A huge contingent of international international opinion-formers, mainly in the trade and media, will have plenty to remember and relish about the Cape winelands and its delectable products, liquid and otherwise. And plenty to ponder with regards to the country’s political evolution, which during that week reached a new level of intensity with a change in the country’s presidency.
On the wine scene, the peak of activities over three days at the end of September, centred around 300 wine producers/companies in the Cape Town International Convention Centre. This, with a dazzling accompanying programme of very popular wine-strategic seminars, excursions and entertainment throughout the winelands.
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Red, white and going green
Panel convenor Bruce Jack said going green will become the responsibility of every South African wine producer in three years time when the current self-auditing system of incorporating Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) principles will become a minimum standard for wine labelling. "As legislation goes forward, carbon calculators will be built into our labelling too," predicted Jack.
Michael Back of Backsberg said South Africa's wine industry has a long way to go to achieve carbon neutral status as a commercial imperative, but UK fruit buyers have already introduced carbon emission labelling, so wine emissions might not be far off. Backsberg's innovations include rejecting all heavyweight wine bottles and connecting to water 3 m below ground to cool tank temperatures so that refrigeration isn't required.
Jonathan Grieve said Avondale's 'bio-logic' innovations are concentrating sea solids (from sea water) as a food source to improve plant and soil character, and using plant sap metering (squeezing juice from the vine to take a reading) to measure vine health.
Viticulturist Michael Malherbe said Laibach is converting all their vineyards, with planned organic certification by 2010. The farm is re-using cellar wastewater for irrigation. Questioned about the viability of organic farming in areas where chemicals and pesticides are used, Malherbe said their neighbours have adopted their practice of using parasitic wasps to combat mealy bugs. Johan Reyneke says Reyneke's bio-dynamic vision has converted three of their neighbours to change practices, and he's fielding increased interest from the industry about their methods. Jack reported that Constellation Brands is introducing a 'vineyard to bottle' concept in 2009 on SA wines that will allow traceability on a huge scale of flora, fauna and farm staff.
- Kim Maxwell
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Nedbank Cape Wine was attended by some 1 300 members of the international wine trade and media and has reached such proportions that many exporters would probably start asking themselves if this event does not largely obviate the need to spend huge sums of money and time annually for a presence at international expo’s, of which the London International Wine & Spirits Fair is the most important. In a sense, the mountain has come to Mohammed ...
A direct result of Cape Wine’s significance on the calendar is that other major local wine events are also slotted in at this time, in order to capitalise on the influx of visitors. Many wineries are getting into the act with attractive smaller events to attract the VIP’s to their wineries across the winelands.
The event now finds itself sandwiched between the weekends of the Nederburg Auction (shifted from its usual Autumn slot) and the Cape Winemakers’ Guild Auction.
Seminars show potential and optimism
Speakers at the Cape Wine seminars took pains to point out to the mostly foreign audiences of wine buyers and media, that the political upheaval which was all over the news, had occurred without incident and was a reflection of the stability and growing maturity of South Africa’s democracy. And this probably most turbulent week in the country’s history post-1994 did not seem to unnerve the visitors or affect the mood of optimism prevailing.
Political and trends analyst JP Landman, addressing delegates drawn from every continent, during the opening seminar entitled, 2010 and Beyond, highlighted that 4.2 million jobs had been created in 13 years, poverty had been reduced and all indications were that by 2014, 20 years after the advent of democracy, 90% of South Africans would have access to housing, water, electricity and sanitation. Personal income has risen by 27% since 1994, and 2.6 million houses have been built for the poor.
Dennis Dykes, group chief economist of the sponsors, Nedbank, said a million jobs alone, has been created during the past four years. Wine has been a particularly important commodity in terms of South Africa’s export earnings.
These figures point to a huge potential for wine consumer growth on the domestic front.
Wosa CEO Su Birch believed it was possible for the country to increase the national vineyard from the present 102 000 hectares to 140 hectares within the next 10 years.
At a later seminar on the potential return on investment South Africa offered to foreigners participating in the local industry, Troy Christensen, president of Constellation Europe, said the peaceful change in leadership, and the country’s political and economic institutions boded well and could be considered encouraging signs.
He believed South Africa as a wine category in export markets was underdeveloped and thus offered huge potential. The Constellation Group, the world’s largest producer of wines, had acquired Kumala, South Africa’s biggest export brand, in 2006.
Grant Dodd, an Australian representing Haskell Vineyards in Stellenbosch’s Golden Triangle, believed South Africa offered opportunities for producers in the face of climate change. While Stellenbosch, for example, was expected to show an average 0,8ºC increase in temperature over the next 50 years, temperatures in the Barossa Valley, Australia, were projected to rise by 2,2ºC during this period.
He said there was still land available to establish new vineyards and that growing innovation in viticulture and production made South Africa an attractive proposition.
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A huge contingent of international opinion-formers, mainly in the trade and media, will have plenty to remember and relish about the Cape winelands and its delectable products, liquid and otherwise.
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However, he drew attention to the weaknesses of a volatile currency, the “ethnicised and polysyllabic names” given to many local wines that acted as an impediment to consumer engagement and the inflexibility of some regulations that made it difficult to innovate in the market. He also believed more needed to be done generically to market South African wine quality and that producers should make a concerted effort to replant virused vineyards. He cautioned against building market share by discounting.
Wine industry commentator Michael Fridjhon, who chaired the discussion on Return on Investment, said thus far there had been a massive underinvestment in Brand South Africa, which had seen producers taking advantage of a weak currency to trade on price, as opposed to building a positive image of the country and its winemaking attributes which would allow it operate in less price-sensitive areas of the market. He said a “currency paradox” meant that producers, who had premised their business models on a weak Rand, would find it difficult to survive should the currency strengthen.
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Cutting edge terroir - wines from new areas
South Africa's Wine of Origin Scheme allows producers to plant what they like, wherever they like, explained convenor Duimpie Bayly. As Google Earth zoomed in on some of the 63 wards, seven wines demonstrated terroir-distinctive flavour profiles.
Morné Jonker's Goose Wines Sauvignon Blanc 2008 from the Klein Karoo's Upper Langkloof ward showed "high altitude" terrain, the Outeniqua range dividing the farm from the coast and "very late phenolic ripeness" (end of March), and 1 000 mm rainfall differences between this farm and neighbours 3km away.
Thys Louw's Sir Lambert Sauvignon Blanc 2008, WO Lambert's Bay, on the West Coast was from vineyards 330 km north of Cape Town and 3 km from the ocean in the "Potato Capital of SA".
Duncan Savage punted varieties suited to the area – Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc – at Cape Point Vineyards. Virgin Earth High 5, 2005, from Kobus du Plessis, introduced a "red blend of everything we've planted" from the new Langeberg-Garcia ward, 300 km east of Cape Town. Willie de Waal emphasised granitic soils from Paarl's Voor-Perdeberg ward in Scali Syrah 2004, while David Nieuwoudt punted "South Africa's highest vineyards with resulting disease-free vines" in Teen die Hoog Shiraz 2005 from the Cederberg. Luddite Shiraz 2006 was Niels Verburg's first wine from dryland Bot River fruit, a newly proclaimed ward with valley slopes.
Louw said economic realities mean pricey land in established areas such as Stellenbosch had driven pioneering producers to experiment in cheaper areas such as Lambert's Bay, Elim or the Klein Karoo, yet it's these areas now attracting interest. Jonker said bigger producers would move in – many are already buying fruit. Overseas journalists queried whether it matters to consumers if a South African wine is from Bot River or the Hemel en Aarde Valley.
Bayly argued that educated wine consumers enjoy knowing about a wine's place of origin. Jonker said Dutch consumers are hungry for differences and enjoy SA attempts at showing "unique pockets of excellence".
- Kim Maxwell
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Emerging Trends – adventurous blending
A the seminar billed as Emerging Trends, it became apparent that South African winemakers have acquired a new spirit of confidence and courage to work and experiment with adventurous wine blending that would have been frowned upon a decade ago. In the process a new generation of complex and individualistic wines has come to the fore – simultaneous with a whole new “naming” or branding culture.
Eight of the 11 wines tasted were blends, namely:
• Strandveld 2007 (Sauvignon Blanc/Sémillon)
• De Grendel Winifred 2007 (Chardonnay/Viognier/Sémillon)
• Lammershoek Roulette Blanc 2007 (Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay/Viognier)
• Vondeling Babiana 2006 (Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay/Viognier)
• Waterford Mediterranean Blend (Syrah/Mourvèdre/Petit Verdot/Barbera)
• Ken Forrester Gypsy 2005 (Shiraz/Grenache)
• Fairview Caldera 2007 (Shiraz/Grenache/Mourvèdre)
• Idiom SMV 2006 (Shiraz/Mourvèdre/Viognier)
The other three tasted were examples of new trends with sweet or dessert wines, namely Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest 2007 (Weisser Riesling - 375 ml), Graham Beck Rhona White Muscadel 2004 (500 ml) and Monis Vintage Muscadel 2000, a wooded Muscadel in an elegant 500 ml packaging. All these are clear bottles showing the beautiful colour of the contents.
Well, these weird and wonderful new styles and names are but the tip of the iceberg. The new spectrum of blended products – with cross-area and cross-vintage blending often included – ads a whole new world of wine discovery to treasure chest of the well-established more conventional blends and cultivar wines.
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Cape Kontrei Cuisine extravaganza!
The week's intensive programme kicked off on a festive note with the visitors being entertained to a spectacular spread of regional and fusion dishes, matched with the best local wines. This happened at Groot Constantia Estate, the cradle of the wine industry, where 20 of the Cape's finest chefs presented their creations to the background of local jazz rhythms
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