Wineblog

 by Elona Hesseling

‘Parkerisation’ is often loosely used to refer to rich, ripe, oaky and bombastic wines, made to impress wine critic Robert Parker. Whether or not this is true, it speaks to the psyche of the winemaking world, where many (if not most) producers manipulate or steer their products in favour of someone’s preferred taste, whether it be the critics, judges, consultants or consumers.

Michel Rolland is a Bordeaux-based oenologist and consultant to a plethora of French and overseas producers. He is often criticised for advocating fruit-heavy and oak-influenced wines – some will even go as far as to say that he steers winemaking to suit Parker’s palate.

Bonne Nouvelle

But criticisms and stylistic preferences aside, Rolland can be accredited with improving many poor-performing Bordeaux-wines, while assisting and mentoring numerous producers worldwide.

Remhoogte winery is situated in the Simonsberg ward of Stellenbosch and its first wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon, was created in 1995 by owner Murray Boustred, with the help of Jean Daneel – a wine that still showed beautifully at a recent vertical tasting hosted at the cellar.

After seven vintages on their own, Murray and his team decided to employ the services of Rolland in 2002 and a joint venture, Bonne Nouvelle, was created. Since then, the two main red blends – Estate and Bonne Nouvelle – were produced under the guidance of Rolland for the next five vintages.

The Estate wines are made from older vines, with more restrained and classic flavours, while the Bonne Nouvelle wines show richer and riper fruit and more oak character.

Vintage variation taken into consideration, the tasting of these blends from 2002 through to 2007 showcased just how tastes differ, with about half the room preferring the one and the other half preferring the other.

Chris and Rob Boustred.

A stand-out wine for many was the 2006 Estate – it had a good balance of dark berry and herbaceous flavours, as well as spices, with silky tannins on the palate. Incidentally, this was also the first vintage that saw the introduction of Shiraz to the blend, which until then, comprised combinations of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Pinotage.

Even though many changes and developments have taken place since 1995, the stylistic evolution is far from finished. The 2007 vintage was the last directly influenced by Rolland and in 2008, Murray’s son Chris took over the winemaking reigns, with brother Rob joining shortly after in the sales and marketing department.

Chris is now aiming to produce wines with tension; by using older oak and shortening the maceration time, he hopes to find a balance between the Estate and Bonne styles. “We appreciate everything that Michel has done for us – he is a great winemaker, taster and person,” Chris says.

“He guided us from the vineyard to the cellar, teaching us, for example, to open the canopy on the morning-sun side – this meant that we could pick earlier and get better tannins,” he says.

Chris’s brand new creation, the 2010 Sir Thomas Cullinan (R200), is still a work-in-progress, but showcases what this new and exciting generation at Remhoogte is all about. Made from 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, it has a good balance between flavours, with loads of tannins and good acidity. The wine is still very young and needs time to develop further, but it is definitely a keeper.

by Elona Hesseling

Germany is well-known for being an innovative nation, whether it is with regard to cars, architecture, science or machinery. Visiting this year’s Intervitis Interfructa in Stuttgart highlighted their advances in this regard – and I am not only referring to the nearby Porsche and Mercedes-Benz museums.

Clemens’ Rebholzzieher Kobold, which cleans and lifts vine shoots.

When it comes to the wine production chain, this year’s show had it all – from planting and wiring machines, irrigation equipment, pruners, harvesters, sprayers, cellar equipment, barrels, pumps and tanks, to screw caps, corks, bottles, labels and computer programming solutions. On top of the incredible variety on offer, most of these are also new developments produced using cutting-edge technology.

Pellenc SA’s Selectiv’ Process Winery destemmer and sorter.

It would be easy to write a book on every machine, cork, programme and barrel that I encountered, but by the time I finished there would surely be something more interesting and innovative. In order to highlight the cream of the crop, Intervitis Interfructa recognises those suppliers that excelled with innovation in their respective fields.

Seven medals (three gold and five silver) were awarded by the jury and the winners included two international companies and five German. Bucher Vaslin and Pellenc both received gold for their innovations in the processing and process control sector, with their two machines – the destemmer, Delta Oscillys, and destemmer and sorter, Selectiv’ Process Winery – respectively.

Among the five German winners, Meomix received the only gold medal, with a marketing solution for winegrowers on Facebook. Silver went to Clemens, in cooperation with Wagner, for their innovative technology used in the cleaning and lifting of vine shoots; Rink for a machine that makes the removal of sleeves much simpler; Nephele Idea for its management software for winegrowers. A special award was also presented to Anseros Klaus Nonnenmacher for its innovative cask steriliser.

A traditional Swabian dish, with meat rolled into a large ravioli noodle, served with herbs and egg.

This is, however, only the tip of the iceberg – look out for an in-depth article in the July magazine for more on square barrels, solar powered cover-crop cutters and carbon zero wine closures.

So when all things innovation are said and done, what does Germany, or more specifically Stuttgart, have to offer? Aside from beautiful old (and new) buildings, churches and even a palace or two, the best thing to do is take some time out to indulge in traditional Swabian food (especially pork with regional pasta named spätzle and maultaschen), home-brewed beer and locally produced wine.

by Elona Hesseling

As someone that really enjoys Riesling, the Mosel Valley in Germany has always been on my to-do list. Famous for its unique slatey soils, steep vineyards and pure fruit- and mineral-rich Rieslings, it is any wine lover’s dream destination.

A view of the Mosel in Bernkastel-Kues from a nearby Castle.

With the purpose of attending Intervitis Interfructa in Stuttgart later this month, I made sure to add a few wine-stops to my trip, including the Mosel, Rheingau and Rheinhessen.

At this moment I find myself in Dusseldorf, having spent yesterday traveling from Bernkastel-Kues by car (on the quite daunting Autobahn with no speed limit) and train. The quaint and beautiful little town of Bernkastel is situated on both sides of the twirling Mosel River and the tiny coble stone streets in the centre make way for vineyards growing on extremely steep slopes on the outskirts.

Some of the steep Riesling vineyards.

My only official visit of the day was to the world-renowned weingut (winery) of Dr Loosen, where we enjoyed a tutored tasting presented by event and sales manager, Michael Stahlmann.

Weingut Dr Loosen.

Together with a sommelier from Austria and his Ukrainian friends, we tasted more than 10 wines that were completely different in style, yet all made from Riesling. These varying styles depend on the type of soil (blue slate, red slate or volcanic), location along the river and other terroir-influencing factors, as well as the ripeness level at harvest.

After the tasting – and an almost 8km walk/climb to a nearby castle – it was about time for something to eat. And what better way to end off a day in the Mosel than with a chilled glass of Riesling and Flammkucken, while listening (but not understanding) to our fellow German diners and looking out onto the magical, meandering Mosel River.