.50 last year, which puts prices in perspective. A lesson
contradicted at Graham Beck earlier in the day where some icon brands are discounted
80%.
The Camerca 2008 red blend at Slanghoek is already so
reasonable at R25.50 a bottle, if it became a Beck Bargain,
they‟d have to pay you to drink it. Something not likely to
happen at Deetlefs in Rawsonville where we bumped into
leading Dutch wine writer Cees van Casteren at a terroir tour-
de-force tasting as Kobus Deetlefs showed off five vintages of
super Semillon.
Then off to a warm bed at the Church Street Lodge
in Worcester and a bizarre dinner in a giant
shopping centre next to the N1 that has
eviscerated all restaurants in town and replaced
them with franchise chains in a suburban shopping
setting.
Sick of the synthetic, we turned towards Tulbagh
and De Heuvel a first
stop. The line of
blue gums leading up
to the elegant tasting
room with external sculptures is the antipodean version
of the driveway of Neethlingshof: eucalypts replace stone
pines. So no surprise to report the Shiraz tastes of mint.
There is a dry Muscat 2008 (R25) the GVG called an
Alsatian doppelgänger and the 2006 is a steal at R5 a
bottle if you‟re into staleness.
The tasting room at Saronsberg looks like
a contemporary Art gallery transported
from Woodstock. Pretoria financial fundi
Nick van Huyssteen owns the place,
which features several paintings by
Tulbagh‟s favourite son, Christo Coetzee
who died in the village a few years ago. I
still remember hesitantly knocking on
Coetzee‟s door in historic Church Street
and being examined for several minutes
through the net curtain before the
reclusive artist threw open the door
and ushered us into his dark lounge
with a Cyndi Lauper video on the TV.
The Saronsberg wines were equally
exuberant.
Hannes Myburgh of Meerlust fame had
tipped me off that Coetzee would not
be around for much longer. He‟d been
a hero of mine ever since I heard he‟d
destroyed a gallery full of his own art
after an opening which sold out.
I was completely convinced by Saronsberg Art, but the GVG drew the line at the ghost
chairs of French überdesigner Philippe Stark. And I was forced to agree as not many
people would wish to view the guru‟s bottom when he is tasting, even if it is through a
transparent designer chair.
Coup de Coeur: Conradie Family Vineyards Journey of the Penguin 2007 (R28)
The Aussie euphemism for the physical
consequence of drinking a glass of
wine – pointing Percy at the porcelain –
is unexpectedly explained by the back
label of this easy drinking red from the
Nuy Valley between Worcester and
Robertson. When the MV Treasure, a
Panamanian bulk ore carrier, sank in
Table Bay in June 2000, 1300 tons of
bunker oil were released into the sea
and washed up on the beaches of
Robben and Dassen Islands,
frightening the breeding penguins. 19
000 were evacuated to Cape Recife
near Port Elizabeth and a further 19 000 polluted birds were captured and cleaned up
by an army of schmodels, aspirant actors, hairy sandals and other divers greenies
wintering in Cape Town.
Scientists climbed onto the eco bandwagon and three penguins: Percy, Peter and
Pamela were tagged and monitored. The trio had no time for the tourist delights of PE
and high-tailed it back to the Cape tout suite. Peter arrived first and Percy was delayed
by a romantic dalliance en route. All three eventually made it back to Table Bay. Percy
is immortalized in Aussie barroom etiquette and all three in this funky red blend made
from an underdog grape (Pinotage) in an underdog appellation (Worcester), all most
appropriate. And all those P's: Percy, Peter, Pamella and Pinotage are a gift to
alliterative aesthetes.
This penguin wine is smooth with silky tannins like a penguin‟s slick skin with flavours of
cherries, blackcurrants and plums instead of sashimi. The pocket-sized comedian
Danny DeVito played the Penguin in Batman Returnsand this juicy red will cost you less
than a movie ticket. The first rule of animal labels is that quality is inversely
proportional to the ferocity of the beast depicted. When did you last see an angry
penguin?
When the category for Diners‟ Club Winemaker of the Year Award was “red blends” the
UK queen of wine commentary, Jancis Robinson, was foreign judge and chose a
Shiraz/Cabernet blend, a decision not surprisingly endorsed by local pundits on the
panel. At the time, wags commented that JR must have thought she was in Australia
as Shiraz/Cabernet is the quintessential Aussie recipe. But then, what would a Diners
Club Award be without uproar and hilarity? After much soul searching and posturing,
the industry bowed to common sense and decided that to qualify as a “Cape Blend” a
wine should consist of at least 30% Pinotage, South Africa's contribution to
ampelography, which this one does with ease. Just as well or the Cape penguins would
have complained.
This is a good year for Pinotage blends as 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the first
commercial bottling of Pinotage, a Lanzerac ‟59, released by Stellenbosch Farmers‟
Winery in 1961.
Episode Three: Stomping around the
Swartland GVG itinerary: Tulbagh,Wellington,Riebeek-Kasteel,Riebeek-
West,Paarl. Wednesday afternoon to Friday morning.
Tulbagh is very much in a “pre-gay” phase of
suburban development, before a critical mass of
sensitive souls descend and transform it into a
fashionable destination bristling with bric-a-brac,
Indian head massage parlours and gourmet
foam/jus restaurants.
Oom Kobus Jordaan from Theuniskraal in
Tulbagh has graced more dining room tables
than Mrs. Ball and her chutney or Judy and her
jars of extra hot pickled onions (the best ones,
according to the GVG). His slim bottles of
Riesling are of course a controversial misnomer as the contents is made from Crouchen
Blanc rather than the noble grape of northern Europe, beloved of sommeliers but
impossible to sell. Theuniskraal Riesling must now be called “Cape Riesling” but at least
moves to rename Zinfandel as Crljenak Kastelanski by some Kenilworth anoraks, has
been put on hold.
Oom Kobus has bumped his kop on language problems before. He started the brand
Ixia (“a veldblom from around here”) after noting that foreigners struggle to pronounce
Theuniskraal. Taal wars aside, his unwooded 2008 blend of Semillon and Chardonnay
spoke to the GVG in tongues.
At Rijks, owner Neville Dorrington was in Mauritius (“I need
the sun, this rainy Cape winter is depressing me”) but
assistant winemaker Andre Bruyns was on hand to show us
Neville‟s nuclear option: a Syrah 2007 and a Rhône blend
from the same vintage that will shock and awe local winos
when they burst onto the radar screen of local sighted wine
guides later in the year.
The best place to catch Neville is at the Portuguese
embassy aka Vasco da Gama Tavern in De Waterkant – it‟s
useless to phone as he lives in a bunker with so much steel
and concrete it‟s become de facto Faraday cage and he has
to adjourn to the Saldanha Yacht Club to make and receive calls, which requires a
double brandy each time.
Then off to Riebeek Kasteel which is fully “gay
compliant” with more trendy restaurants and antique
shops than you can shake a stick at. At Riebeek Cellars,
Sakkie Bester showed off some piquant whites and Ou
Olyfie, a ceramic doll from the back catalogue of David
Lynch and an artwork commissioned by the town‟s Olive
Festival several years ago.
At Pulpit Rock in neighbouring Riebeek West, the vegetal
character of the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc reminded GVG of
the late Elizabeth David, the foodie‟s food writer, and her
“most revolting dish ever devised.” An Italian salad with
ingredients:
1 pint cold cooked macaroni
½ pint cooked or tinned pears
½ pint grated raw carrot
French dressing to moisten
2 heaped tablespoons minced onion
½ pint cooked or minced string beans
Method: mix the chopped macaroni and vegetables; moisten with French dressing,
favouring with garlic if liked. Serve on a dish lined with lettuce leaves. Decorate with
mayonnaise and minced pimento or chives.
Tinned pears, string beans and chives would complemented the Pulpit product and at
R24, it‟s in the same price range. The Sauvignon vines have been grubbed up and
stocks are limited, so hopefully there will be no reprise of this combo.
Let‟s hope the Pulpitians have planted Cabernet Sauvignon as the 2005 vintage (R80) is
wow! Exotically spiced cassis nose, intense
blackcurrant flavours. Oak, acids and fruit all in
balance with 14.5% alcohol.
At Vondeling on the Voor-Paardeberg, Matthew
Copeland showcased a remarkable range of
sophisticated whites plus a frutti-tutti Shiraz called
Baldrick, straight out of Black Adder. Willie de
Waal‟s spicy Scali reds were also in the zone and the 2006 Syrah is awesome.
After resuscitation and dinner at Kasteelberg Bistro with Julien Debray and Allan
Barnard and an uneventful night‟s sleep, we checked out the thoroughbreds at the
Perdeberg Co-op the next morning with Heloise Smit.
Then it was off to Veenwouden where Marcel van der
Walt showed us the best SA Chardonnay the GVG had
ever tasted. From the matchless 2007 vintage, only 520
bottles were made and at R325 each they are exclusive
and exquisite.
At Muratie we literally
bumped into owner Rijk
Melck in a German
submariner‟s leather
coat, struggling valiantly against a scrum of British and
Irish Lions supporters in the tasting room who confirmed
that visiting sports supporters are the Wineland‟s best
bet for foreign interest.
Bed-and-breakfasting with James McKenzie at his
Nabygelegen oasis in Wellington‟s Bovlei valley, the neighbours had lined-up an
impromptu tasting of local labels and the GVG was blow away by black empowerment
brand Blouvlei and Five Mountains, a wooded Chenin grown in the misnamed
Patatskloof vineyards.
The GVG arrived early at Avondale on Friday as Vendôme in Paarl was open, but there
was nobody home. We rang the bell twice, petted the dogs and the Honda back seat
being full of wine boxes, decided not to borrow the exquisite riempiestoel in the
atmospheric tasting room. A cellar assistant later in the day suggested that Oom Jannie
must have been busy with broederbond besigheid.
The organic vineyards of Avondale were hosting a conference of spiders, confirming the
absence of noxious chemicals in these fields. Resident spiderman Krige Visser
presented a comprehensive tasting of current release wines with the GVG‟s favourites
the BIO-logic Chenin Blanc 2008 (R49) made in an
oxidative style, the broad spectrum of flavours
(including a touch of oak) finished in a herbal
heather aftertaste.
The 2006 Cabernet Franc (R59) had loads of
opulent sweet red berry fruit. Unoaked, it
confirmed that wood maturation is not always the
best option. The Bordeaux Blend 2004 called Julia (R59, I like to think after Lady Julia
Flyte in Evelyn Waugh‟s Brideshead Revisited as Krige looks a bit like Jeremy Irons
playing Charles Ryder) is an easy-drinking red with a hint of seriousness. Like Charles
Ryder.
GVG‟s final pick was the Avondale Merlot 2005 (R59) with its bright red plummy fruit,
rooibos tea aftertaste and the tannic grip of a Spiderman scaling the canyons of New
York City.
Coup de Coeur: Vondeling Erica Shiraz 2007 (R80)
Vondeling is an up-and-coming new producer in the up-and-coming new Voor-
Paardeberg (or Poor Vaarterberg as a Wine Spectator hack hilariously malapropped it).
While the Paardeberg has been rightly hailed as the source of the best Chenin blanc in
the country, Vondeling winemaker Matthew Copeland has been demonstrating that the
appellation is no one-trick pony. While some UK pundits savage South African reds for
burnt rubber pongs, this cannot occur in Paardeberg fruit as the mountain has not been
burnt for 21 years. Matthew has a simple explanation - there is no public access. The
mountain is surrounded by commercial farms whose owners know better than to play
with matches.
Matthew was previously winemaker at big Schalk Burger‟s
Welbedacht operation in Wellington which is not backwards
in coming forwards for crackerjack Shiraz and this wine has
it all: width, length, depth, intensity and penetration as Iggy
Pop noted. Since Paardeberg was named after quaggas, try
this meaty wine with marinated game.
In fact, this wine is so good, it's a miracle it's not called
Vondeling Erica Syrah. I'm still trying to find out how Erica
Platter got Matthew to name this wine after her. Matthew
may have added some Mourvèdre to this wine as happened
in 2006 if a rogue troop of baboons had not raided the
Mourvèdre vineyard and snarfed all the berries. This troop
are so notorious, a farmer at nearby Kersfontein reports he
saw them riding his cows, bareback. For although the label
may say Shiraz, winemakers are allowed to add up to 15%
of other cultivars and still call it Shiraz.
Episode nine: Train Trouble
The mystery of how places get their names
was solved on Friday. We‟d overnighted at
Paul Cluver‟s small European country cum
wine farm, De Rust in Elgin, where Paul had
cooked us spaghetti Bolognese and plied us
with 2008 vintage Pinot Noir (a great match,
foodies). The railway line from Caledon to Cape Town wriggles through the farm and
to reach Paul‟s lair in the Old Smithy, it‟s necessary to cross the track three times,
which may surprise topologists.
The last crossing is now called Christiaan‟s Crossing after
Christiaan Truter, one lucky farm manager who came
second to a freight train at the end of January. Two trains
run through the farm every day at 6am and 6pm, taking
malt from Caledon to SAB in Cape Town to slake the thirst
of Mother City beer drinkers at Boo Radleys and other city
watering holes.
To avoid “being thrown with stones by kids” train drivers
have taken to ducking at crossings and also “forget” to hoot
to avoid tipping off their stone throwing nemeses. So when
the 6am malt express hit Christiaan‟s bakkie, no one was
more surprised than the train driver. The accident occurred
a stone‟s throw from one of Paul‟s Riesling vineyards, which
could explain why the 2009 vintage is more steely than
usual. The 11g/l residual sugar is camouflaged by huge
acidity better than a ducking train driver and the stoney
mineral character provides lots of ammunition for kids and wine lovers alike.
If the train crossing has been christened to
commemorate the accident, über-designer
Anthony Lane should fire up his Adobe
Acrobat and start designing appropriate
labels: Railway Riesling, perhaps or A Narrow
Escape?
Chapter Ten: GVG’s Hot Hundred
1. Boplaas Cabernet 2006 R32. Imagine a steaming bowl of Spaghetti Bolognaise
on a Tuesday night or with left-over pizza the next morning. Oom Carel recently
found two palates of the stuff in the storeroom – perhaps it‟s time to appoint a
son as storeman. Tel. 044 213 3326.
2. Boplaas Touriga Naçional 2006 R39.50. Liquid fynbos in a glass, rustic tannins
and great with food. A Mollydooker of a wine – a left-handed blow to the buds.
Tel. 044 213 3326.
3. Joubert-Tradauw R62 Syrah 2006 R105. Sweet red berry fruit emerges from a
mist of smoke like a roadtrain on the R62. Tel. 028 572 1619.
4. Zandvliet Sauvignon Blanc 2009 R40. A new dimension is supplied by Overberg
grapes (10%) giving an injection of grass and mustard seeds. Tel. 023 615 1146.
5. Kranskop Chardonnay 2008 R45. Light wooding gives a hint of honey and
butterscotch over a tropical fruit salad with fresh citrus notes. Tel. 023 626 3200.
6. Kranskop Merlot 2007 R45. Fantastic minerality and elegance from Klaasvoogds.
Tel. 023 626 3200.
7. Goedverwacht Crane White 2009 R25. This wine is more consistent than Roger
Federer. Lovely guava flavours. Tel. 023 616 3430.
8. Goedverwacht Rosé 2009 R25. Coral pink. Bracingly fresh with a blast of
strawberries and freshly ground black pepper. Tel. 023 616 3430.
9. Weltevrede The Ring MCC 2006 R82. A Blanc de Blanc (Chardonnay) sparkling
stunner, all chalk and minerals, like something forged on Mount Mordor for
Hobbits and other hedonists. Tel. 023 616 2141.
10. Weltevrede Tricolore White 2008 R35. Fresh peas with mint. Super with Cape
curried fish. Tel. 023 616 2141.
11. Ashton Cellar Chenin Blanc 2009 R25. Great topping for a Hawaiian pizza, order
before French fundis get a sniff. Tel. 023 615 1135.
12. Bon Courage Sauvignon Blanc 2009 R35. Sweaty builder in a lift with a fat lip,
roadblock friendly 12% alcohol. Tel. 023 626 4178.
13. Bon Courage Gewurztraminer 2008 R22. Sweet and sour accompaniment to
Asian noodles. Fine acid balance. Tel. 023 626 4178.
14. Bon Courage Shiraz 2007 R50. Fire in a fynbos forest with lingering leather
notes. Tel. 023 626 4178.
15. Springfield Whole Berry Cabernet 2007 R85. In spite of the name, more mineral
driven than fruit bomb. Impressive intensity. Tel. 023 626 3661.
16. Roodezandt Sauvignon Blanc 2009 R27.50. Tropical fruit salad with zingy
acidity. Tel. 023 626 1160.
17. Roodezandt Keizer‟s Creek dry red 2007 R23.50. Sweet red berry fruits with
some tannic grip. Tel. 023 626 1160.
18. Robertson Winery Beaukett 2009 R20.45. Dry Bukettraube - liquid rose petals
and abstemious 10.5% alcohol. Tel. 023 349 1601.
19. Du Toitskloof Winery Merlot 2007 R50. For a magnum (1.5 litres) of spicy red
cherries. Tel. 023 616 2141.
20. Slanghoek Winery Pinotage 2007 R31. Sweet and spicy red berries with a firm
tannic grip. Tel. 023 344 3026.
21. Theuniskraal Semillon/Chenin 2008. Peaches and apricots with a zing. Tel. 023
230 0687.
22. TJ Light 2009 R28. Fruity Muscat nose, light floral flavours – abstemious 8.5%
alcohol. Tel. 023 23 230 0680.
23. Riebeek Cellars Chardonnay 2008 R26. Tropical fruit salad in a chalky cave. Tel.
022 448 1213.
24. Pulpit Rock Shiraz 2007 R36. Leather and spice with slippery tannins. Tel. 022
461 2025.
25. Vondeling Sauvignon Blanc 2009. Tangy naartjies that linger. Tel. 021 869 8595.
26. Perdeberg Chenin Blanc 2009 R23.50. Benchmark for tropical fruit expression
Chenin. Tel. 021 869 8244.
27. Veenwouden Vivat Bacchus White 2009 R75. A classy Condrieu doppelgänger
with more excitement than a pocket full of frogs. Tel. 021 872 6806.
28. Boland Cellars Sixty-40 2009 R27.25. A GVG stalwart, light, fresh and fruity. Tel.
021 862 6190.
29. Muratie Melck‟s Rosé 2009 R30. Pomegranate pink with sophisticated
persistence and abundant elegance. Tel. 21 865 2330.
30. Avondale Cabernet Franc 2006 R59. Opulent sweet red fruit without the vampire
succubus of oak aging. Tel. 021 863 1976.