Around the Cape in 50 wines

Cape Town, South Africa

Take Godello to a place that’s far away and it will fill him with words. With memories still thick as Bredasdorp pea soup, it is hard to believe it has already been four months since travelling to South Africa in September for Cape Wine 2015. I think it wise for the reader to be offered fair warning. The following wayfaring log is not brief and while it may be broken up with images of food, bottle shots and scenery, there are five thousand plus words to wade through. Feel free to skim at your wine tasting note leisure.

For a comprehensive look at South Africa’s Capelands, read my report at WineAlign.

Table Mountain behind the clouds, Cape Town

It has been four months since Cape Wine 2015 and many wines remain to be mentioned. My initial ramblings covered the three-day wine fair, varietal awakenings, Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa (PIWOSA), the Swartland Independents and the Zoo Biscuits.

Lemon butter poached crayfish tail, kale, parsnip puree and bisque, Open Door, Constantia

I tasted hundreds over three days at the bi-annual Cape Town event, along with dozens more in restaurants and at wineries in Stellenbosch, Swartland, Franschhoek and Constantia. One of the more memorable culinary experiences happened at Open Door Restaurant located at Uitsig Wine Estate in Constantia. The wine selection opened doors to new Cape perceptions and forward-thinking measures.

Springbok loin, orange sweet potato, lentils, pickled cucumber, cranberry jus, Open Door, Constantia

A visit to the Franschhoek Motor Museum at the Anthonij Rupert Wyne Estate rolled into a tasting of wines with Gareth Robertson, Sales and Marketing Manager at Anthonij Rupert Wines. Verticals were poured; Cape of Good Hope, Leopard’s Leap, La Motte and Optima L’Ormarins. Then the varietals of Anthonij Rupert Estate.

Hitching a ride on the Anthonij Rupert Estate

A full on Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa (PIWOSA) experience at the Car Wine Boot was nothing short of a wine-soaked, large object flinging hoedown throw down.

Wine Car Boot, Journey’s End Vineyards

The act of intense immersion into any important wine-producing nation and its diverse regional expressions can only leave a lasting impression if the follow-up takes a long, cool sip of its meaning. Though just the beginning of what I hope to be a life-lasting fascination with South African wine, these 50 reviews prepare and pave the way.

Beaumont Family Wines Hope Marguerite 2013, Bot River-Walker Bay, South Africa (Winery, WineAlign)

Named after winemaker Sebastian Beaumont’s grandmother, Hope Marguerite Beaumont. Thirty-five (400L) barrels of Chenin Blanc from 1975 and 1978 plantings anointed by natural fermentation and maturation. Reductive, malo-avoidant and lees stirred for 10 months to dess effect. Acidity swallows and trumps sugar while bitters, well, these bitters don’t even realize they are bitters. Possessive of that torched orange peel, lime skin and hinting at something faintly tropical. Many shades of Chenin Blanc within one tight-knit bottle. A benchmark of species. Drink 2015-2022. Tasted September 2015 @Beauwine

Paul Cluver Riesling Dry Encounter 2013, Elgin, South Africa (Winery, $23.99, WineAlign )

Riesling from South Africa’s largest and nascent varietal growers, one of three Cluver bears and wholly antithetical to the “Close Encounter’ simply and primarily because of its omnipresent aridity in the face of 9.0 g/L of residual sugar. Based on fruit from a variegated 27 year-old block of ferricrete (surficial sand and gravel masses) layered over decomposed Bokkeveld Shale and/or light clay. From a basin, a true amphitheatre between the mountains. The dry one shows off the cooler climate charity, offering up the opportunity to make Riesling the way it needs to be. Floats boats of blossoms piled in apples, honey and native fynbos. Elevated in nervousness, tension and anxiety through the conduit of acidity. This guy is the tip of the spear that pierces the palate. Though dry to that pointed end it is the primitive passion of grape tannin that churns the combine. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @paulcluverwines @PIWOSA @paulcluver

Paul Cluver Gewürztraminer 2015, Elgin, South Africa (Winery )

If Riesling is a South African anomaly, the nine hectares planted to Gewürztraminer on the Cluver estate is at least preternatural if not verging on antediluvian. The throwback approach to varietal expression takes on the do anything in South Africa mandate and runs with it. A tightly wound white, like Riesling driven by acidity, inconsequential in sugar (10.2 g/L) and rushing with rivers of grape tannin. Lime is again the thing in a world where sweetness finds it hard to live. Anything but soapy, less than sticky and so very clean. Purity out of Elgin in Gewürztraminer. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Cape of Good Hope Riebeeksrivier White 2013, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

From the stable of Anthonij Rupert Wines, a blend based on Chenin Blanc (65 per cent) with Rhône assistance from Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier. Similar in a way to the old vines Chenin in its purest form in a clean amalgamation of weighty varietal relations. Naturally driven acidity and an increase in creamy texture is accompanied by lactic notes and a greener, sharp apple bite. A wow reversal of impression with an anise under current and a toasty, nutty omnipresence. Quite fine. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @AnthonijRupert

Rall Wines Red Coastal Region 2013, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Superior Syrah spine (85 per cent) with a 2014 Grenache (15 per cent) addendum. Healthy and happy in alcohol (14 per cent) from Swartland schist to cure what troubles and saps. Liquorice, easy tannin and illimitable fruit (for a two to five-year run) from the gifts of a terrific vintage. Open-knit, expressly serviceable with a not overly piquant, peppery finish. Tobacco moment is just a pinch between the cheek and gums. Easy on the extraction and 50 per cent stainless housing for nothing but Swartland fruit with some added stems for the perception os sheer freshness. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @SwartlandRev

David and Nadia Paardebosch Chenin Blanc 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

A blend of 1960’s, 1970’s and early 1980’s, mainly dry-farmed bush vine Chenin Blanc vineyards throughout the Swartland. Sweet textured Chenin with endemic herbiage and territorial tang. Varietal identity is never an issue for South Africa’s signature white but how does definition out of disparate plots come together? For the Sadies “the meaning always lies somewhere that’s right between the lines.” Connotation and significance in what’s left behind. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @DavidandNadia @SwartlandRev

David and Nadia Aristargos 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

David and Nadia Wines

A bush vines dominant, 12 vineyard, five-varietal interface of Chenin Blanc (35 per cent), Roussanne (25), Clairette Blanche (20), Viognier (15) and Sémillon (5). The latter (not inconsequential) addition is from a 1950’s planted vineyard. Round and round aromatics integrate Swartland harmonies in transition to palate promptitude of spry lemon and lime. Emits that fleshing four to five-year pursuit to honeyed possibility, in which the Sémillon is not lost on that ideal. We should all be willing to wait that long though not be greedy for anything more. Drink 2017-2019. Tasted September 2015

David and Nadia Grenache 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

A riveting (85 per cent) Grenache honed from two vineyards planted in granite mountain soils, mixed and matched with (15 per cent) fruit off of organic vines grown in deep iron rich soils. A scintillant of reductive freshness gets busy with chalk ou of ferric soil in romantic and heavy breathing passion. Though nearly carbonic, atomic and more exhalant than inhalant, the freshness is always halted by a weight in denouement. The obdurate cessation is helped along by 10 to 11 months in oak. Very thoughtful, engaging and consummated Grenache from the Sadies. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted September 2015

Godello and Billy Hughes at Cape Wine 2015

Hughes Family Wines Nativo White 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Certified organic from the Kasteelsig Vineyards on the Hughes Family farm in Malmesbury. The blend is high in Viognier with Chenin Blanc, Roussanne and Grenache Blanc. Picked at three separate intervals, the bifurcate prongs of sugar, acidity and alcohol are remarkably streamlined towards an upwards push skyward. A very base and elemental white wine that hovers in the lower reaches of the stratosphere, wanting to rise but held secure by the heartstrings of older oak filaments. This is fresh and yet filled out by a density defined in Swartland ways. An appellative white blend with my thoughts of Cape Town’s Chef’s Warehouse crudo in mind. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @NativoWines

Crudo and Kimchi #tuna #kingclip #chefswarehouse #cape town

Hughes Family Wines Nativo Red 2009, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Certified organic from natural, dry-farmed estate Kasteelsig Vineyards on the Hughes Family farm in Malmesbury. The blend is Shiraz (56 per cent), Grenache (16), Merlot (13), Mourvedre (9) and Pinotage (6). Swartland’s local master of assemblage Billy Hughes (the J-L Groux of South Africa if you like) counselled separate and all natural fermentations, barrel malolactic, eight months in 225L barriques (none new) plus four more post blending. The core aroma to palate thematic is ingratiated by a grape in raisin initiation stage, habituating the right side of ripe. This is a soft-styled Swartland red having fully realized its progressive road to enrichment. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015

Hughes Family Wines Nativo Red 2010, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

As in 2009, certified organic from natural, dry-farmed estate Kasteelsig Vineyards on the Hughes Family farm in Malmesbury. The blend is Syrah (52 per cent), Mourvedre (22), Grenache (13) and Pinotage (13). Fresher, lighter even than 2009, floral, feathery, feminine. Through the pretty dab of perfume there is the presence of clay, iron and a feeling of warm Cassis. The red fruit while anything but dark has a presence, an attitude, an unfailing condition. Will live longer than the previous vintage. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015

Wildehurst Velo White 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Juicy Colombard, Chenin Blanc and Viognier in cohorts simply, basically and ostensibly about town for texture. Beautiful freshness, grace and grape tannin. The juice and nothing but the juice. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015 @WildehurstW @ShereeNothnagel @SwartlandRev

Wildehurst Velo Rosé 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

A multi-cultivar and double-hued blush by way of Grenache, Viognier, Mourvèdre, Colombard and Chenin Blanc. Really widens the fresh fruit spectrum, in manifold customary shades of red. From a hot vintage where sugars ran higher than 2013 yet still just about as dry as a skeleton way past tissue. Despite all attempts, the brine and herbiage outplay the salinity and aridity. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015

Wildehurst Chenin Blanc 2012, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

The only straight up cultivar in Sheree Nothnagel’s portfolio from 30 year-old bush vines. Arranged low, natural and slow across a two month fermentation period in 3rd fill (225L) barrels towards a dry end. Matured on the lees for a further five months. Handy, prosaic and unostentatious Chenin Blanc of texture and mouthfeel. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Silwervis Cinsault 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

First introduced at the inaugural Swartland Revolution, winemaker Ryan Mostert is a key player in the South African Cinsault revival. His naturally exhibited (with only added sulphur) old-vine Swartland Cinsault was matured in one Nomblot concrete egg. His is the Allman Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Deerhunter rolled into one varietal ode “to the malleability and uniqueness of Swartland.”

One of hundreds of wines tasted over an eight-day period in requiem to exclaim, “I am saved, I am saved. And oh, would you believe it?” So fresh, salty, ultra-carbonic, russet roseate raspberry and orange peel. It really feels real, unlike anywhere else. The varietal and the reformation. “We’re in a revolution. Don’t you know we’re right. People can you feel it? Love is everywhere.” Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @Silwervis @SwartlandRev @PascalSchildt

Terra Cura 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Silwervis winemaker Ryan Mostert is behind the new Terra Cura label with Samantha Suddons. From just outside of Malmesbury in the Western Cape. This cracker of a bottle is one hundred per cent Syrah from rolling hills rocking down to the sea. Ferric, burrowing into depths, rooted and heavy. Structured, chunky savoury, of wild sauvage, from a fierce and filthy athletic vintage. Reeks of potpourri, ambition and is yet remarkably ready to drink. A messenger to herald a land of opportunity, a revolution, the future. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @Terra_Cura

Johan Simons, Dragonridge Wines

Dragonridge Wines Supernova Ancestral 2014, Paardeberg, South Africa (Winery)

Chenin Blanc works with Sangiovese and with Pinotage to lead this ancestral method sparkling blend. From Joubertskloof’s Fynbos Estate, this fizz is really nothing like Méthode Cap Classique in that it adds nothing to the fermentation in the bottle, relying only on its own sugars and wild yeasts. When it does not explode it goes this way, so, so natural, all in. Winemaker Johan Simons happily sees it persist through the problem. “We do it because we can, and we want to.” From two blocks planted in 1964 and 1990 with a section going back to 1920. Picked on the 19th of January and from a ferment that finished two months early. These very old, unirrigated bush vines offer up lemon funky, low pH fruit. Goes straight to the roof of the mouth with rising, unassertive flavours. The question begs, is this an oasis of South African fizz or a desert where ancient longings go to die. The answer lies “caught beneath the landslide in a champagne supernova.” We’ll see about that. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @FynbosEstate

Dragonridge Wines Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, Paardeberg, South Africa (Winery)

No wood. From five barrels of naturally thick, free-run only juiced, patchy, basket pressed elixir. This is simply brilliant, drink the hell out of it until it’s gone Cabernet Sauvignon. Forget the barrel. Bring it on. Drink 2015-2016. Tasted September 2015

Elementis Skin Contact Chenin Blanc 2014

Intellego Wines Chenin Blanc ‘Elementis’ 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

A private label by Lammershoek’s Jürgen Gouws, from two 40 year-old bush vines parcels. A direct, right at you, citrus and dry-farmed tang Chenin simultaneously pretty and bitter. Three weeks of skin contact detour to grapefruit and guava with a level of great elegance in its laundry soaking up dirty water. Cloudy and slightly dangerous, Basque cider like and built by the bare necessities of salinity and trim, briny orange elements. As snake-driven a purposed accumulation as found anywhere in South Africa. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015 @jurgengouws

Intellego Wines Syrah Kolbroek 2013, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Same natural fermentation as the Chenin in this single-vineyard, 100 per cent Syrah. Comes up firing after time spent on its skins, soaking up and in its own tannic juices. Fresh if tight for elegance in Syrah. Refined bitters adhere to the supreme purpose which is an expression of spritely, red energy. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Black Oystercatcher Triton 2013

Black Oystercatcher Triton 2013, Elim, South Africa (Winery)

From owner & winemaker Dirk Human at Cape Agulhas, this is highly modern and refined Shiraz major (86 per cent) with minor Cabernet Sauvignon (12) and Cabernet Franc (2). Stylish without a whack of new oak, with independent varietal fermentation, maturation and ageing for 12 months. In a multiple choice Shiraz world of spicy, piquant, snappy and sharp the fill is all of the above. The present day South African cliché encompassing fresh, tight and elegant reds comes ’round again though here you can add cool-climate (southernmost tip of Africa) feel to the mix. What comes from the wood is in the finish, over charcoal and brushed by tar. Should show best in 2018. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted September 2015 @BOC_Wines

Francois Haasbroek, Blackwater Wines

Blackwater Wines Underdog Chenin Blanc (MMXIV) 2014, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery)

A mere 5500 bottles from winemaker Francois Haasbroek, a balanced tannin, alcohol (13.3 per cent), acidity (5.8 TA) and sugar Chenin, culled from high slope, (46 year) old bush vineyards of Bottelary Hills. Concrete tank housed ferments and aged on the fine lees for six months. Texture drives the green apple machine, fuelled by salinity and faux candy bursts. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted September 2015 @Blackwaterwine @ZooBiscuitsWine

Blackwater Wines Blanc (MMXIV) 2014, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery)

Chenin Blanc 80 (per cent), Sémillon (15) and Bourboulenc from vineyards in Durbanville and Ashton. The Chenin was skin fermented for 7 days and then blended with 2013 Sémillon (equipped with 12 months of texture gained on the lees) and what Haasbroek quips was a “smidge” of Bourboulenc. The 1200 bottle blend saw further time (16 months) in old (225L) barrels. Possessive of apples glazed in lemon polish, terrific, granitic grain in tannin and Deiss-esque Pinot d’Alsace surrealism. Drink 2016-2021. Tasted September 2015

Blackwater Wines Cultellus Syrah (MMXII) 2012, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Schist Syrah in its entirety, mineral warm and tempered, moderately spiked by its alcohol (13.7 per cent) and five-plus year controlled acidity (5.6 TA). Blackwater’s steep block of Riebeek Kasteel vineyards offers up fruit begging to left alone. Haasbroek consented to four weeks of contact on the skins, followed by nothing more indulgent then a drain & whole-bunch press into eight to ten year-old (600L) barrels. Twenty-six months later, sans filter, nary a fining and voila. Syrah in fancy-free finesse, smoky elegance, Swartland schist, sour cherry and more schisty ferric earth. Dynamic though never in danger of inflammation, inflammatory or flaming behaviour. In the end, the sweetness is impossible. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted September 2015

Blackwater Wines Noir (MMXII) 2012, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

The largest output in the Blackwater portfolio with a whopping 6000 bottles. A multi-site Swartland Syrah (92 per cent), 10-15 per cent whole bunch fermented and then blended with Carignan and Grenache after a year of ageing. This follwed by an additional 12-14 months in old 500-600L barrels. Deep and meaty, but like modern Nebbiolo, of finesse in the clarity of its recesses. Marked by gnashing tannin and grippy structure. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted September 2015

Blackwater Wines Omerta (MMXIV) 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

It begins with a shush, this “code of silence,” although it has nothing to do with “criminal activity” and yet its aromatic sweetness should be illegal. Caring proposed in 100 per cent terms, off of 28 year-old Swartland bush vines, fully entrenched in the revolution and the revival, while in “refusal to give evidence to authorities.” The single vineyard, predominantly granite soils are the source of amazing purity and acidity as if by wrote. Healthy (30 per cent) whole bunch fermentation and a 25 day linger on the skins imparts more tannic by-product nectar. The older 500L barrels for 16 months makes for a dusty, carefully curated cure. When it comes to thinking about drinking this Omerta, “Old black water, keep on rollin’…I ain’t got no worries, ’cause I ain’t in no hurry at all.” Drink 2018-2022. Tasted September 2015

Savage Wines White 2014, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery)

In which Sauvignon Blanc (70 per cent) and Sémillon (30) keep good vibes, smile and celebrate a pure purée of progressive white tannin. This is the last of the straightforward Bordeaux Savage Mohicans with subsequent vintages adding more varietal diversification. Duncan Savage sees the future replete with appellative blends as per a Western Cape necessity, free from the posit tug of French heartstrings. This last kick at the Left Bank can is bright, pure and composed to reflect sunshine and stone. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @ZooBiscuitsWine

Savage Wines Red 2014, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery, WineAlign)

Essentially Western Cape fruit with a dab of Darling in a blend that emits polished Syrah (67 per cent) with naturally supportive Cinsault (12), Grenache (9) and Touriga Nacional (9). Duncan Savage procured 3500 bottles to market of this ranger, a red thinking cool Rhône thoughts and rooted firmly on the median line between his single-vineyard Syrah and the precocious Follow the Line. Will increase in complexity when Syrah gives away some floor time to the other grapes. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Savage Wines Syrah 2014, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery)

Perhaps the most personal of Duncan Savage’s wines, even more than the Farmhouse draw in his red blend Follow the Line. This SV Syrah is the home block, the place where he lives. His blends are a pure blur while this Syrah offers up a not too distant future filled with early life appreciation, graceful necessities and gifting niceties. It just hints at this now and subsequent wines will sing. Let this one and what’s left of the other 599 bottles produced sit for a year, to smooth out harsh bits and to integrate the Cape funk and Syrah cure. “Oh, it’s like an animal farm, but you’ll come to no harm in the country.” Drink 2016-2020. Tasted September 2015

Momento Wines Chenin Blanc-Verdelho 2014, Bot River, South Africa (Winery)

The Chenin Blanc (85 per cent) grows in old vineyards from Bot River and Darling and together with 11 year-old Bot River Verdelho (15) they reside in Bokkeveld shale, with portions of sand and clay. Five (400L old) French barrels carried natural Chenin ferments with some fine lees. Stainless tanks and older oak housed the riper Verdelho which joined the Chenin just before bottling. Winemaker Marelise Niemann was able to produce a healthy yet manageable quantity (200 cases) of a blend directed to deferential texture. This from a cloudy ferment once clarified turned to secondary, mineral flavours. The early pick and moderate (12.5 per cent) alcohol gained on bacteria and made for pure white fusion. The orchards are spoken for, from pit, through seed and back to pit. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @momentowines @ZooBiscuitsWine

Marelise Niemann, Momento Wines

Momento Wines Grenache 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

From porous, sandy soil, Grenache loving dryland (10 year-old) bush vines, for the time being at least, until the Bot River vines mature. A smaller (one half) production than the white raised in open fermenters, one-third punched down and only old barrels used. So opposite in feel to the Bokkeveld shale, regardless of the grape hue, bringing a foxy, natural cure to Grenache. Direct, tight and autotelic fresh, crunchy and popping. Unalloyed red fruit, hidden citrus and a racy finish. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Botanica Wines Chenin Blanc and Chenin Blanc Untitled #1 2014

Botanica Wines Chenin Blanc 2014, Citrusdal Mountain, South Africa (Winery)

Winemaker Ginny Povall draws fruit made on the Stellenbosch farm from 55 year-old vines set in a 1600m high dry-farmed vineyard. The location is the rugged Skurfberg slopes in the mountains of Clanwilliam, 40 kilometres from the sea. These vines are low yielding, producing a scant 2.5 tons per hectare and picked early. Half of the just on the lee side of ripe fruit is barrel fermented and matured in 400L French oak and spends nine months on the gross lees. Juicy, bright, full on citrus, striking and crackling Chenin. Wood adds some weight and oh, the Rooibos. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @ginnypovall

Botanica Wines Chenin Blanc Untitled #1 2014, Citrusdal Mountain, South Africa (Winery)

The approach is small batch, from lower Skurfberg altitude, chosen out of a specifically identified parcel and intentionally managed with 100 per cent (20 new) oak intervention. Lower alcohol, higher reduction and an ulterior, gemstone mineral manifestation. On one hand the Chardonnay like approach causes a perplexing feeling and on the other, a sense of wonder. The tropical abutment and real-time citrus symbiosis carries the weight and then the Rooibos, again. Occupies high ranks in the wooded Chenin outpost territory. Drink 2015-2022. Tasted September 2015

The Tea Leaf Chenin Blanc 2014, Piekenierskloof, South Africa (Winery)

Made by Donovan Rall for Boutinot in the anti-Western Cape unicorn region Piekenierskloof, from where Chenin Blanc seems to have risen to sudden and darling prominence. The 70 year-old vineyards are at 750m, which is not nothing and the fruit is cropped from 40 year-old vines. All natural fermentation is the modus in this fuller, deeper, mineral completed Chenin that runs the gamut from creamy to bitters. And unfermented redbush, Aspalathus linearis. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @BoutinotWines

Boekenhoutskloof Sémillon 2004, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

If anything, Marc Kent’s decade and a year Sémillon has travelled down a long road to a very quiet place. That retirement home is filled with honey and dates, all gathered up nicely in tangy, gift wrapping acidity. The orchard fruits are gone and the truth no longer lies in the second half of the bottle. It speaks with early clarity. Time to drink up, sipping slowly, with the “sun going down, blood orange, behind the Simonsberg.” Drink 2015-2016. Tasted September 2015 @UNIVINS

Steenberg Nebbiolo 2013, Constantia, South Africa (Winery)

Another achievement in what can be cultivated, nurtured and brought to fruition with great success in South Africa. A ringer for Serralunga from Nebbiolo treated to 60 per cent second and 40 per cent third fill 225L French oak barrels for 14 months. Roses meet tar, tea, red citrus and bright, vital flavours. The life affirming and balanced qualities of Nebbiolo in the cooler, temperate and Mediterranean-mimicked Constantia climate will bring longevity to this wine. Should flesh out, settle and sing in three to five years. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted September 2015 @SteenbergWines @ConstantiaWines

Allesverloren Tinto Barocca 2013, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Dating back to 1704, Allesverloren is situated on the south-eastern slopes of the Kasteelberg near Riebeek West, is the oldest estate in the Swartland Wine of Origin district. “The Naked Winemaker” Danie Malan farms dryland, trellised vineyards, situated 140m above sea level and facing south-east, were planted between 1958 and 1996. Here exemplary bread basket viticulture with a perfectly habituated expatriate Portuguese grape, rich in warmth, tannin and texture after having been aged in second and third French oak for eight months. The hematic push is elevated, as per the Swartland soil give, so the brooding capitulation is both deep and vaulted. High pH mixed with upwards and capped acidity ensures brightness, to speak the correct dialect and fanciful expression. Finishes with style. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @AllesverlorenSA

Innemend teenage Cabernet @Uitkykwines

Uitkyk Cabernet Sauvignon 2000, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery)

From north-west facing vines planted in 1989 to 1993 in soils rich in decomposed granite at 300 meters above sea level. Aging was completed for 18 months in 300L French oak barrels of which 53 per cent were new, (35) second and (12) third fill. I begin with “Hello? Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?” The answer is very much yes. At 15 years of age the Uitkyk is a treat in the latter stages of a comfortably numb dream. Deep pink, raspberry dusty, funky of triturated earth and ground stone. Still much aridity and acidity hanging on for dear life. Seems to drone on with mostly rising breaths and strings in oscillation. A remarkable older drop. Drink 2015-2016. Tasted September 2015 @uitkykwinemaker

Grangehurst Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 1995, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery)

Quite the treat to see this pouring at the older wines, help yourself tasting session at Cape Wine 2015. It was from what is widely considered Stellenbosch’s vintage of that decade and 20 years is not nothing for Paulliac let alone Stellenbosch. Grangehurst has made this wine in every vintage save for one, since 1992. What a remarkable old drop from winemaker Jeremy Walker, alive and kicking, as if by any means necessary. This from a guy who was quoted as saying “the more you surf during the harvest season, the better the wines.” His 1995 is replete with notes of cedar, thyme, coercing currants and really grand minerality. Has survived with acidity and tannin intact, stretching, yet persistent and working with what had to have been a harvest of such perfect fruit. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015 @grangehurst

Tamboerskloof Viognier 2015 and Shiraz Rosé Katharien 2015

Kleinood Farm Tamboerskloof Viognier 2015, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign )

From Tukulu and Kroonstad, augmented with nine or 10 percent Roussanne. Some barrel aging (nothing new, mostly 4th fill French 300L) plus a final 30-60 days in concrete eggs. Beautifully restrained, classically styled and tempered Viognier. The respectable alcohol (12.9 per cent), piqueing acid (6.0 g/l), low pH (3.22) and necessary residual sugar (4.4 g/l) are the specs of attentive and pinpoint winemaking. The result is remarkable freshness and purity with a bit of stuffing. Picked on the model of “flavour faith,” the softness “just dropped in to see what condition” the grip’s “condition was in. It was with cool fleshy fruit against a backdrop of warm, tropical flowers. Chic, first edition Viognier. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @Tamboerskloof

Kleinood Farm Tamboerskloof Shiraz 2011, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign )

The blocks are Tukulu/Kroonstad/Klapmuts/Witfontein and vines at 12 years of age. Five per cent Mourvèdre and a couple of points Viognier clean and lift the Shiraz while 10-12 days of skin contact roll out the red carpet of elixir vitae. Imagine the possibilities if Gunter Shultz had opted for 24-30. The engineering in l’élevage pays heed to 18-20 months in 300 and 500L French oak barrels, 15 per cent new, (20) second, (25) third, (20) fourth (20) fifth fill. A further 18 months in bottle delayed the patient and philosophic release. Shiraz rarely gains a compatibility like this. Big to elegant, brawn to finesse. The purity is only overshadowed by the youth. Five years are needed to reverse the ratios of cosanguinity. The Tamboersklook is a prime Stellenbosch example of thoughtful winemaking taking full advantage of technology and techniques firmly entrenched in the progressive and the forward thinking. Drink 2019-2026. Tasted September 2015

Big wines. Bigger, balanced finesse @Tamboerskloof @CapeWine2015 @WOSA_ZA #upperblaauwklippenvintners

Kleinood Farm Tamboerskloof Shiraz 2012, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign )

It’s quite amazing to see a wine made in virtually the exact same way as the forbearing 2011 turn out to be so different. The only noticeable adjustment is the few points increase in Shiraz but the approachability and accessibility factor is manifest tenfold. Lush fruit, plush texture and tannins sweeter yet still firmly structured lead this down a much friendlier road. For winemaker Gunter Shultz this could be the result of exceptional planning or just dumb luck. Does it matter? The fact that this can be enjoyed in just two years time while the 2011 broods and sulks means that four years on you could switch back and forth for maximum mini-horizontal enjoyment. Drink 2017-2027. Tasted September 2015

Kleinhood Farm Tamboerskloof Shiraz Rosé Katharien 2015, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent WineAlign )

Fundamentally bone-dry Rosé first picked at 20 brix and then at 24, so very lightly pressed and then finished at 13 per cent alcohol. Mostly stainless steel in ferment with some time in “odds and ends” of French oak barrels. A dry and dusty blush with Shiraz that goes straight to strawberry and candied fruits. The simple pleasures found. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015

Kleinood Farm Tamboerskloof Shiraz John Spicer 2010, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Single-vineyard (Tukulu block), 100 per cent Shiraz from 20 months in 300L French oak, split between 25 per cent first, (20) second and the remainder third fill. As a comparison with the ’11 and ’12 (less than 100 per cent) Shiraz this is the one with the “devil’s grip, the iron fist.” Follow up to the maiden voyage, the motorhead 2010 broods under a moonless sky, a dark night and a wine with which you “walk in circle lose your track, can’t go on but you can’t go back.” Like the song, this is one of those wines you can actually lose weight while sipping. So hard to tame this ferric, oozing beast but the far eastern, temperate, somewhat fertile savour, from mint, eucalyptus and clove is nothing if not intriguing. Built from north facing, Clone SH470 Shiraz vines of cool acceptance, there also invades a Mediterranean brush of garrigue and délicasse. Enough finesse in its largesse causes pause for thought, that like any contemporary sound, smell or taste it often just takes getting used to. With time the immensity and reverberation settles and immunity sets in. A newer, larger expression will take centre stage and the old bark won’t seem so loud. John Spicer 2010 will seem like a ballad some day. Drink 2020-2030. Tasted September 2015

Alheit Vineyards Flotsam & Jetsam Cinsault 2015, Darling, South Africa (Winery)

Coined the Boetie Van Reenan Darling Cinsualt from dry-farmed fruit in a tertiary-carbonic, whole bunch stomped, gassed and left t0 reach one-third of the total ferment state. A short stay in old, left for naught oak barrels. The result is a wine the world knows not from or how. The resolution is where South Africa is heading, into fine, pure, fresh berry tonic territory. The clarity of the language is downright biblical. The elements are base and instructional, of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, sulphur and a few other unnamed elements. Their accrued spirit is not one of sophistication but they succinctly prepare us for a path to civil and ceremonial wine consuming law. This my friends is a Monday to Friday breakfast wine. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @ChrisAlheit @ZooBiscuitsWine

Maps & Legends, from Cartology to Flotsam & Jetsam @ChrisAlheit @ZooBiscuitsWine #alheitvineyards #hermanus #capewine2015

Alheit Vineyards Cartology Chenin Blanc-Sémillon 2014, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

An exploratory cuvée of recherché to examine the diversity of mature dryland bushvines out of vineyards dotting the Western Cape. Eighty year-old Sémillon from Franschhoek is the catalyst to complement and ramble with heritage (30-40 year old) Chenin Blanc grown in Skurfberg, Perdeberg, Bottelary Hills and Kasteelberg. A natural fermentation is performed to imitate a cold night in the vineyard. The wine is a map with the compass to lead you back to the vineyards, to taste the grapes in their naked states. The South African version of atticism and rhythm in Cartology is utterly Western Cape and nothing else tastes just like this. It bleeds lime and stone with subterranean salinity trailing all the way. Criterion Chenin Blanc and paradigmatic Sémillon. Drink 2015-2022. Tasted September 2015

The wines of Diemersdal

Diemersdal Grüner Veltliner 2015, Durbanville, South Africa (Winery)

From a vineyard planted in 2009 of Scali and Hutton soil and South-West facing slopes. This third vintage of 12,000 bottles was 50 per cent fermented with “X5,” a Sauvignon Blanc-Riesling yeast and the balance with a traditional varietal strain from Austria, Oenoferm Veltliner. Six months post fermentation lees are `stirred up to once a week. Classic mineral and fruit 50/50 GV style though equally and tangibly in poesy to regional Sauvignon Blanc; crisp with a touch of herbal spine. Vibrant, tightly wound acidity and a peppery bite on the back-end. The SB bent is written and exploited in the best possible way. Will be a great wine when the vineyard grows up just a bit. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015 @diemersdalwines

Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc Eight Rows 2015, Durbanville Hills, South Africa (Winery)

When sixth generation winemaker Thys Louw wanted to make a block specific Sauvignon Blanc his father Tienie’s offer fell short. “Why get out of bed for three rows?” Eight it was. From soils of decomposed granite with high clay content off of vines nearly 30 years of age. The locale, pinpoint picking from carefully chosen contours and the attention to detail have come to a cleaner, finessed and wisely distinct Sauvignon Blanc expression. The ride is calmer than the reserve and the finish still replete with freshness. The citrus preserves, locks in and bottles acidity. The obvious grape variety avoids cliché and the obscurity of “stand by me…nobody knows the way it’s gonna be.” Instead the eight rows oasis produces a Sauvignon Blanc that understands where it comes from and knows what it wants to be. Knows where it’s going. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015

The Foundry Grenache Blanc 2014, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa (Winery)

From Meerlust’s cellar master, Chris Williams, in partnership with his Kumala brand manager, the Scot James Reid. Fruit sourced from growers across the Cape. The wines are produced at Meerlust in Stellenbosch. The Grenache Blanc comes from the Malmesbury shale and decomposed granite soils of the Voor-Paardeberg. A mineral streak runs through and this bears little resemblance to the Rhône, nor does it reminisce about Catalonia. This is futuristic Grenache Blanc, the kind only found in dreams because of its high level of sumptuousness despite the elevated stone count. Tack on scents of lead and/or graphite and the revelry ascends. Perhaps it should be looked at as a block of chilled rock as holding vessel for selling fruit. Longevity from 100 per cent Grenache Blanc is a rare, cool and beautiful thing. Drink 2015-2022. Tasted September 2015 @ChrisTheFoundry

The Blacksmith Vin Noir 2014, W.O. Coastal Region, South Africa (Winery)

A personal project of 600 bottles for Tremayne Smith, assistant winemaker at Mullineux & Leeu. A blend of 59 per cent Cinsault from Paarl and (41) Carignan from the Swartland. Neither Irish Planxty nor traditional folk Steeleye Span, the Vin Noir’s power chords and mineral metal imagines “uncrushable shields, power belts and magic rings.” A Falconer in Cinsault-Carignan clothing, smoky sweet, savoury emulsified, vaporous, beautifully murky. The Carignan is devilishly Rhône, built with spice, liquorice and dried sassafras. A slow release of red citrus Cinsault and a final, flinty feign of sweetness. A far cry from the old days of drinking South African tassies. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015 @tvsmith85

J H Meyer Cradock Peak Pinot Noir 2014, Outeniqua, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

From the Cape outpost of Outeniqua, of all deity forsaken places, in the mountains above George and named for the highest (1578m) peak. The montane fynbos terrain makes for Pinot Noir of wild depth, tannic breadth and a natural, unfined, unfiltered bush vine pressed sensation. Though so unknown, this southeast facing slope drives a point not just new but also important to the South Africa Pinot Noir discussion. This Cradock Peak is a pushy Pinot, plush and demanding. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted September 2015 @Nicholaspearce_ @PublikWine

J H Meyer Cradock Peak Pinot Noir 2014, photo (c) Nicholas Pearce

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South Africa’s Capelands in VINTAGES February 6th

Feb5

South Africa comes to VINTAGES February 6th

For a comprehensive look at South Africa’s Capelands, read my report at WineAlign.

On Saturday, February 6th, VINTAGES is running a feature on South African wines. Laid out in varietal by varietal terms, South Africa is deconstructed to articulate and accentuate what’s happening in today’s Western Cape and how it translates to markets around the world. I spent some time back in September with VINTAGES product manager Ann Patel in the Cape. Her picks have much to do with what she found, in excitement from “breaking boundaries and forging new ground with winemaking.” As consumers we should look forward to more chances taken in LCBO purchasing decisions, in varietals and from a more eclectic mix of wineries.

The landscape of South African wine is demarcated by ancient geology and by the geographical diversity of its regions, sub-regions and micro-plots. Varietal placement is the key to success. As I mentioned in previous articles, South African winemakers can grow anything they want, to both their discretion and their whimsy. The choice of what grows best and where will determine the successes of the future.

As the understanding of cool-climate locales dotting the landscape continues to develop, so too does the Sparkling wine oeuvre. The association that determines the authenticity of Méthode Cap Classique is more than just a marketing strategy and a copy of Méthode Champenoise. It is a distinctly South African program, established in 1992. Rules dictate a minimum of 12 months on the lees and post disgorgement, further maturation under cork. Winemakers are free to play with beyond those simple parameters. That is the South African way. Stand together and act alone.

In addition to these February 6th South African releases I have reviewed many added highlights. Next week I will publish 50 more tasting notes on important wines tasting in the Cape last September. Some are available through their Ontario wine agents while others are not. At least not yet. There are many undiscovered South African wines that will soon be finding their way into our market. Here are the eight wines coming to VINTAGES on February 6th.

Related – South African duck dynasty

Avondale Wines Jonty’s Ducks Pekin White 2014, Wo Paarl, South Africa (439554, $14,95, WineAlign)

The house white with the Avondale ducks always in mind. “How does mother nature do it? For each problem there is a natural predator available to do the job.” The holistic approach applies to the winemaking of Johnathan Grieve as well. In 2014 there is an easier and more naturalistic feel. With less oak and lees, some rest and the result is increased freshness, especially for the dominant Chenin Blanc. Ready to go as we speak. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 and January 2016 @Avondalewine @RareEarth_Wines

Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc Old Vine Reserve 2015, Wo Stellenbosch, South Africa (231282, $17,95, WineAlign)

The signature purpose with respect to Chenin Blanc by Ken Forrester skips zero beats and misses no opportunity to varietal boldly go for what Stellenbosch just needs. Draw fruit from old vines, let it work its grape tannic magic then spin away, a rising child of centrifuge into constellatory divination. Ken Forrester says he’s always afraid of stretching too far. “If the eastern and western fronts are too far apart, you lose the war.” From 1965 plantings in Piekenierskloof, two weeks of skin contact was followed by time in 300L, 8-10 year old barrels, “neutral as hell.” When tasted in September 2015, the wine was reductive, with a bit of aromatic grit and VA. It was a raw and unfiltered wallower. Now? Chenin Blanc of heft, poise and tenderness. It’s all in the preparations. Such juice at such an absence of cost should be illegal. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted January 2016 @KFwines @Noble_Estates

Graham Beck Brut Rosé Méthode Cap Classique, Wo Western Cape, South Africa (175588, $19.95, WineAlign)

An ode and an adherence to the magic of Cap Classique style, always with that sage feeling of evolution in age. Made pretty with its skin pink depth though I must admit to nosing and tasting the inimitable South African soil. Still, it is clearly and decisively Pinot Noir that floats the boat and rights the ship. This has noirs in its psyche and the Western Cape in its soul. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted January 2016 @GrahamBeckWines @Vinexxperts

Nederburg Manor House Shiraz 2013, Wo Coastal Region, South Africa (68775, $16.95, WineAlign)

Meaty, dark fruit and soil pure Shiraz. At this point in South Africa’s red wine production I would go to lengths to call this old school. It’s a blast from the recent and forward thinking past. Stew recommended, marbled protein required. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted January 2016 @Nederburg @MarkAnthonyWine @ImportWineMAFWM

Cathedral Cellar Pinotage 2013, Wo Coastal Region, South Africa (99267, $16.95, WineAlign)

A twain marker, bridge gapper, two worlds colliding Pinotage. Full of spice and soil chalky spirit. There may well yet be one foot half-depressed into the clay of the last two decades of Pinotage but the other is pointed north, into the bright future. Some weighty density keeps the Western Cape fruit brutally honest and yet the cathedral is bright, filled with light and carefully slight. This will please camps on either end of the field. I would suspect that future vintages will pull the other foot from the muck and see this Pinotage walk off into the proverbial Pinotage sunset. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted January 2016 @KWVwines @Dandurandwines

Graham Beck The Game Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, Western Cape, South Africa (2519, $18.95, WineAlign)

Beck’s GM is spot on Cabernet Sauvignon of place; rich, ferric, tightly spun and wait for it…gamy. Not funky mind you but meaty in a fresh kill, flesh charred, grilled and juices settled way. If red protein and something South African are on the mind, this cracker of a Graham Beck signature varietal dutifully fulfills the dream. And it will age to change. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted January 2016 @GrahamBeckWines @Vinexxperts

Rustenberg R.M. Nicholson 2013, Wo Stellenbosch, South Africa (278390, $19.95, WineAlign)

A Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon blend of chaste class and haute style, if decidedly warm and ripe. The aromatics are berry directed, with a floral lilt and a volatile note well within an acceptable and supporting role. Carries its alcohol with confidence in ease, to develop the flavours and lengthen the pleasure. Wait a year for it to show best. Drink 2017-2020. Tasted January 2016 @RustenbergWines @WoodmanWS

Rupert & Rothschild Classique 2012, Wo Western Cape, South Africa (434787, $22.95, WineAlign)

This stellar value stalwart Cabernet Sauvignon (60 per cent) and Merlot (40) of Left Bank leanings brings together the brains and braun of Anthonij Rupert Wyne Estate and Benjamin de Rothschild. The vintage picks up where 2011 left off, built on a pillar of protein, soluble fruit and salt. A Franschhoek Valley gibbous and velutinous red with sweet plasma running through adolescent testosterone veins. The barrel treatment (18 months in 225L French) is the fabric softener. The balance encompassing ripe fruit, savoury salinity and spindled acidity makes for a formidable if quiescent package. Will take its sweet time developing secondary and tertiary characteristics. Great value. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted January 2016 @RupertRoths @Dandurandwines

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New year, 16 new VINTAGES releases

Jan6

Take this, #quinoa – With today’s post, “New year, 16 new Vintages releases” #beefshortribs

Inter alia, the winter holiday break is behind us and it is time to get down to business. Time to resume the empirical and experiential search for honest wine. Wines that satisfy at some necessary atomic level, avoid oaky embarrassment and hopefully fulfill basic human needs.

What we seek are bottles fashioned from grapes that are lucky to have been handed a benevolent evolutionary line, miraculously fortuitous in their ancestry, through categorical mutation and genetic modification. Varietal luck, pop and circumstance. That’s what we’re after.

The first VINTAGES release of 2016 makes an adjustment to previous editions with no less than a dozen really solid efforts below the $21.95 line to make Messrs. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon proud. You too can save on quality wine this January. Read on to avoid getting lost in aught where unwanted wines are cast into a dull, scattered void.

Lingenfelder Bird Label Riesling 2013, Qualitätswein, Pfalz, Germany (568634, $14.95, WineAlign)

A return to entry-level glory out of a great vintage for this basic QbA with the acidity to thrive and the tannin to jive. Love the fruit mingling with mineral and the weight even when aridity is the key. A tropical note hits both the nose and the palate. What complexity for $15. Really. Best in many years with a beautifully bitter finish. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @RobLingenfelder @HHDImports_Wine @germanwineca

Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc 2015, Wo Western Cape, South Africa (675421, $14.95, WineAlign)

Properly, distinctly, effortlessly Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc. Of tang and here in 2015, more heft than many though in retention of aridity and super salinity. Has real verve and presence. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @MulderboschV @WOSACanada @WOSA_ZA @AbconWine

Wakefield Estate Chardonnay 2014, Clare Valley/Adelaide Hills, South Australia (711556, $14.95, WineAlign)

Rich and reductive with some Co2 and piercing acidity. Solid Chardonnay that needs a year or two to settle. Last tasted December 2015 @Taylors_Wines @ProfileWineGrp

Rich and dense, temperate in accessibility, splitting the Chardonnay mile. Works barrels with threadbare, throwback constituency and takes a comfortable trip down varietal, memory lane like predecessors in old world California. All in the name of proper and restraint. The palate is rich yet delicate. Good work. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted blind at WWAC15, August 2015

Valpantena Valpolicella Ripasso 2013, Doc Veneto, Italy (429928, $15.95, WineAlign)

Nice tidy little Valpolicella here. Enough richness marked by tension to make it a real drop. A bit flushed with thickness though the tang in food-gifting acidity and arid tannin is again, very real. Solid stuff. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @Cant_Valpantena @MajesticWineInc @RegioneVeneto

Honoro Vera Garnacha 2013, Calatayud, Spain (432997, $15.95, WineAlign)

Though playing a key of dusty and volatile minor, here Calatayud Garnacha from Bodega Atteca’s 60 year-old vines does its traditional duty in forthright varietal and regional honesty. Reinvents no wheels or identity with ripe fruit, early enough picked for preserving acidity and palate tension. The aridity and tang on the finish perform yeoman’s work in lieu of tannin. Drink now and for another year or two, preferably with cocina tradicional Aragonesa. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @docalatayud @ProfileWineGrp

Sister’s Run Bethlehem Block Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, Barossa Valley, South Australia, Australia (360636, $15.95, WineAlign)

Very ripe, nearly, dangerously young and volatile, yet so very sweet smelling. Plums, cherries, Cassis, a hint of graphite and the wood from American stars ‘n bars. Good acidity burgeoning about with minor, kneeling, equitable tannin. Has a salty caramel taste that will require similar fare; a mole sauce would work. Good length on this varietal wonder. “All you have is memories of happiness, lingering on.” A shining light in the Sister’s Run stable. “Maybe the star of Bethlehem, wasn’t a star at all.” Drink 2015-2019. Tasted December 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrBPJEBL06U

Donnachiara Irpinia Coda Di Volpe 2013, Dop Campania, Italy (434241, $16.95, WineAlign)

Here the no lo so of Italian white grape varieties, this Coda di Volpe, the fox vine “Alopecis,” a.ka. “tail of the fox,” with natural history recording creds to Pliny the Elder. A Campania concert of grape tannin and sea mineral melded together as one. A varietal happenstance where land meets the sea in a beautiful bond. This low-cost specimen is a friendship gift from Italy, with ripe fruit and even stronger feelings of subterranean impart, from fringe stone through the ambient abstraction of Roman mythology. Like a river Styx running through carrying the bravery of Herculean salinity. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @DonnaChiara @Reg_Campania @TheCaseForWine

Coda di Volpe and Moscato

Penthouse Pinot Noir 2013, Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia (432864, $16.95, WineAlign)

The berries, cherries and plums are a vivid smelling bunch with a cumulative tone occupying airspace at the border of mercurial. A silent request asked of this undomesticated (with 10 per cent whole cluster bunches in the wild ferment) Pinot Noir is “when are you gonna come down, when are you going to land.” With time, the extreme brightness turns to density, of rustic earth and silky encrustation. Its answer sings to the tune of “you can’t plant me in your penthouse, I’m going back to my plough.” Walks well beyond the yellow brick road of the Adelaide Hills and the varietal, to a place in OZ occupied by the curious and the songline follower. There is a lot of Pinosity is this $17 wine. The mid-glass transformation is a true plus. A heel click finish would have really sealed the deal. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted November 2015 @Nicholaspearce_ @AHWineRegion

Terra D’uro Finca La Rana Toro 2011, Do Toro, Spain (424135, $17.00, WineAlign)

Terminable Toro, firm to juicy, earthy to mulled plum and liquorice fruity. Acidity rips in the short term and whatever tannin was gifted is quite resolved. Early 2016, in the dead of a northern hemisphere winter is the right time to settle in with a braise and Toro at five years of age. Very solid. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @VinodeToro

Gustave Lorentz Réserve Riesling 2014, Ac Alsace, France (641639, $18.95, WineAlign)

Bergheim terroir in a nutshell to the result marked by the essential, distilled down to this very base and necessary example of what dry Riesling just has to be. Along with Trimbach and in this price range brought to this market, the act is exemplary and export defining as citizens of the genre. From flint to citrus and back by way of ripe fruit. With weight and such a dry, to the point finish “and a crackling in the air.” What it is. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted December 2015 @GustaveLorentz @AmethystWineInc @AlsaceWines @VinsAlsace @drinkAlsace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPwFgPkcmeg

Pupillo Cyane Moscato 2010, Igt Sicilia, Italy (156430, $18.95, WineAlign)

Wholly Sicilian metallurgy of a character absorption in ode to Alsatian Muscat. That and the weight of the sun bearing down on sugaring fruit. With eyes closed picture this heading into a 20-year honeyed and mineral territory, with ground nuts and fresh cracked pepper foil. Oxidative but just on that dangerous edge so that it can continue to develop for years without losing sight of the prize. Drink 2015-2025. Tasted December 2015 @loyalimportsltd @WinesOfSicily

Familia Zuccardi Cuvée Especial Blanc De Blancs, Tupungato, Mendoza, Argentina (435438, $19.95, WineAlign)

Bready, heady and lees elegant from years of yeasty rest towards an end marked by lactic sour mixed into lemon citrus. The tightest wire-wind of Chardonnay tonic with bitters running here and there. The nearly five years on the lees has made the texture thick and the mousse replete with bubbles popping left, right and centre. Much in the way of complexity for Blanc de Blancs from Argentina blessed with lots of altitude. You’ve not not likely been blown away by South American bubbles as you will be by this Mendozan, from Tupungato to Llullaillaco. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted December 2015 @FamiliaZuccardi @SebaZuccardi @ZuccardiWines @DionysusWines

Gundlach Bundschu Mountain Cuvée 2012, Sonoma County, California, USA (397521, $19.95, WineAlign)

The fruit is ripe, there can be no argument there and the treatment is careful, calculated, restrained even. Exit stage left blend, running all the way. Sneaky, deft, stealthy, cat-like in behaviour. Always landing on all fours. Like a pink anthropomorphic mountain lion sporting an upturned collar, shirt cuffs and a string tie. Red blend with a great desire to be a stage actor, available to please all kinds of folks. “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” Sweet finish. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted December 2015 @gunbunwine @LeSommelierWine @sonomavintners

Domaine Saint Roch Vacqueyras 2014, Ac Rhône, France (437194, $21.95, WineAlign)

Some heat in the nose and even more spice with balance achieved by a lively to energetic, creeping up on frenetic palate. Earth crusts play in to the fray as much as the fruit, the posit tug working with one another in equal and opposing directions. The wine lingers on with grace in magical persistence. A pinch of dusty espresso and wishful fennel marks the back end. The reality check to imagine and realize a real Vacqueyras. Great value. Drink 2016-2021. Tasted December 2015 @VacqueyrasWines @VINSRHONE @RhoneWine

Foris Pinot Noir 2012, Rogue Valley, Oregon, USA (937128, $24.95, WineAlign)

A deft and reeling charmer, easy to drink and well-priced. Dark red fruit of the black cherry realm occupied by the ripe and fashionable Pinot Noir. That it so successfully woos with that kind of Oregon fruit to this kind of advantage in the absence of available underground salinity and tension is a Rogue Valley win. At 13.9 per cent it creeps comfortably under the hot radar gun and many will enjoy the uncomplicated style. Recommended for those who like it fun and unencumbered. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @Foriswine @SouthernORWine @Oregon_Wine

Caiarossa Pergolaia 2008, IGT Tuscany, Italy (424333, $34.95, WineAlign)

A satisfying and handsomely rustic biodynamic Sangiovese-led IGT blend with lead, graphite, dusty cherry and plenty of hide to leather antiquity. The firm vintage has evolved to this copacetic point, the expatriate meets endemic union no longer obtuse or extreme. This has settled really nicely, thanks to what was and lingers as solid acidity and once grippy tannin. Life from energy persists and though I would imagine there will be some who think it common or non-descript, there can be no denying the solid winemaking and balance struck. The older oak barrels have done their job, even if the fruit was a bit on the riper side of the rows. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @Caiarossa @3050imports

Good to go!

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15 Mind blowing wines of 2015

Dec26

Old Sherry at the Cariñena Museo del Vino

“You can choose your philosophy of critiquing just as you choose how to live. The freedom to personalize or substantiate thoughts on structure sacrifices the detail to meaning and meaning to preciseness.” I wrote that nearly a year ago. It holds true, as before, near, dear and clear to me today.

Extreme cold ushered in January of 2015 and the obvious lede was Coming wine from the cold. Halfway through the month an epiphany of sorts knocked upside the cerebral cortex, elaborated upon in Varietal Spanish wine. That smithy precursor would lead to revelations in October.

As January wound down and I prepared to hit the Niagara Icewine Festival, (revealed in We the Icewine) I first asked a matter of fat cat factual question, Is writing making a mess of wine? “The combined fugitive pieces of wine and its critics pose questions without answers. They must be asked very slowly.”

Related – Mind blowing wines of 2014

The weeks of suffering through frozen days and night breeds reflection and thought. While the temperatures remained cursedly south of 20 I begged the question, Why drink that?, “looking for heroic entablature and architectural wonder in bottles of wine. We see them as DNA and in their liquids we can read their entire future. We sip them again and again until we taste them for the first time. To remember generations.” Have wine forget winter.

Good bye and thank you for your hospitality South Africa @WOSA_ZA @WOSACanada @CapeWine2015

I penned If it’s value you want, it’s South Africa you need and later in May, Shades of South Africa. Oh sweet, naive, wait until you travel there and see what’s really up, Godello. Same for A new Greek morning and Getting into Greece. One week in the Peloponnese and my psyche would be altered forever.

In March I explained Why it matters to taste wines again, urged sharing through the practice of Take a bottle, leave a bottle and waxed parenthetical in yet another meaningful soul-searching moment. Why hate wine? was waged with a comment on “the wine geek who hates certain wines. The wine aficionado who picks on specific bottles, bullies them to the point of hatred. Slags them beyond reproach. Rants to the world about the injustice of their existence.” Bugger off.

The Old Third, Pinot Noir 2008

Then April. “The Ontario wine industry is the best kept secret in the world. It has grown, accelerated and advanced with more success than might have been imagined as recently as five years ago. Ontario winemakers have figured it out. The “world-class” comparative humanities of aging and longevity aside, the comprehensive and widespread phenomenon of excellence, regardless of vintage, is now an Ontario reality.” Now you know the answer to Why taste Ontario?

In May further validation with Searching for Somewhereness and I’m a little bit County, setting the stage for an October visit to proportion enormity across ridges and eskers. Further understanding culled in The Old Third and older County wines and The ridges of Prince Edward County.

Saturday night @barquebbq #smokerschoice and ’08 @bodegasmuriel #rioja #spain

“Wine is a commensurate animal, altricial such as it is, acaudal, acersous, agnostic, aculeate and allocryptic such as it is not. Wine that is not so much off the beaten path as actually growing on one.” Path straying wines. The game changer happened one day in May at Barque Smokehouse with Chiara De lulis Pepe and The natural wines of Emidio Pepe.

Cool Chardonnay at Ridley College

The June WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada followed Ontario Wine Awards judging, inclusive of tastings at Niagara College, Creekside Estates, Ravine Vineyard, Trius, Treadwell Cuisine, Domaine Queylus and The Good Earth Wine Company. A great, learned experience at Master classes of Terroir shed brilliant light on Gamay. Then the most important query of the summer. Can Chardonnay get any cooler? Well, one of two. Great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Nova Scotia? My maritime wine sojourn is summarized in East coast swing 2015: Time, tides and wine.

View of the mountains from Tetramythos, Aigialia, Peloponnese

My great Greek Achaian adventure was told in three tales, Till I reach Achaia ground, Bring me Achaia love and Gateway to Achaia, from Roditis to Mavrodaphne

South Africa’s memories spilled out in waves, from Once upon a time in the Western Cape to Wines of South Africa: It’s the fling itself, through South African duck dynasty and Wines of South Africa: Go Cars Go.

The Empire of Garnacha

October and November trips to Aragaon, Catalonia and Franciacorta opened eyes and expanded minds like never before. We’ve Garnacha covered part one: Campo De Borja was followed by Cariñena, Somontano, Terra Alta and Calatayud.

With Pablo Alvarez (#vegasicilia) and Laurent Drouhin (#josephdrouhin) at #fourseasonstoronto for #primumfamiliaevini…Can there be a more visceral wine experience than tasting some of the world’s greatest wine estates and all the while their principals just seem to only talk about history and family? Makes me think about parents, grandparents and children. About accomplishments, passing torches and smelling roses. Or something like that.

Far out, man

Here are some mind blowing wines tasted in 2015.

Tetramythos Roditis 2014

Tetramythos Roditis 2014, PDO Patras, Greece (SAQ 12484575, $15.75, WineAlign)

Pulled from four vineyards at 650-850m of altitude and from vines 19-42 years old. No skin contact though it shows a light, slight tinge of colour. Nearly platinum in its yellow hue, perhaps attributed to organics says Papagiannopoulos, Eighty per cent was achieved through natural ferment (with zero malolactic) plus “one tank for security.” Roditis can go clean or develop anti-austerity, texture, viscosity in the direction of a dirty projector. The Tetramythos glides “forward through the clover and the bergamot.” I can see what she’s seeing. Tasting like a leesy ripe peach, this is the best “basic” Roditis tasted in Achaia. Serious match of Aleria Restaurant‘s Sea Bass Tartare. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted July 2015

To taste again @lafouceller in @doterraalta is today’s master plan @VINOS_ICEX #lovegarnacha #garnatxablanca #crdoterraalta

Lafou Celler Garnatxa Blanca 2014, DO Terra Alta, Spain (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Ramon Roqueta Segalés, winemaker, soothsayer, visionary, seeker of the Garnatxa Blanca of today from “a narrow valley.” Ramon is very concerned with the valleys, the landscape, the geology, how the wind, the mediterranean climate and the ancient rivers that run through, having left their glacial deposits, all combine for this particular and most important expression of Garnatxa Blanca. Established in 2007, this wine was first released in 2011. Combines old and young fruit, some harvested fresher at a greener stage and others picked later, riper, brought together. Vinified separately, with some skin maceration, looking for fat to surround acidity. Ripe fruit (10 per cent) sees oak, the rest in egg shape concrete tanks with six to seven months of lees contact. Smells like a ripe peach, fresh and without sugar but instead a sprinkling of subterranean, ancient riverbed harvested salt. The tang is layered, variegated, mineral, mastered over and in corralling of oxidation, elaborated with gentle but forceful demand. “We learned that you can get a balance by harvesting and an early and a later stage, sometimes three times.” Finishes with lime, fresh squeezed, sweet tonic and distilled flowers. A wine that has succeeded in “mastering the oxidation process.” Plus the tannic (anti-oxidative) aspects offered in micro-oxygenation from the slightly toasted new oak. Approximate price $28.95 CAN. Drink 2015-2025. Tasted October 2015 @lafouceller @oenophilia1

Maps & Legends, from Cartology to Flotsam & Jetsam @ChrisAlheit @ZooBiscuitsWine #alheitvineyards #hermanus #capewine2015

Alheit Vineyards Flotsam & Jetsam Days of Yore 2014 (Winery)

Chris Alheit’s brand might allude to a chapter in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers but Days of Yore must pay some homage to the 80’s thrash metal band and with great irony. This Cabernet Sauvignon and Cinsault blend is no Doomsday for the Receiver and certainly No Place for Disgrace. What it is instead is pure liquid brilliance. Old 1960 Cabernet Sauvignon bush vines are (even if unintentionally) farmed the way they used to be, back in the days of yore. Now cropped, tended and produced in pitch perfect cure, the resulting wine (when Cabernet is blended with Albeit’s dry-farmed, stomped and tonic-singular Cinsault) shows smoky depth and musicality. Sour-edged or tart can’t begin to describe the tang. It’s something other, unnameable, sapid, fluid and beautiful. It brings South Africa from out of the heart of its wayfinding darkness. Drink 2015-2025. Tasted September 2015 @ChrisAlheit @ZooBiscuitsWine

“If you can see the differences of terroir in Gewürz, then you won’t see it in Riesling” @AlsaceWines #olivierhumbrecht

Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Gewürztraminer Clos Windsbuhl 2011, Ac Alsace, France (Agent, $64.00, WineAlign)

This is the most northerly Zind-Humbrecht vineyard, in Hunawihr. Like oil and water from this to 2012. So much more richness, unctuousness, classic western European riverbank gluck and heavy weighted metal. Layers upon layers of texture though not nearly as dramatically sweet as it might appear to be. Hides it so well, thanks to those remarkable Windsbuhl gifting phenols and intense grape tannin. This has presence so very rare in Gewürztraminer. In the end its a glass full of liquid gems, polished, elegant and refined. Allow the sugars several more years to fully realize its potential relationship with the acidity. Drink 2018-2033. Tasted November 2015 @olivier_dzh @TrialtoON @AlsaceWines @VinsAlsace @drinkAlsace

Concha Y Toro Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Maipo Valley, Chile (403980, $70.00, WineAlign)

The 2010 Don Melchor harkens backwards, to years like 2001 and 2003, rephrasing and rewriting the paradigmatic book. From seven contiguous, sub-divided blocks of Cabernet, the ’10 speaks most highly of Lot Two, emphasized by chocolate, menthol and mineral, in cohorts with Lot Four, in elegance and depth. Extended glom and time-lapse picking between April 22 and May 27 was the casualty turned blessing of a cooler growing season in the semi-arid Mediterranean-like scrub desert of Puente Alto. The alluvial motion hauteur of slow-ripened fruit can’t be overestimated. The frame by frame capture has resulted in aromatics wafting off the charts; violet, anise, roasting cocoa bean, garrigue, ferric filings, mortar on wet stone, Cassis and eucalyptus. There is no heat, rendering the 14.6 declared alcoholic irrelevant. Best of all, it smells like Chile as much as it does Cabernet. There is no need to discuss the (97 per cent) CS in terms of Bordeaux, that is until you taste. Then the tobacco angst and silky texture elicit Margaux. Black currants and fine chocolate melt on the finish, still with a mouthful of stones. For winemaker Enrique Tirado, this may be his “El opus.” It will age effortlessly for 12-15 years. For anyone who purchased this wine more than 10 vintages ago, comparing current cost can be a byproduct in natural preoccupation. Who would not want a return to the sub-$50 Don Melchor going back a decade or more? Yet while tasting the present decimus, $100 crosses the fiscal mind and seems completely apropos. At $70 the clarity and sonority of its value is the blazon of an epistle. Few Cabernet Sauvignon dominant wines from Bordeaux or Napa Valley can compare. Drink 2016-2025. Tasted April 2015 @conchaytoro @MikeAikins1 @DrinkChile

Mullineux & Leeu Syrah Iron 2013, Wo Swartland, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

If such cure, grip, ferric grab and intense tannin has ever infiltrated South African Syrah it has not yet found its way over to me. In a side by side comparative tasting with the Schist Syrah this one wrestles to win. The Schist is all perfume and soft elegance. The Iron draws power to strength from strength. It is an unrelenting conduit of energy, from soil clearly designed to outlive humanity. The Syrah is a product of geological wonder and winemaking that steps aside to let the terroir speak its mind. Demanding and filled with tension now, time will soften the stranglehold and loosen the wires. Lots of time. Drink 2019-2028. Tasted September 2015 @MullineuxWines @MullineuxChris @Nicholaspearce_

Fleury Père et Fils Cépages Blancs Extra Brut Champagne 1990, Champagne, France (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

The expediency of weighted oxidation in flight flies effortlessly as a traveller propelled with verve and intrepid behaviour. Dried tangerine and so many tannic aspects are exaggeratedly exceptional for Champagne, fast forward thrusted and draughted with effortless urge. Derived as if from concrete shaped in purest form, of and before life. The dried fruits and a pith so calming are gathered for a level of citrus almost never before encountered. A very, very special 25 year-old bottle of bubbles from a pioneering organic and biodynamic producer in Courteron. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted February 2015 @ChampagneFleury

Most exciting wines tasted in a long time @winesorarg #carasur #bonarda #criolla #argentina #valledecalingasta

Cara Sur Bonarda 2014, Barreal, San Juan, Agrentina (Approx. $140)

Dry farmed, mordant and agile varietal red, a garagiste of a dirt road, in minuscule production, from natural run-off water and wild yeast. Only 500-600 bottles are produced, from north of Mendoza, in the Valle de Callingasta and Zuccardi funded. The natural cure is off the charts, the Emidio Pepe of Argentina, in which winemaking is really just perfect. Smells like the scrape of the amphora, already imbued of the aromatics of years, the answers of age, the design of ancients. You could keep this in the glass for a week and it will hardly evolve. Imagined as a 40 year wine for sure. Purity incarnate. Drink 2015-2040. Tasted August 2015 @winesofarg

As I get on the 707 @penfolds 1999 #cabernetsauvignon carries me far away #treasurywineestates #southaustralia #bookofdreams

Jonata La Sangre De Jonata Syrah 2008, Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County, California (220517, $150.00, WineAlign)

A tremendously ripe, rich and layered Syrah that has few equals or rivals in California so in that sense the price is benevolently justified. Winemaker Matt Dees is no flash in the pan. His wines are cerebrated and cogitated with no stone left unturned. They are showy, chiselled wrestlers, boxers and ultimate fighters but they are the real deal. This ’08 is a veritable protein potpourri, of wafts from the finest boucherie, all hung limbs and wrapped sheep’s cheeses, in caves, on counters and under glass. The expression is also very Côte Rôtie meets côte de bœuf rôtie, with added luxe perfume, chalk and lacy grain. The fruit boundaries are endless, the chew meaty, cured and smoky. Ultra Syrah of never wavering red fruit in a packed vessel with alcohol declared at a meagre 14.9 per cent. Even if it is really more like 15.5, the wealth of fruit, acidity, tannin and structure can handle the heat. With so much happening, this wine will age like the prized hind quarters and mother’s milk solids it smells of. Jonata La Sangre De Jonata Syrah 2008 says something and I’d love to hear what that is 15 years down the road. Drink 2018-2028. Tasted May 2015 @WoodmanWS @CalifWines_CA

As I get on the 707 @penfolds 1999 #cabernetsauvignon carries me far away #treasurywineestates #southaustralia #bookofdreams

Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 1999, South Australia, Australia (Agent, $175.00, WineAlign)

The Bin 707 was first produced in 1964 though passed over from 1970 to 1975 and then in 1981, 1995, 2000, 2003 and 2011. With Grange in mind, were it to look in the mirror, it would see its reflection as Cabernet Sauvignon. A true South Australian Claret, multi-regional blend from Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Padthaway, Robe and Wrattonbully. The ’99 was the 28th and as I get on board in 2015 and taste the 707, it carries me so far away. Today, in this world and how we play it, this is as fresh as Cabernet Sauvignon can be. It reads like a book of dreams. It is a miller of fruit, in secondary ester of refinement. It is a jet airliner, leaving behind a voluminous, velutinous trail of exhaust. “I feel like it’s all been done,” but not like this, aged for 18 months in 100 per cent new 300 litre American oak hogsheads. Not with this precision from veraciously selected fruit. Not like this. Look to 2025 for the tertiary period to begin. Drink 2015-2024. Tasted August 2015 @penfolds #treasurywineestates

Fino, Don P.X. ’86 and ’62 w: @sorgatoBTA @toroalbala @LeSommelierWine Magical, impossible, unchanging. Bucket list to revisit in 150 years #pedroximenez #bodegastoroalbala #montillamoriles #spain

Bodegas Toro Albalá Don P.X. Reserva Especial 1962, Do Montilla Moriles (424085, $205.00, WineAlign)

Unlike the 1986 which under recent European law (because it is not a red wine) must not be named Gran Reserva, this grandfather of a Pedro Ximenez is free to be what it’s supposed to be. A wine that was housed in a home somewhere in the village 10 years before the winery was created. A wine harvested in 1962, then took two months to ferment (to 7 or 8 per cent alcohol). Estate distillate was added to fortify and raise it to 17 per cent, followed by a slumber for two years in concrete vats. The final resting place was in American wood where it slumbered peacefully for 49 years until it was bottled in 2011. In a show of future forward thinking and in retrospect, of historical allegiance, the signature on the bottle belongs to its original maker. Egresses from such delicate aromas, from citrus to coffee and stands in remarkable freshness belying its 50 years. The nuts are smoked with a zesting by citrus and a dusting in nutmeg. Chestnut and hazelnut curiously form a crasis of sensation, airy and creamy like mousse, sabayon or Caudreau. If you allow it, the finish will not let go. The sugar (300 g/L RS) and acidity (5.73 g/L TA) are the tangible aspects of its futuristic longevity. Like the ’86 this is another dessert wine secured of natural preservatives; undefined, magical, impossible. These wines opened could last for 20 plus years, unchanged. Unopened that number could surpass 100, without question, no problem. Like honey, this is an earthly substance that can last, seemingly forever. So, one glass of P.X. every day, going forward, for self-preservation. Drink 2015-2060. Tasted October 2015 @LeSommelierWine

The line-up from Emidio Pepe

Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva 1983, DOC BIO Abruzzo, Italy (Agent, $279.95, WineAlign)

Give Emidio Pepe’s reds thirty odd years to develop and the impossible happens. To postulate in a moment’s assessment without remembering the pious tradition with which this was made would be a crime against Pepe, Abruzzo, the natural world and the wonders of the universe. With this much passage the spice cupboard that emits is wow times a thousand. Clove, cinnamon, cardamon, orange peel, galangal and like golden raisins that pass through quarries to become rubies. This wine is perfect. It has not broken down an iota. It requires no decanting. It defies logic, perception and time. There is no sediment, only energy. Speaks from the glass as if it were a child of destiny and mythology. The 1983 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva arrives from along the same road taken but its transmogrification proves that the result, with thanks again to the endemic froth, is different every time. Drink 2015-2029. Tasted March 2015

Gaia Gaja and 1978 Barbaresco #veryproud #nebbiolo @StemWineGroup

Gaja Barbaresco 1978, Piemonte, Italy (Agent)

Tasted with Gaia Gaja as an added, as good a bonus as there ever was to an already exceptional line-up of Gaja wines, the 1978 Barbaresco is untangled, untwisted and liberated. Nebbiolo spoken with the utmost clarity. Cherries falling from the tree the moment the tips of fingers come within a hair of the touch. Spring is indeed in the air (despite it being early fall), a trick of the Gaja Genesis tale, “fields of incentive covered with green.” A mesmerizing Barbaresco, pure as driven snow, clear as a pool of fallen rain, quiet as an undisturbed slumber. Ancient longings of leather and dusty cocoa are but pipe stuffing, not yet lit. This Nebbiolo is pretty, feminine, beautiful and forcefully elegant. “When you’re asleep they may show you, aerial views of the ground, Freudian slumber empty of sound.” Only available from Nebbioli of the highest caste and order. Drink 2015-2028. Tasted September 2015

Five little ducks all in a row @BellaVistaVino #anothersongaboutthefizz #franciacorta #largeformats #1987 #1989

Bellavista Winery Brut Sparkling 1987, Franciacorta, Italy (From a Six litre bottle, Agent, Winery)

Tasted alongside a 750 mL, Magnum, Jeroboam and nine litre 1989. The Methuselah is the first wine to show similarly to any of the others so the comfort level rises and yet this rocks out flinty and reductive most like the 3L. The energy is consistent, but here the spice is magnified and the nutty sense that showed in the Magnum has come forth. This seems to combine the pique aspects of both the Magnum and the Jeroboam. A best of all worlds bottle plus what it brings that neither had. Absolute freshness. Does not evolve in the glass in its first few minutes like the others that came before. It evens glistens unlike the others, as if it knows how complex, special and alive it is. This is the bomb for sure. Dart straight through the heart. Crazy exceptional Sparkling wine. It should be interesting to try and assess, which is a major act of liberty in assumption, to gauge with accuracy how format affects age. To close one’s eyes tight and place a number on each wine, to where it has evolved and why. Here, Jeroboam still three to five years away from even that beginning. Truly. Drink 2018-2037. Tasted November 2015 @BellavistaVino @Noble_Estates

Good to go!

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Wines of South Africa: Go Cars Go

Dec21

Bush vines, Groot Drakenstein Mountains @AnthonijRupert Wyne @WOSACanada #lormarins #franschhoek #southafrica #winesofsouthafrica #mesmerizing

The emprise out of Stellenbosch over to Franschhoek is quick and painless, bumping and gliding over gently undulating arteries into a defined path once traipsed by the great African mammal, treading through Oliphants Hoek. A dreamy way to begin a South African day.

Franschhoek Motor Museum, Anthonij Rupert Wyne Estate

How could I have known? Where inside the deep recesses of my non-mechanical brain could I have hinged the switch of awakening? What frame of reference would trigger a childlike awe in the presence of cars?

BMW, Franschhoek Motor Museum

We were brought to the Franschhoek Motor Museum situated on the property of the Anthonij Rupert Wyne Estate. Old cars. Famous cars. Really cool cars. Bill McLaren, Jules Salomon, Gioachhino Colombo, Sam Tingle, Austin-Healey, Alfa Romeo, Nelson MANDELA cars. Blow your mind cars.

Nelson Mandels’s BMW 7 Series Security Edition, Franschhoek Motor Museum

My own human linguistic capability, or at least the one I hang my perpetual innocence on would have me impose a self-professed “immateriality of the mind” when it comes to particulars or, discreet objects in the material world. Like cars. I would have believed that only universals, that is, characteristics of particular things would have the power to excite my NMB but this place changed everything. Much of the revelation was nurtured by the stories and librarian-like encyclopedic recounting by the museum’s David Magqwanti. Thank you for talking to me, kind sir. The commorancy of coupes and convertibles injected life into the mechanical. I saw universals rising like novella filled balloons from the humanity of cab antiquity housed in these buildings. But enough about that.

Godello behind the wheel of an Austin-Healey 100 M, Franschhoek Motor Museum

We toured the facilities and were chauffeured across the property in Champions, Hudsons and Studebakers. We sat down with Gareth Robertson, Sales and Marketing Manager at Anthonij Rupert Wines. Verticals were poured; Cape of Good Hope, Leopard’s Leap and Optima L’Ormarins. Then the varietals of Anthonij Rupert and a most unanticipated Eau de Vie.

Alpha Romeo, 1900 SS 1956, Franschhoek Motor Museum

Anthonij Rupert Estate

Mining vertical gold in #franschhoek @AnthonijRupert Wyne #capeofgoodhope Altima

Cape of Good Hope Altima Sauvignon Blanc 2015, Franschhoek Mountains, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

A sunlight deprived Sauvignon Blanc from steep topography in Elandskloof, an isolated valley north of Villiersdorp. The valley depth and high altitude equals cool climate, pushing harvest back an average six seeks later than that of Stellenbosch. The long, slow, cool growing season, 24-hour skin contact and six months spent on lees add up to a receding depth of richness, like a Monet sunrise. The ’15 gives off a sense of just ripening, tangy tropical fruits like green mango and fig but it just smells like soft French cream. Bright, lit acidity makes it a very direct Sauvignon Blanc, like the lights are turned on. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @AnthonijRupert

Cape of Good Hope Altima Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Franschhoek Mountains, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

So very different to the hyper freshness of 2015. In brim, vim and savour the ’14 yet pops in lemon and lime and also diverges away from cream into texture. Very flavourful of a juice distilled and settled kind, resolved of itself, more taut in flesh and zest. The closed eyes idea is like grapefruit segments rolled in fresh-cut grass, never sweet, always on the positive side of bitter and then, suddenly awake, open wide. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015

Torture, er tasting room @AnthonijRupert Estate @WOSACanada #toolsofthetrade #franschhoek #mostphenomenaltour

Cape of Good Hope Altima Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Franschhoek Mountains, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Of a warmer vintage, now into developed concepts occupied by petrol, base elements and tonics. Strikes as having been a once reductive preparation now into the early stages of graceful decline. Still vibrant though and more like Chenin in its mineral and barrel-aged clothing. Opens the window to discussion for Villiersdorp as a Sauvignon Blanc depot for this type of stylistic aging in veins otherwise occupied by the likes of Chenin, Riesling and Sémillon. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015

Leopard’s Leap Culinara Chenin Blanc

Leopard’s Leap Family Vineyards Chenin Blanc Culinara Collection 2014, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Chenin Blanc with 10 per cent Grenache Blanc out of a warmer Franschhoek climate and 25-30 year-old predominately bush vines. Half aged in barrel for nine months on the lees. Gives off a faux sugary Chenin nose, tangy, foolish and unsettled. The aromatics push texture and the acidity is awkward in up front, in your face demand. Citrus and white flowers foil the tension. This is all about layers of perfumatory sweetness. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @LeopardLeapWine

Leopard’s Leap Family Vineyards Chenin Blanc Culinara Collection 2013, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Grenache Blanc adds a modicum of creamy simplicity rot Chenin Blanc no stranger to the barrel with less yeast carpeting than the follow-up 2014. Leads to an increase in savour, redolence and verdancy. Here Chenin trades fruit for mineral, in expression and for longevity. The trace elements speak a neat chemistry vernacular, bracing the palate for the crushed rocks and stones, the alloy tang and a directness that can be described as lean. Even in the fave of wood this acts like Silex or a wine of slate. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015

Leopard’s Leap Family Vineyards Chenin Blanc Culinara Collection 2012, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Like 2014 but accentuated fine times fold, this Chenin (major) and Grenache Blanc (minor) blend unfolds as a stark, lean bony white it always must have been. Possessive of fuel in hyperbole as compared to the younger wines, like oldish hunter Valley Sémillon or stark, raving arid Loire Chenin. A very tense and terse white, like a certain kind of dad. Drink 2015-2016. Tasted September 2015

La Motte Pierneef Collection Syrah-Viognier

La Motte Syrah-Viognier Pierneef Collection 2013, Franschhoek Valley, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Co-fermented Syrah (90 per cent) and Viognier confessed of enough cure to open a delicatessen. The smoked meat is joined by cherries and Franschhoek earth. Acts natural with a late frenzy of spice. Ripe to be sure, but balanced and not sweet. At 13.2 or 3 per cent alcohol its litheness is lauded and with thanks tom slightly cooler area fruit, but in the end warmth renders its tongue as speaking more southern than northern Rhone. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015

La Motte Syrah-Viognier Pierneef Collection 2009, Franschhoek Valley, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Back then this co-fermented Syrah (90 per cent) and Viognier was wilder, of sauvage and animale. Like thick-cut bacon, fat beginning its rendering, and a verdant lardoon of smoothness in texture. Tends to the northern Rhone with age playing a bigger role in what is ostensible a cooler, savoury, leaner expression. Sitting still, direct and layered without veneer. Quite brilliant in the prime of life. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Anthonij Rupert Estate Optima L’Ormarins

Anthonij Rupert Wines Optima L’Ormarins 2011, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Élevage for the Optima is begat from the most grown-up, mature, wise and judiciously enriching maneuvers. The Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc is cold-soaked, with fermentation lasting 20 days. The juice sees 225L new French oak and the absolute awesomeness of 10,000L wooden tanks. The separate wines are aged for 18 months in 225L French oak barrels. Blending leads to six months in barrel and tank and a further bottle-maturation for 24 months before release. What’s it all mean? It means Cabernet Franc stars on the right side of the mountain. The added warmth and ripeness stirs into Rooibos, currants and rich earth. Such a soil-driven Bordeaux blend with wood spice, liquid chalk and variegated, relegated integration. Still, very young, heart-beating, life-affirming stuff. Drink 2017-2022. Tasted September 2015

Anthonij Rupert Wines Optima L’Ormarins 2006, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Though the 2006 is relatively subdued when compared to the 2005 tasted alongside, to call it anything but a full-bodied and mature red wine would miss the mark by a mountain or two. Warm fruit has come to its crossroads, to this very developed stage. Like stepping into time, with a plum to raisin aromatic compote, though the mise en place is fresh, not yet any sort of drying fruit expression. More oak apparent than even the fresher 2011, doling out a tempered chocolate ganache and the nibs of earth. Some tannin persists though the fruit wane suggests the time to drink up is now. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015

Anthonij Rupert Wines Optima L’Ormarins 2005, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Very much like the closest younger sibling 2006 but even more of a brooding wine, muscular, masculine and a syrupy, liqueur feel. Possessive of more polish and elevated acidity, the chocolate finer and the overall energy yet circulating and buzzing. Makes you realize that the acidity in 2005 has not only left the building but was low-level to begin with. This strikes as a better vintage, at least in terms of more modern tastes and like subsequent vintages going forward were directed to follow. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Cape of Good Hope Chenin Blanc Van Lill & Visser Chenin Blanc

Cape of Good Hope Chenin Blanc Van Lill & Visser 2014, Citrusdal Mountain, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

From 1964 vines in red sand and clay on the Skurfberg mountain, surrounded by fynbos, tended by growers Basie van Lill of Arbeidsend and Jozua Visser of Oudam. These Chenin Blanc vines are the pioneers and 50 years have laid the foundation for an exceptional varietal home. One of the broadest extensions appeals with style, refreshment, elegance and a bar-rasing level of refinement and poise. Underlying mineral joins unstirred Rooibos tea and a wealth of acidity. Imminently drinkable without agitation so it’s so interesting in that within this calm context it has developed its own mid-palate. It seeks no need for residual sugar, lees texture or chalk to find balance. Not sure I’ve ever come across a Chenin Blanc so at ease and this comfortable in its own skin. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted September 2015

Cape of Good Hope Chardonnay Serruria 2014, Elandskloof, Overberg Highlands, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

The Serruria Chardonnay is truly cool-climate inspired and substantiated, equal and opposing to those from the Hemel-En-Aarde Valley. Elandskloof is the new darling of Overberg, where these vines grow at high altitude (700-900m) on the slopes of the Stettyn mountains outside Villiersdorp. Unique drives initial thoughts. Understated, elongated and mineral-injected, in constancy and ironically so. Chardonnay of altitude is so proper, felicitous, of economy and amenable to the proverbial catalyst of soil (or lack thereof). Cool-climate Chardonnay of site, site, site is a perfect thing imagined, a mirror of its geology, especially when the raising follows suit. First, 2nd and 3rd fill barrels for nine months. We are told that further restraint is exercised in 2014. How much more does it need to be? Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015

Was not ill but I am cured. 2009 Syrah & Cab Franc @AnthonijRupert @WOSA_ZA #lormarins #franschhoek #southafrica

Anthonij Rupert Wines Syrah 2009, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

From the L’Ormarins farm, from carefully selected sites and the lowest of yields, Rhône échalas style densely planted (6 250 to 8 333 vines per ha) on slopes too steep for mechanical production. Syrah of ancient, natural cure out of very special earth, the granite soils of the Groot Drakenstein Mountains, on warmer, northerly facing slopes with better drainage at different altitudes. An absolutely (14 per cent alcohol) bloody hematoma of layers and hues, with nary a moment of vinyl or veneer. The bloodstream pulsates with extroverted energy and pitch-perfect fruit. Remarkable Syrah meaty and of conceit. Incredibly valuable Syrah. Mind-blowing, must get to know Syrah. Drink 2017-2024. Tasted September 2015

Anthonij Rupert Wines Cabernet Franc 2009, Franschhoek, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

From low yielding vineyards in granite with clay on the Helderberg (80 per cent) and Rooderust (20) farms. Oh the cured humanity of what Cabernet Franc can be, where fruit grown at the foot of the Helderberg Mountain mimics the moniker: “Clear.” Not too similar to the Syrah in terms of hematic intensity but the coursing paints a slower flowing halcyon picture and the wood is not handled with the same brightness and elastic breadth. The CF is aged for 18 to 24 months in 225 L new French oak barrels, bottled unfiltered and bottle aged for a year. Varietal chocolate and general girth make for male libido red wine fixations. Still the poise and the ability. Drink 2017-2022. Tasted September 2015

L’Ormarins Eau de Vivre

Anthonij Rupert Wines L’Ormarins Eau de Vie 2013, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Litchis are sourced from Malelane, a farm up near the Mozambique border. The pulp is brought down the Anthonij Rupert Cellar in Franschhoek, de-pipped and shelled in frozen form. The frozen litchi juice is left to thaw once it arrives on the farm. Once thawed the pulp is inoculated with yeast and fermented into wine and treated with an Armagnac methodology. So very floral, intensely aromatic, from lychee to laurel. The palate is remarkable in that it swims beneath the surface, with flavours of orange peel and lemongrass. Drink for eternity. Tasted September 2015

Anthonij Rupert Wyne Estate

Good to go!

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Wines of South Africa: It’s the fling itself

Dec14

High five Sunday, at #winecarboot with @PIWOSA @WOSA_ZA @WOSACanada #journeysendvineyards #schapenberghills #sirlowryspass

A few weeks ago there was this South African fling in Toronto. Anyone who fancies themselves as anything showed, because everybody was there. Joshua Corea and Archive Wine Bar graciously played host. Cape wine swelled like water and the mass of sommelier humanity flowed like wine.

After we had first returned to Canada from Cape Wine 2015, Will Predhomme and Wines of South Africa Canada’s Laurel Keenan had asked Rémy Charest, Scott Zebarth, Nicholas Pearce and I a question in requiem of some deep Jack Handey thought. Of the bottles we tasted in South Africa, what would we most like to see at a paradigmatic tasting back home? We offered up our lists and many of them were presented at Archive, along with a tumultuous quantity more. The likes of such an amassment had never been seen this side of the great pond. Cape Town loomed in de Chirico casted shadow in the backwater distance, watching, wondering, judging. So I tossed a pondered abstraction out to the winds that drift in the South African wine diaspora. “What page is loomed in the giver?”

My mind travels back to the Western Cape. The retrospection remembers wines yet brought to North American light, to intrepid voyages still to disgorge and to stories ultimately untold. Looking back it occurs to me, from a northern point of view, having witnessed and experienced an immersion and exposure into the culture and wines of South African life, that it is not the thing you fling. It’s the fling itself.

It began with the trebuchet. At Journey’s End the Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa (PIWOSA) threw a car boot and catapulted some rather heavy objects at targets far away.

The prepossession laid out with tastes of The Drift Farm, The Winery of Good Hope, Glenelly Cellars and Mullineux & Leeu. Later the night begged and belonged to vignerons gathered at Longridge Estate, the following morning a tour of the Franschhoek Motor Museum and a tasting at Anthonij Rupert Estate.

Each of the three days at Cape Wine begat evenings in Cape Town of world’s away preoccupation. Velvet dissident South African Braai at Publik, her majesty’s secret service at Ellerman House and born in the USA-DGB in the Winelands. Events de facto, recondite and unshackled.

Publik, Cape Town

Then the Canadian boys played cricket with the Swartland cowboys and while our swings looked more like hockey snap shots and our bowls like little league change-ups, in the end we held serve and thankfully no one got hurt. True Swartland smoking at the hands of Callie Louw linked Groot Frankenstein to Barque Smokehouse BBQ.

Cricket adversaries #swartlandswingers

A #braai in the hand is worth two in the bush #callielouw #porseleinberg @SwartlandRev #swartlandindependents #swartlandswingers #swartland

An epic 12 hours followed the matches, first with Ken Forrester and a speed tasting across a portfolio shot through the heart with some striking, older bottles. Then the group got down to trials at the Winery of Good Hope with Alex Dale and Jacques de Klerk. Remy Charest, Scott Zebarth, Kler-Yann Bouteiller and Godello helped mix, match, add and subtract percentages of fermented juice to decide upon the blend for the Pearce-Predhomme Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc. Nicholas and Will are now taking orders for delivery in the new year. Then in order, wagyu beef and Radford Dale wines at Ken’s 96 Winery Road Restaurant, World Cup Rugby and Burgundy.

The view from the Winery of Good Hope

On the final day we paid a visit to the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley along the Hermanus wine route, with a tasting at Bouchard Finlayson and lunch at La Vierge winery.

I tasted hundreds of wines during the eight-day journey around the Western Cape. In due course I will put up tasting notes for as many as possible but for now here are a couple of dozen, specific to and in conjunction with the people and places that hosted us.

The PIWOSA Wine-Car Boot, Journey’s End Winery

The Drift Farm

The Drift Wines Year of the Rooster Rosé 2014, Overberg Highlands, South Africa (Winery)

Winemaker Bruce Jack’s 100 per cent shaken, not stirred Touriga Franca was inspired by a trip to the Douro. Rhubarb and salinity rub the ripe fruit in the right way. If 007 were to drink Rosé, this would fit the metrosexual bill. From four barrels. Drink 2015-2016. Tasted September 2015 @TheDriftFarm

Drift Farm The Moveable Feast

The Drift Wines The Moveable Feast 2013, Overberg Highlands, South Africa (Winery)

A blend (that drifts and changes every year) of Malbec and Shiraz with Tannat, Touriga Nacional and Pinot Noir. Though the notes are played without excess, the specs ruminate for infinite possibilities, with aspects as from mine run-off, ocean salinity, high body acidity, muted sunshine, rusticity and veneer. Rides a sonic highway, to “crossroads with nothing to lose.” The feast and the famine, a fighter, “put back together by a troubled groove.” From minimalist Hemingway to Foo from Grohl. Get the drift? Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015

The Drift Wines Mary le Bow 2011, Robertson, South Africa (Winery)

A farm-designate red blend (Wildepaardekloof, Langeberg Mountain) built upon Cabernet Sauvignon (38 per cent), Shiraz (31), Petit Verdot (23) and Merlot (8). In ode to the Cockney saint, big Bow Bell and crusader’s crypts. Extended barrel age and the deepest, darkest maturity makes for a brooding red reflective of a Kloof’s tale from a crypt. Not for the faint of red blends. Indeed it trembles with power. Drink 2017-2021. Tasted September 2015

Journey’s End Sauvignon Blanc The Weather Station 2014, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Agent, Winery, WineAlign)

A product of the first Sauvignon Blanc clones planted in South Africa (next to a weather station). The wine had been bottled less than a week ago so while the pyrazine factor is set to high the equal and mitigating fruit freshness trumps the green. Free spirited, of spice, in bite and quickly settling, into balance. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @JourneysEndWine @vonterrabev @colyntruter

Journey’s End Destination Chardonnay 2014, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Agent, Winery, WineAlign)

A nicely, effectively minor reductive Chardonnay that knows the barrel well. Divides by mitosis the cells of mineral and spice into furrows, chiseling a secondary cytokinesis flavour profile in cut by brilliant gemstone flexure. From fruit fracture to cellular overlap, out of (approximately 10 months) wood and into impressionistic stone. Tasting accessed through four stages imagines time to be exigent; through reduction (prophase), oak (metaphase), stone (anaphase) and texture (telophase), until the ultimate descent toward’s the journey’s end. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted September 2015

Journey’s End

Journey’s End Trebuchet 2014, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Agent, Winery, WineAlign)

Two Cabernets and a Malbec conjoin to catapult funk-less, heavy laden red fruit into an atmosphere of veneer. The flavours are inclusive of pomegranate and anise, with some rust and circumstantial metallurgical magnification. The tang is a factor to be reckoned with in this primeval red blend. Crushes unsuspecting objects upon landing. Let it settle for 12 months. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted September 2015

Journey’s End Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Agent, Winery, WineAlign)

A 100 per cent varietal wine from a wind that blew through and away. The child of a markedly perfect vintage blessed with chalk, grit and terroir. Views from within the new barrel have diminished along with once terrible teeth gnashing tannin. At six years-old it sits cross-legged, big-boned, fruit fleshy, structured and sure. The evolution is far from complete with berries seemingly so presently ripe, the late spice and coffee kick making cause for yet jittery times. Two or three more years will offer further guarantees of pay dirt and peace. Drink 2017-2024. Tasted September 2015

Godello, Leon Esterhuizen and Colyn Truter from Journey’s End

Glenelly Estate Shiraz “Glass Collection” 2011, Wo Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Screw cap Shiraz reason number one here, fresh from Stellenbosch, single-vineyard, whole bunch fermented for aromatics and 10 months in one-third new oak, for maximum flavour. “These wines are to be drunk young,” notes export manager Nicolas Bureau, “within five to six years of the vintage.” And so, why put a cork in them? From the hands of winemaker Luke O’Cuinneagain and Secateurs minimal intervention wine consultant Adi Badenhorst. Sparkle, vigour and dew. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted September 2015 @GlenellyWines @VinexxWine

Glenelly Wines

Grand Vin De Glenelly Red 2009, Wo Stellenbosch, South Africa (360339, $19.95, WineAlign)

There are components of the Shiraz and the Cabernet in the Grand Vin though its composure comes neither from sparkle nor funk. Nor does it pay direct homage any more to the Rhône than it does to Bordeaux. With time, the Grand Vin will go it alone, from Stellenbosch to the world. Time spent in oak was lengthy (18 months in one-third new) for a blend composed of Syrah (42 per cent), Cabernet Sauvignon (40), Merlot (14) and Petit Verdot (4). The estate clearly considers blends as more than the sum of parts. The Grand Vin is the thing. The Glenelly king. It’s hard to get under its skin, to comprehend its nuance, to know it as a child. The wood, the terroir and the structure yet relent to understanding. A matriarchal wine to be sure, a generation may need to pass for the Grand Vin to carry the torch. The Pichon Longueville connection is not lost or left to chance but this prodigy will need to find its own voice. Red wine of such eternal maturity exists towards a future that begins now. Or on in two to three years. Drink 2017-2024. Tasted September 2015

With Nicolas Bureau, Glenelly Estate

Mullineux & Leeu Syrah 2011, Wo Swartland, South Africa (Winery, Agent, SAQ 12490545, $36.00, WineAlign)

Grasps the subterranean funk of the Swartland terroir and runs with in, through fields of atmosphere, in a wholly singular way. A culling combination if shale, schist and granite, brushed by (15 per cent new) oak for 11 months. Pure, natural, fresh and rising, by citrus zest and inflating acidity. The oscillating flavours prick, pierce, push and pull with elemental and mineral inflections. Like a light show in the sky, Chris and Andrea Mullineux’s Syrah is a quiet spectacle. Drink 2016-2026. Tasted September 2015 @MullineuxWines @MullineuxChris @Nicholaspearce_

Mullineux & Leeu Cinsault Rosé 2013, Wo Swartland, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Tangy tangerine, rhubarb and liquid chalk are the emotive emissions from this skin contact blush as much orange as it is pink. Wild in sauvage, perfectly musty, a Rosé of its own accord and spacing within the parameters of its very won world. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015

Mullineux & Leeu White 2013, Wo Swartland, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

An old bush vines blend of Chenin Blanc (80 per cent), Clairette Blanc (13) and Viognier, 10 per cent of which was fermented in old oak. A wild and carpeted ride for Chenin Blanc, melding into gentle acidity with layers of smithy portent and even a bit of Greekdom. “The son. And the heir. Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.” There is so much spice and complexity, from the skins of many citrus fruits. Strips, stripes and skirts the mouth with layers of mineral life. How soon is now for wines like these in South Africa and to be shared with the world? Drink 2015-2023. Tasted September 2015

Mullineux & Leeu Syrah Iron 2013, Wo Swartland, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Radford Dale Nudity 2014, Voor-Paardeberg, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

From the Winery of Good Hope, vignerons Alex Dale and Jacques de Klerk. Ancient granite soil from a single-vineyard on Paardeberg mountain. Organic, dry-farmed, total consciousness, flowing robes, grace, striking. Low alcohol, high natural acidity, fresh, spirited, energetic Syrah. Impossible South African Syrah. Drink 2015-2022. Tasted September 2015 @Radforddale @WineryGoodHope @deklerkjacques @Noble_Estates

With the gang from Radford Dale

Radford Dale Black Rock 2013, Perdeberg-Swartland, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

From old bushvine vineyards scattered amongst the granite outcroppings of the Swartland, the blend combines Syrah, Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache, Mourvedre and Viognier for full Rhône homage, if not necessarily effect or intent. The percentages change with each vintage, left to seek harmony in the hands of master blender de Klerk, a man who plays and has the mandate to do so. Natural fermentations persist, as they should and they rightfully accomplish goals of freshness, natural acidity and that elusive you’re born with cure that extends health and longevity. Modern South Africa of ancient longing here on display is just the tip of the bare essentials, in ferments and blends, yet to come. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015

Working on South Africa with a sundown over Stellenbosch @WOSACanada

The Stellenbosch Experience, Longridge Estate

Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Chenin Blanc 2014

Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Chenin Blanc 2014, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

A markedly different and intriguing Chenin Blanc that saw seven to eight months in second and third fill barrels. Well-groomed, direct, crisp, clean and pure within the wooden framework and not even close to flirting with oxidative leanings or an overly creamy texture. A pleaser avec plaisir in excelsior, expression and exemplary restraint. Very tidy winemaking. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @FleurduCapWines

Venison and salted chocolate, Longridge Estate

Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Pinotage 2014, Western Cape, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

If it was not for this early sip of Fleur de Cap’s Pinotage on the first night of the South Africa trip I’m not sure the doors to new perception would have ever been opened. Fresh, red fruit juicy, base, natural and nearly naked. A step into giving new meaning for the great hybrid history and varietal future. Though other examples over the course of a week would blow my mind, this unfiltered beauty set the altering stage for what was to come. Unexpected excellent match to Venison with salted chocolate. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015

Chenin gem @LongridgeWines & munificent hospitality @StellWineRoute @WOSA_ZA @WOSACanada #stellenblog

Longridge Estate Chenin Blanc 2013, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Covers the essentials for Chenin Blanc in a Vouvray style; mineral, lemon, bitters and salinity. Emphasizes mastered qualities with proper stability and a strength of character. Will not usher in any sort of revolution but it takes beautifully bitter pear-like fruit from wizened vines and hits the target. And though it spent 11 months in second and third fill barrels you would never know it. A flinty fleeting moment, a slow ride and a shelter from residual sugar that might try to alter its corse. Instead it will munch on that sweetness to live on. Silky smooth, momentarily pungent and refreshing as can be. Stellar Chenin. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @LongridgeWines

Ken Forrester Vineyards Renegade 2011

Ken Forrester Renegade 2011, Stellenbosch, South Africa (SAQ 10703084 $24.25, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Mainly Grenache and inculcated with varietal layers thereof, though in the end it is the Rhône blend accrual that bounds over hills and dales. I’m not sure any number of Stellenbosch investigations will unearth more expatriate quality for the coin than is found in the Renegade. A true marker of its maker, The specs are spot on to produce heft, strength and confidence from tireless work. Healthy pH, minimal sweetness, virile acidity and generous alcohol. Like a blood transfusion even though you weren’t sick. Like drinking snake’s blood in grain alcohol on the side of a Hanoi road. Like an hour of intense yoga. Ken Forrester, all in, fully, completely engaged. This red blend speaks in his voice. “Renegade! Never been afraid to say. What’s on my mind at, any given time of day.” It’s no jay but it covers the Stellenbosch bases, from A to Z. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015

Ellerman House

Godello at the edge of the world #capetown #ellermanhouse #banghoekuncorked #southafrica

Tokara Sauvignon Blanc Reserve Collection 2014, Elgin, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

From the atmospheric growing conditions of Elgin, the new South African geographical epiphany for the cool-climate varietal future. From the winery’s Highlands farm, transported to Stellenbosch and fermented with tact, cold, stainless, with acidity intact. Tokara’s Sauvignon Blanc is bone dry (near and dear to 2.0 g/L of RS) and a straight piercing heart of an SB as ever there was. Takes the likes of Marlborough and teaches it a thing or two about the coastal ways of the Western Cape. Tasted with viticulturist Aidan Morton. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015 @TOKARA_ZA

Brandy sculpture @Ellermanhouse @WOSA_ZA #banghoekUncorked #capetown #southafrica

Oldenberg Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2014, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

From vines planted in 2006 on alluvial soils. A tight, lean and bracing Chenin Blanc with seamless attribution. Simplicity of fruit meets oak (30 per cent ferment for 10 months in 300L French barrels, 50 per cent new) but somehow freshness wins outright. This in kind to sharp, feisty, sour-edged acidity that is lemon bracing and a linger for a good length of time. Also in spite of generous alcohol (14.11 per cent) and relatively low pH (3.21). Jasmine and honey? “Fields of flowers deep in his dreams (Ha ha, honey), lead them out to sea by the east (Ha ha, honey).” The reminder of Stellenbosch and Chenin Blanc. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @Oldenburgwines @HHDImports_Wine

Thelema Mountain Blanc de Blancs Méthode Cap Classique 2012, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Sparkling generously donated to with agreeable richness from eight year-old vines out of Tukulu soil. Generous of yield (16 t/hL) at low red/yellow saturated slopes near the basin floor. The dosage keeps it comfortably Brut, the acidity cozily numb. Classic bubble methodology, including three years lees aging, in line for such fine elegance. Runs for a straight purpose, of citrus incarnate with a penchant for piercing. In its youth it knows nothing of oxidative and yet that dimension will lengthen its future. For 15 years it will reside in the refreshing valley in between. Though he is a multi-varietal maestro and with no disrespect to the rest of his Thelma and Sutherland portfolios, if Sparkling is not winemaker Rudi Schultz’s true calling then I’ll have to spend three more hours at dinner with proprietor Thomas Webb to find out what is. Drink 2015-2030. Tasted September 2015 @ThelemaWines @tomwebbsa @EpicW_S

We’ve been expecting you, Mr. Bond #ellermanhouse #banghoekuncorked #007 #capetown

Thelema Sutherland Viognier-Roussanne 2012, Elgin, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

In the realm of two-thirds to one-third ratio from Seven year-old (at the time) vines grown on Tukulu and Glenrosa soils. The ramp up of Roussanne percentage elevates acidity to balance the richer, broader and wide-ranging Viognier breadth. There is great grape tannin in this Elgin white with healthy yet balanced alcohol, negligent sweetness and that bouncy, bountiful acidity. Lays about happily in a pool of bleed from rock and stone. Possessive of the je ne sais quoi all impressionistic whites must have, vry of the land and tonic attention. In the end bitter grapefruit draws a cheek full of wince and sends goose bumps down the spine. Gotta love that. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted September 2015

Panels of terroir @Ellermanhouse Face in the crowd #terroirwall #angustaylor #rammedearth #paulharris #winegallery #cape town

DGB in the Capelands

Others would kill for her Pinot fruit and Lizelle Gerber kills it for @BoschendalWines #dgb #DGBinthewinelands

Boschendal Cap Classique Jean le Long Prestige Cuvée Blanc de Blancs, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Chardonnay curried favour from impeccant and licid (2007 base wine) cool climate fruit and then ingratiated by 60 months plus one year on the lees. Of added significance by only having been sulphured at disgorgement. A yeasty B de B of beautifully beckoning oxidation and bone dry at 2.3 g/L of RS. Fizz of finesse and elegance, a feet sweeping, inveigling, influence exerting Stellenbosch cuvée. A skillfully applied mound of preserved lemon and freshly grated wild ginger, piled like airy mousse, or like lustrous wasabi without the burn. Benchmark for the Méthode Cap Classique B de B style. Drink 2015-2027. Tasted September 2015 @BoschendalWines @LiffordON @liffordwine

Cape Oysters Vietnamese #chefswarehouse #capetown

Boschendal Cap Classique Grand Cuvée Brut 2009, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Time is the settler is this Pinot Noir (51 per cent) and Chardonnay (49) of aeration and ripeness from its days as a sun-worshipper. From fruit primarily sourced in Stellenbosch with some help from the Elgin Valley. Disgorged in the Spring of 2014, six months post 36 months on its yeasts have brought it to a very happy place. As it found itself in requiem of a less than Brut profile, the sugar level is higher (7.8 g/L), a munching magic mousse transformative indeed, enacted during secondary fermentation and measured dosage. Distinctly nutty, rich, torch toasty and presented in purview by citrus. For Cape oysters, at the least, or foie gras and with a bowl of salted nuts. Drink 2015-2029. Tasted September 2015

Boschendal Cap Classique Grand Cuvée Brut 2009

Boschendal Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Elgin, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

From the highest of and one of the latest ripening mountain plateau vineyards in Elgin, 500m above sea level and only 18km away from the Atlantic Ocean. The Eikenhof farm offers well-drained Bokkeveld Shale soils and with a healthy yet restrained sugar component (4.4 g/L), here Sauvignon Blanc goes at it rich and grassy, herbal and highly textured. The white pepper olfaction in lieu of capsicum makes a yummo aromatic impression. Here SB executes in expatiated flection, with layers waiting to be peeled away in discovery of what lays beneath. I would suggest not treading near the surface. You will miss out on the mysteries weighted in its depths. Drink 2016-2021. Tasted September 2015

Pork Belly at DGB in the Capelands food truck event

Boschendal Chardonnay 2013, Elgin, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

Slow-ripened, low-yielding Chardonnay seasoned from unirrigated mountain slopes of Bokkeveld Shale mixed with some clay. Chardonnay paid attention in detail only a small farm can afford, followed by prudent picking in a warmer than average vintage. The barrel has its say in a heartfelt way, the integration with delicate fruit sprouting wings more effete than mannish. One quarter of the 80 per cent oak ferment is new and the rest either second or third fill. Fresh now, reductive to a necessary degree and built for a minimum five with an optimum seven to eight year shelf life. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015

This guy loves Canada @WOSA_ZA #DGBinthewinelands #foodtrucks

Boschendal Pinot Noir 2013, Elgin, South Africa (Winery, Agent)

This is the bomb. Lizelle Gerber may be benevolently pegged as the white wine maker at Boschendal but place Pinot Noir fruit from the second highest vineyard in South Africa in her hands and shazam; welcome to the hallowed alchemy payoff. The treatment is not unlike what Gerber effects upon her Chardonnay; 50 per cent natural fermentation, 12 months barrel maturation in (25 per cent) new, (35) second fill, (15) third and (25) fourth French oak. Variability comes by way of heavy red clays, from Table Mountain Sandstone, Bokkeveld shale, Tukulu and Silica Quartz with underlying Caoline clay. So what? Balance, so what. Her Pinot Noir finds separation by soil. The small berries are so prized even the baboons want in. The windswept vineyards are a place of chaste, inviolable grounds, where Pinot Noir needs little human interference save for some predator protection. The gathering here imagines Willamette salinity, Otago purity and Beaune delicacy. Gerber’s Pinot is simple, cast from only overnight free-run juice, unpressed, pitch perfect, virtuous and riddled with the tension of decorum. It will age for 10 years plus. Drink 2015-2025. Tasted September 2015

Good to go!

Twitter: @mgodello

Instagram: mgodello

WineAlign: Michael Godel

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In a gadda da vino baby

Dec11

Charcuterie and Appetizers @barquebutchers by the @greek_silver_fox, Chef Jo Castrinos

It’s December, baby. In Ontario that means one thing. Cash money for the LCBO. Lineups longer than a 1988 Moscow bread line. If you’re from somewhere other than this magical, monopolized place we call wine central you just wouldn’t understand. You would not be privy to and giddy with isles stacked in pyramids of critter red and whites, Bailey’s Irish Cream and Absolut Durian. Wait, that would be cool.

No, not la vida loca. We are not talking about living the crazy life to make you cool. No party trick, no Spanglish, no politically incorrect, Urban Dictionary Ricky Martin slur. Not this either. “The awkward silence and/or major anticlimax that follows the confession of a big secret that everybody else already knew.”

You want it all in December, the most wine for the money, for gifts, to bring to the holiday party, to stack some away in the cellar. You want the Garden of Eden in a bottle.

In a gadda da vida, honey.

Let me tell ya.

With the ghosts of Christmas gem releases now just a strange, uncomfortable and debilitating nightmare trailing away in the rear-view mirror of Visa cards maxed out past, now is the time to focus on what’s real. To concentrate on purchasing wines in your price bracket, wines that speak of people, places and who will be drinking them.

I have combed, tasted and considered the releases now on shelves for this weekend’s December 12th offering. The parameters are $15 to $35, something for everyone, to purchase with confidence and to equip you with a most necessary advantage, to present them with pride no matter the circumstance. Ten wines to work the holiday room.

Cabriz Reserva 2012, Doc Dão, Portugal (21410, $17.95, WineAlign)

Such a juicy red, of honest imporosity and primed with acidity to prop and speculate. Bang on for the price, in its weight class and with the charm of sweet adolescence. Solid Dao with a whole lot of propensity to mix and match with the multitude of foods at your table. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted November 2015 @wines_portugal @winesportugalCA @Noble_Estates

Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir Pic Saint Loup 2011, Ap Coteaux Du Languedoc, France (376491, $18.95, WineAlign)

Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache blend from the Pic Saint-Loup mountain peak and limestone cliff flanks of the the Coteaux du Languedoc. Sharp with concentrated red fruit, tight acidity and just enough tannin to render this marketable to a five-year plan of evolution. Real and as naturally forged as they come from Gérard Bertrand’s Cross Series reds of southern France. Prime example from and one to celebrate a terroir like Pic St Loup which continues to play the unheralded outlier. Really fine and just the right and correct amount of attitude. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted November 2015 @GBvins @FwmWine @LanguedocWines

Tawse Spark Limestone Ridge Riesling Sparkling 2013, Twenty Mile Bench, Ontario (370361, $19.95, WineAlign)

Only a year and in conjunction with an improved Sparkling wine vintage for Riesling, short work has elevated the young Spark’s game. A repeat lees performance initiates the conversation, of cheese melted overtop composite laminate, with yeast burgeoning about. In 2013 the concrete crispness is cemented deeper, etched into stone and thus completing the sub-$20 legacy. That winemaker Paul Pender can coax Riesling character, striking Sparkling wine resolve and yet hover in the air of litheness, well, this is the kneading. Silty, salty earth and soft transitions to citrus acidity are a requiem for success as per the Twenty Mile Bench/Limestone ridges vouchsafe common. Can even imagine a bit of time turning this into sparks and honey. Drink 2015-2019. Last tasted November 2015 @Tawse_Winery @Paul_Pender

Ernie Els Big Easy 2013, Wo Western Cape, South Africa (220038, $19.95, WineAlign)

Big Easy, Stellenbosch

A massive amount of fruit, caked earth and big, bouncy reduction is packed into this free swinging Western Cape red blend. The reduction mixes with Rhone bacon and its own regional gamey notes. This is both typical and radical. It is made in a style that many love and will continue to love and yet others will balk at its generational specificity. The clean, pure focus in Rhone varietal terminology teams up to subdue the Cabernet though that variety does add lushness to smooth out some of the hard edges. Tons of flavour. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted November 2015 @ErnieElsWinery @WOSACanada @WOSA_ZA

Baron De Ley Varietales Graciano 2011, Doca Rioja, Spain (397166, $21.95, WineAlign)

Another terrific vintage for the varietal Ley, wrapping a wreath of pure Graciano fruit around your neck and letting you lay back with a sip of something beautiful. Pure floral liqueur, the violets and the sweat, the sweet fruit and the citrus accent. Soft lactic acid and chewy with an accent of dark chocolate and spice. A bit more burly than the ’09 and certainly increasingly oak apparent but a good mouthful nevertheless. Let it rest for two years to let the wood sink in. Drink 2017-2022. Tasted November 2015 @BaronDeLeyRioja @RiojaWine @AMH_hobbsandco

Stratus Evergreen Red 2008, VQA Niagara On The Lake, Ontario (437434, $24.95, WineAlign)

Where has this been? This harmonious composition, like a Starland Vocal Band, Cabernet Sauvignon (30 per cent) plus Cabernet Franc (30) friendship with a healthy dose of Merlot (27) and a bit of Petit Verdot (4) in minor support. The acidity and the tannin have nearly fully waned but it’s a real pleasure to drink at this seven-year mark. Pretty fruit, creamy texture, just enough energy left to keep the party grooving, weightless and soaring in the air. Some chocolate and dessert like tendency but with the right kind of salty main course or just a few sips leading to that point, this will be an afternoon delight. “My motto’s always been ‘when it’s right, it’s right.’ Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night?” Herbal finish is cool and Northern Ontario like in its slow, easy exhalation. Extra points for the foresight, the opportunistic release point and the effort in a hit or miss vintage. The Evergreen Brickworks market’s loss is the LCBO’s gain. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted November 2015 @StratusWines

Versado Malbec 2013, Luján De Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina (317008, $25.95, WineAlign)

The rocks beneath the earth precede the rich, dark fruit. After the berries and the candy beets and the spices subside the flowers grow and take over the room. The vintage brings more layers than before. Malbec of character and belief, even a touch of good VA, a coat that only the Southern Hemisphere can provide. It is not usually present in Mendozan Malbec so it’s really a breath of fresh paint here in the Versado. Great purity. Protracted length. Most expansive and intriguing vintage to date. The Reserva will be killer. Last tasted November 2015

Domaine Karydas Naoussa 2010, Dop Naoussa, Greece (272013, $26.95, WineAlign)

A rich, nearly creamy mouthful of Xinomavro, full on red fruit and as much scorched earth as prescribed to be necessary. There is plenty of front end acidity and back-end tannin though the pathway between is rocky, jagged and bumpy. I’d like to see this again in two or three years to see if it has smoothed out. For now it’s certainly edgy and divided though I will admit it has gained my full, undivided attention. Time will tell. Drink 2017-2022. Tasted November 2015 @KolonakiGroup @winesofnaoussa @DrinkGreekWine

Domaine Hamelin Chablis Beauroy Premier Cru 2012, Burgundy, France (391805, $33.95, WineAlign)

May just be the most well-rounded Premier Cru Chablis in the Ontario market today and orbits would not be its prescribed or described path. Linear more like it, star-shooting with trailing sparks from its steely beginnings out of stainless silo. Well-rounded because it draws fruit from every level of Kimmeridgien subsoil up and down the hills, from the bottom of the valley to the top of the slopes. Also because of its pinpoint unoaked Chablis accuracy, from mineral on the tongue to citrus receding and recoiling. So very clean old bones fruit (up to 35 years old) and direct at a price point most Premier Cru fail to touch. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted December 2015 @BIVBChablis @oenophilia1

Fontodi Chianti Classico 2012, Tuscany, Italy (933317, $36.95, WineAlign)

Classic and I mean classic Chianti Classico, cured, ancient, fruit forward. Modern, gritty, tannic, spicy, desperately in love and bound by leather. Tea and liqueur, all in Chianti Classico. Some iron and animale, bitters, tonics, cherries, medicines, all of the above. Acidity raging, thunder clapping, lightning striking. Needs seven years to shed emotional tears, fully settle and be a memory of its intense self. A wine that will remember. Drink 2018-2026. Tasted November 2015 @chianticlassico @rogcowines

Good to go!

Twitter: @mgodello

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South African duck dynasty

Dec9

Avondale Wines Navitas 2008

Balance, health, sustainability, organics, bio-dynamics, 21st century science and a posse of ducks. For Johnathan Grieve, these are the tenets of growing grapes and making wine at Avondale. The family owned and operated winery in Paarl, South Africa is a purveyor of wines fashioned with low and slow dynamics. Their dynasty is bred from a form of naturalism practiced in farming and winemaking executed in its purest form.

Take a moment to consider the dowsing effects of viticulture and viniculture driven by divested interests, where natural fermentations and a complete absence of artificial adjustments are the sworn rule. Let yourself go and the tangent will take you further, to incurvate within a grower’s neighbourhood occupied by the dimensions of the spiritual intersected with the existential. You will find yourself stumbling upon life energies, living systems, cosmic influences and rhythms.

I tasted with Grieve in Toronto, May 2015, with thanks to Rare Earth Wines and Wines of South Africa Canada’s Laurel Keenan. I then sat down with him again in September 2015, at Cape Wine, in Cape Town, South Africa. The notes tell the stories.

Avondale Wines at Cape Wine 2015

Avondale Wines Armilla 2009, Paarl, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

From a farm dating to 1693 purchased by Johnathan Grieve’s family in 1996. Poster bubbles, for the Blanc de blancs habitation and for the Avondale oeuvre, the Armillary sphere, Roman “circle of life” and ancient astronomical instrument used to show the position of stars around the earth. Traditional production, with a kiss of oak and a final act of dosage. Five total years on the lees, including two on coarse and one in bottle. Picking was accomplished at the end of that January, in purpose of stylistic elegance and beautiful bitters born of natural and integrated acidity. Terrific dip of biscuits into honey. Like Baklava in a glass though equally savoury to dessert. Baller bubble, balanced and with the sense to envision evolution, to the look ahead of an adult age. Would retail for approximately $28 CAN. Drink 2015-2027. Tasted twice, May and September 2015 @Avondalewine @RareEarth_Wines @WOSACanada @WOSA_ZA

Winemaker with a true sense of purpose- Johnathan Grieve @Avondalewine @CapeWine2015 #capewineconnect #terraestvita #paarl #westerncape #southafrica #southafricanwine

Avondale Wines Jonty’s Ducks Pekin White 2013, Paarl, South Africa ($14.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Named for the young ducks and their voracious appetites for snails on which they go to town in the vineyard. Chenin Blanc driven, with some white Muscat, Semillon and Roussane. Sweet Chenin nose while 10 per cent aged in big French barrels adds texture in fleshy orchard fruit, from white peach to yellow plum. Duck, duck, goose, as in tart, sapid berries and the way they solidify the finish. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted May 2015

Avondale Wines Jonty’s Ducks Pekin White 2014, Paarl, South Africa ($14.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Avondale Wines in Toronto, May 2015

Avondale Wines Jonty’s Ducks Pekin Red 2011, Paarl, South Africa (383547, $14.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

At Avondale they employ beneficial bacteria, predatory wasps, birds of prey and their famous ducks. The Jonty’s posse goes frenetic when escargot are offered up at lunch. The same can be said for hordes of humans and this red blend. Composed from Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, it is seamless at this price. While savoury to be sure, there is no grape dominance. The middle is filled with drupe, kernel and spice. Try finding volatility. You can’t. Speaks, comments and lectures in layers of fruit across its hexa-varietal spectrum. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted May 2015

Avondale Wines Anima Chenin Blanc 2013, Paarl, South Africa ($22.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Straight shooting Chenin of struck stone and flint, from 100 per cent whole clusters, naturally fermented and aged for 12 months on the lees in large (500L) barrels. Plus bâtonnage, in the name of lees. Offers a sense of wax and pollen, in airy texture, through a valley of sound, with bending notes and a big riff finish. Some bitter melon and unique berries fret about. Has developed its tannic structure with mineral for soul and weight from soil. Terra est vita, soul to soul. Soil to soil. Avondale makes use of concentrated sea salts and cover crops give balance to the vineyard, to add diversity without negativity. Like adding keyboard and saxophone to the blues, for soul. “Get away from the blind side of life.” Change it. Drink 2015-2020. tasted May and September 2015

Avondale Wines Cyclus 2013, Paarl, South Africa ($26.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

A sink full blend of give or take equal (20-24 per cent) parts, with the vortex at Viognier, alongside Chenin Blanc, Marsanne and Roussane with (six to 10 per cent) Sémillon. Ostensibly, sensibly and spoken through megaphone, purporting the drive to and for such an appellative blend in South Africa. A circle of life and energy to announce the need for diversity, in vineyard, by way of bringing varietal togetherness and the notion that anything can be accomplished, anywhere, anytime. Confirms the idea that everything ripens in South Africa and can be showcased with the correct approach. An Avondale holistic approach. A Capelands example for which many should follow. Fruit in every pore, nook, hollow and cranny. Just as the vortices of a cow’s horn encourages blood flow, so are energies focused in the Avondale soil. Breathing in the Autumn, breathing out in Spring. The cycles. Drink 2015-2022. Tasted September 2015

Johnathan Grieve in Toronto, May 2015

Avondale Wines Cyclus 2012, Paarl, South Africa ($26.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Viognier, Chardonnay, Roussanne, Chenin Blanc and Sémillon. In 2012 it’s as if the five varieties are spinning in centrifuge. Quite the whirling white blend, dynamic, energetic, replete with tropical fruit, metals and pulpy paper. The entire accumulation grooves in a vortex, whorling within a dynamic container. The lees adds a perfume of fine format, of yeast cultures and beneficial bacteria in a frenzy, bringing character and expression. The nine months of coarse solids have filtered in, relegating to elegance and pausing in a northern Rhone way. Up front fruit once quiet is now showy in this, its early stages of development. Fascinating stuff. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted May 2015

Avondale Wines Camissa 2014, Paarl, South Africa ( Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

A different sort of animal, the Camissa is a Blanc de Noir made from red varieties, Muscat de Frontignan, Mourvedre and Grenache. Tells the story of Table Mountain and the stream that feeds the vineyard. An expression of mostly red fruit; strawberry, raspberry, cranberry and pomegranate, dried, saline and briny. Lithe like dry Rosé and struck by impeccable balance thanks to natural acidity. Citrus claims the finish. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015

Avondale in Toronto, May 2015

Avondale Wines Samsara 2009, Paarl, South Africa ($32.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

A 100 per cent Syrah of purity, elegance and structure, from beginning to end. Nary a gauze or volatile moment intrudes, nor smoke and tar neither. Floral of violets, red plum and wet clay with just the faintest note of warm coffee grinds. Bright and vivid acidity, a rebirthing of Syrah, of South African roots incarnate and that grounded, earthy, yeasty cure. Much more elegant than the raw and energetic ’07. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted May 2015

Avondale Wines Samsara 2007, Paarl, South Africa ($32.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

Hand-harvested Syrah, whole bunch, naturally warm fermented with no crushing at 30-32 degrees centigrade. Extended (15-16 day) skin contact. All this to gain maximum extraction and optimum flavour. What resulted was a deep, rich, red earth cured, funk-motivated Syrah, driven by soil above all else. Pepper and violets meld into severe grape tannin from those skins. Allspice and red citrus make their mark. Still not yet ready for prime time. Drink 2017-2022. Tasted September 2015

Avondale Wines La Luna 2009, Paarl, South Africa ($34.95, Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

A five Bordeaux varietal blend from Cabernet Sauvignon to Malbec with diminishing percentages by way of and through Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. A meritage in which the heritage aromatics driven by natural yeasts are accentuated by the bell curve of the ferment, during the decline and before the spike. Cake of the earth, fruit of dense expression and the structure of low and slow development. Extended skin contact, housing the place where yeasts reside, leads to the cultures driving the tannins. A culture club of composure and happiness. Really offers up a sense of what is achievable in South Africa. Drink 2018-2025. Tasted May and September 2015

Avondale Wines Navitas 2008, Paarl, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

The flagship, limited release Navitas (just over 1000 bottles) endears juicy, parturient Grenache and Mourvedre to Avondale’s enceinte Syrah in a transformative and characterful Rhône blend. This ’08’s cup runneth over with intense energy in what may be referred to as the powerstream red, 100 per cent whole bunch fermented, powered by natural enzymes and essentially, prolifically gravid with the most severe envy of carbonic maceration. A post ferment skin contact for 30 days and 18 months in gently effacing, new 6o0L oak barrels transports grapes to near nirvana. This is what can be done with fruit that has fully completed a journey to phenolic ripeness. Approximately $139 CAN. Drink 2017-2028. Tasted September 2015

Good to go!

Twitter: @mgodello

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Twelve days of wine to get you through the holidays

Dec1

Charcuterie and Appetizers @barquebutchers by the GSF

More reasons are requested, given, offered, presented and needed for purchasing and consuming wine during the month of December than at any other time of the year. And so, 12 more suggestions, falling this time within the realm of mortal affordability yet special enough to gift and to make you feel like you’ve done something nice for yourself. Go ahead, indulge. All from the November 28th VINTAGES release.

Casas Del Bosque Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Casablanca Valley, Chile (974717, $13.95, WineAlign)

Could not be anything but Casablanca Sauvignon Blanc, movie quotes and all. Tossed like a cayenne dart at a yellow plum tree board. Sweet and salty, like white taffy and sprigs of rosemary on a bacon-wrapped scallop. Odd combo and why not. On the edge of tomatillo and nettle? Perhaps, but also composed with an acerbic wit, as time goes by. “It’s still the same old story. A fight for love and glory.” Drink 2015-2018. Tasted November 2015 @CasasdelBosque @azureau @DrinkChile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaAqze81y4Y

Delheim Family Chenin Blanc 2014, Wo Stellenbosch, South Africa (429720, $17.95, WineAlign)

Flinty, smoky, reductive Chenin, certainly produced with quantity and accessibility in mind. Typically, succinctly Stellenbosch, with a level of sweetness available and in balance with the stony fruit that is marked by a mineral mine. Has good acidity and even better length. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September and November 2015 @Delheim @Noble_Estates @WOSACanada @WOSA_ZA

Arnaldo Caprai Anima Umbra Rosso 2012, Igt Umbria, Italy (434266, $19.95, WineAlign)

So unexpectedly and remarkably fresh Umbrian of red fruit and ripe acids without any overkill from wood or tannin. This is a pure breath of fresh air in a world dominated by barrel, heat, over-extraction and covert winemaking operations. The fruit may not be Caprai’s most prized but it works a basic stratagem of interpretative and integrated, integral magic. It must be lauded for its honesty. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted November 2015 @Arnaldocaprai @StemWineGroup

Josef Chromy Pepik Sekt, Tasmania, Australia, (429704, $26.95, WineAlign)

A whole whorl of aromas kick up the dust from this pearl of a Tazzy with an arid and saline sense of destiny. Density and weight are surprising features, along with orchard fruit and wild machinations. Jams and swaggers with so much personality, from lime lining the velodramatic slopes of its groove to fish jumping out of its waters. Calling it alive would be an understatement. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Drink 2015-2020. Tasted November 2015 @JosefChromy @bwwines

Jean Max Roger Cuvée G.C. Sancerre 2014, Loire Valley, France (189126, $28.95, WineAlign)

Sweet scenting and spicy wafting Sauvignon Blanc, with white pepper and cool herbiage (mint, savoury, tarragon and basil). Good solid Sancerre, always, organically developed and of a verbiage that is modern, proper and articulate. Always spot on. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted November 2015 @oenophilia1 @LoireValleyWine

Spy Valley Envoy Sauvignon Blanc 2013, Waihopai Valley, Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand (429308, $29.95, WineAlign)

Elevated, reductive, flinty tones, noticeably crash course modern and reactive for New Zealand. Capsicum and juicy fruit gum, matchstick and tropical fruit, then citrus on the palate with opiate numbing. This is Sauvignon Blanc like Semillon, as if the winemaker at Spy Valley, with the best fruit possible from Waihopai Valley, had the intention of making the most serious SB on the planet. With a bit of barrel effect, though that may be a stretch I’m looking at a 10 year development here, into honey, rocks and a blast of propellent. Uncharted territory. Will have its share of naysaying anti-stylistic poo-pooers. Drink 2016-2026. Tasted November 2015 @spyvalleywine @SpyValleyUK @nzwine @TrialtoON

Château Bernadotte 2005, Ac Haut Médoc, Bordeaux, France (431775, $32.95, WineAlign)

A really nice drop of Bordeaux that has fully resolved from the semi-heat of 2005. This is good to go, with both acidity and tannin gracefully interconnected while the fruit remains. A good leathery hide and a slight ferric bleed fills the nooks. Lovely semi-old Bordeaux. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted November 2015

Majella Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, Coonawarra, South Australia (301531, $33.95, WineAlign)

A massive combination of fruit, tannin and wood whorl in a ferric, tough, gritty and ready for nothing in any particular hurry Cabernet. That said, it is silky smooth, spicy and velvety too. A really big mouthful of so much goodness to last 20 years or more. Out it aside for all the major players to get in tune and it will be music to your ears. And pleasure to your lips. Drink 2017-2032. Tasted November 2015 @aussiewineguy @HalpernWine @CoonawarraWine

Faustino I Gran Reserva 2004, Doca Rioja, Spain (976662, $35.95, WineAlign)

Rioja of another era, of tradition, curated history and the famous rusty liqueur. Steeping cherries, elongated acidity, rifling ripples of leather, cedar, cypress and chestnut. The right kind of Rioja with just a hint of plum and plenty of naturally orchestrated enjoyment. Drink 2015-2024. Tasted November 2015 @RiojaWine @Select_Wines

Stags’ Leap Winery Petite Sirah 2012, Napa Valley, California (590356, $39.95, WineAlign)

Dark, dusty and devilishly rich. Must be noted from the start that this is quite restrained for Petite Sirah, cautiously oaked and modest in alcohol. It’s no introvert mind you. A note of volatility keeps it on the edge and the flavours are steeped in tea, coffee and cocoa nib. The vintage agrees with the varietal transplantation and the burgeoning acidity makes for a relationship built on mutual respect. Good and plenty. The handshake is currently quite gripped so waiting another 18 months or so should and will soften the clasp. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted November 2015 @stagsleapwines

Künstler Hochheimer Stielweg Old Vines Riesling Trocken 2013, Qualitätswein, Rheingau, Germany (425041, $42.95, WineAlign)

Along with Rudesheim and Johannisberg, Hochheim was anointed by Goethe as one of the magnates of the Rheingau. From a singular cone-shaped hill locale on the unshaded east-west aspect of the Rhine River. The mediterranean micro-climate makes for, simply stated, stupid good Riesling. Riesling of richness and minerality, strength and length, perfectly good bitters and even better health assisting tonics. Fruit density in the realm of peach and apricot lives in due part because of the Cyrena marl and its soil matrix of dark, alluvial loamy loess. Bounty buoyed by energy. Layers and layers of health, wealth and old vines wisdom. Drink 2018-2035. Tasted May and November 2015 @Noble_Estates @germanwineca @WinesofGermany

Catena Alta Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, Mendoza, Argentina (959965, $46.95, WineAlign)

A very pretty, floral and flirtatious Cabernet, supported by extremely ripe and ripping tannins currently caught in a veritable uproar. Elongating drivers are chalky but not grainy and while the sweetness of those conduits are astonishing, the immediate gratification tells me I won’t see this continuing to develop for the better after the ten year mark. Five to ten will be just right. Drink 2017-2022. Tasted November 2015 @CatenaMalbec @LauraCatena @winesofarg @ArgentinaWineCA @TrialtoON

Good to go!

Twitter: @mgodello

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Once upon a time in the Western Cape

Oct7

Cape Wine 2015

Independents, rebels, rogues, zoo biscuits, risk takers, revolution. Buzz words, gathered sects and constituents of rebellion. Clusters of assemblage ruminating, circulating and percolating at the latest edition of organized wine in South Africa.

Who among us might have foretold in dramatic foreshadowing the story of September’s Cape Wine 2015? Who could have known that the southern hemisphere’s largest gathering of producers, marketers, buyers, sellers, sommeliers and journalists would do more to quell preconceived notions and stereotypes for any wine producing country than any trade show that has come before? Total, utter energy.

PIWOSA

Centuries ago, when the fishing and trading boats would return west to the Cape they would mistakenly enter the wrong basin. “There’s that confounded bay again,” they would curse. False Bay. During the week preceding and following Cape Wine we climbed aboard cars and vans headed out from Cape Town or Stellenbosch. En route to a farm, estate or winery, more often than not, out the window, there was False Bay, like a magnet, drawing attention, setting and re-setting the excursion compass. As we watched the bay ache into and fade out of view each jaunt-acquiesced day, it just seemed as though we were always heading north and gaining altitude. Not really.

Cape wine country meanderings exist in requiem well beyond points A to B. Directional challenges are inclusive of L-shapes, U-turns and rotations. Lines draw as much east, southeast and northeast as they do falsely north. Journeys always conclude in a valley, at the base of a mountain or in an amphitheatre bound by geological reality. The getting there is often hazy but the arrival always comfortable.

Maybe I’ve a reason to believe
We all will be received
In Graceland

South African wine is not what we thought it was. This mantra can’t be repeated often enough. Ventures into the wine lands compounded the about-face turn of mind. Tastings, tours and zealous immersion into Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Swartland and Hemel-En-Aarde saw to that. South Africa is not what you thought folks, but it just might be what you dare to dream. If you’ve not visited you can’t possibly know what revelations lurk.

The frontier is inhabited by cowboys and their multifarious varietal schemes. It’s surfeited by demi-century established Chenin Blanc bush vines, painted pell-mell with expatriate rootstock and cuttings outside the Bordeaux and Burgundy box; Nebbiolo, Barbera, Tinta Barocca, Albarino, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Tempranillo and Tannat. Nothing is sacred and everything is fair game. Rhône blends are the current rage and Cinsault is going it alone with nothing short of remarkable results.

The Zoo Biscuits

Natural fermentation, skin contact and carbonic maceration have infiltrated the winemaker’s psyche. The eco-bio movement has challenged the fundamentalist incumbency and forced sweeping reforms. Fresh, natural, orange, caliginous and tenebrous have taken the Cape by storm. Praetorian makers are changing their ways. Pinotage has abandoned decades of Bordeaux wannabe style to once again don bell bottoms and retro suede. In 2015 South Africa, cats and dogs are living together.

Zoo Biscuits poster

Introduce me to a winemaker who is not in tune with his or her terroir and I’ll show you a winemaker who is either faking it or blindly towing a company line. That breed is few and far between. In South Africa I met exactly none of that ilk. So what? What’s so special about a nation of winemakers who work as one with their soil, their meso-climate and their geology? You’re supposed to intuit those abstracts to make great wine. “You’re supposed to take care of your kids!”

No, what separates South African vignerons from the rest of the world is the playground mentality and the execution in consummation of those ideals. The soils and the weather are nothing short of perfect in the vast growing region known as the Western Cape, or in the local vernacular, the Cape Winelands. Any varietal of choice can find its way to achieve perfect phenolic ripeness virtually anywhere the grapes are planted. The mitigating effect of Cape winds eradicates all disease. The place is a veritable garden of viticulture eden. Or, as in the case of the Hemel-En-Aarde Valley, a verdant, fertile valley known as “heaven on earth,” the adage takes on the paradisiacal guise of the sublime. South Africa is the wine collective equivalent of the wild west. In the Western Cape, anything goes.

Heap big trouble in the land of plenty
Tell me how we’re gonna do what’s best
You guess once upon a time in the west

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUOqTIaau3o

I will expand, in due course, on all the wines tasted during the eight days I spent in South Africa. A list of top wines and a preponderant unfurling are sure to follow in the form of fifty odd tasting notes. For now I will concentrate, in the name of lede consistency, on the varietal and stylistic revolution taking place.

Swartland Independents

The following notes will unquestionably focus on three platoons, Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa (PIWOSA), the Swartland Independents and the Zoo Biscuits. The first is a collective of straight-shooting, accordant, premium, independent wine producers from across the diverse wine regions of South Africa’s Western Cape. The second comprises 25 (give or take) cricket playing, indigenous fermenting, Anglikaans-gabbing grape shepherds. The third may draw their name from beloved childhood memories of packaged iced silhouettes of animals on cookies when in actuality they are a gaggle of like-minded, boundary-pushing, fun-loving, serious winemakers.

Suzaan and Chris Alheit

Cape Wine 2015 may have seen 300 presenters toting thousands of South African bottles but the swagger of 40 young vignerons stole the proverbial show. They did it with passion, innocence, acumen beyond years and attention to history. They go it alone and with a pack mentality. They care about old vines, tradition and respect for the land but they also have chutzpah. They don’t really give a fuck what the establishment thinks about their winemaking.

Jamie Goode and Godello, CapeWine2015

Three days at the Cape Town International Convention Centre allowed for extensive coverage of the South African wine scene. It was a perfectly organized show. Credit begins with the vignerons. Their work is tireless, especially when all must be dropped to focus on all-in, three relentless days of pouring while offering elaborate dissertations about their wines and their place in the South African scene.

At the lead there is Wines of South Africa, headed by Michael Jordaan and Siobhan Thompson, chair and CEO, respectively. André Morgenthal and Laurel Keenan head up communications, marketing, events and PR for WOSA, in South Africa and in Canada. The show and the excursions around the Cape Winelands were made possible by their collective efforts. Their immense efforts and impeccable work can’t ever be overestimated.

Chenin Blanc

No discourse on new versus old in South Africa can be addressed without first looking at the modish dialectal of Chenin Blanc. The combination of bush and old vines, coupled with indigenous ferments and skin contact addresses has elevated the stalwart, signature grape to its current reality.

Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines Chenin Blanc Skin Contact 2013, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

It begins with viticulturist Rosa Kruger and the cleanest fruit this side of Matroosberg Mountain. Vigneron and winemaker Chris and Andrea Mullineux use egg inversion to press and skin contact lasts for three months. This plus old barrels hyper-intensify umami; part bread dough, some pine forest, all wild yeast and a hint of Matsutake mushroom. The meld into acidity is a wild carpeted Chenin ride. Exhibits layers of Greekdom, in spice and complexity. The long inosinate to guanylate finish arrives and lingers in thanks to the scraped skins of many citrus fruits. They strip, stripe and spank the mouth. The spirited lashing and accumulated bejewelling is a sign of spiritual and plentiful life. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted September 2015 @MullineuxWines @MullineuxChris @SwartlandRev

A A Badenhorst Wines

A. A. Badenhorst Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2015, Swartland, South Africa (Winery, SAQ 12135092 $18.05, BC $23.00, WineAlign)

From Adi Badenhorst, old bushvines planted in the 1950’s and 1960’s and whole bunch handled with no crushing or de-stemming. Fruit is transferred to concrete and 500l old foudres. The simple, minimalist approach and lots of less stirring, leading to great texture, right up there with the most complex Chenin. Also possessive of the righteous level in bitters, intense citrus and bookworm herbology. Lucent, lambent, capable Chenin Blanc. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @AABadenhorst @SwartlandRev

Riesling

Not exactly household or predominant by any stretch of the imagination, Riesling does play a bit part in the white idiomatic presentation of South African wine. With the emergence of Elgin as a cool climate growing area capable of expertly ripening both aromatic and aerified varieties, the future will crystallize with more Riesling, Gewürztraminer and offshoot concepts.

Paul Cluver Riesling Close Encounter 2013, Elgin, South Africa (Winery, LCBO 500396, $23.00 WineAlign )

A more serious effort than the sibling ‘Dry Encounter’ because this Riesling knows what it wants to be. On its left may be Alsace and on its right the Mosel but in truth this speaks to a Kabinett reasoning, with Elgin layering. At nine per cent alcohol, 36 g/L RS and 8.2 g/L TA it knows the difference and speaks the truth about off-dry Riesling, with elevated and yet balancing acidity. It pretends to be nothing but what is of and for itself. Flint and an attainable stratosphere (between 300-500m above sea level) accept the airy drifts of oceans and the gathering returns to earth with the weight of wax and glade. If you think South African Riesling is “a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land,” taste Elgin and think again. The skeptical Nowhere man is ignorant to the new frontier for Riesling and to him I say “please listen, you don’t know what you’re missing.” Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @paulcluverwines @PIWOSA

White Blends

A category not to be taken lightly, what with so many varieties available to work together and with the idea of appellative blends not necessarily so far off or far-fetched. Chenin Blanc is most certainly the pillar and the rock with support ready, willing and applicable from Clairette Blanc, Verdelho, Chardonnay, Viognier, Gewürztraminer, Semillon, Roussane, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc and Colombard.

Donovan Rall

Rall Wines White Coastal Region 2014 (Winery)

A contiguous king blend of Chenin Blanc with Verdelho, Chardonnay and Viognier from vineyards allowing for increased production year after year. Natural fermentations acquiesce varying degrees and species of spiced dipped flowers set upon expressions of lees. The Chenin is 41 year-old Swartland (Paardeberg) fruit with Stellenbosch (Bottelary and Helderberg) quartz soil Chardonnay and Verdelho. Anise, star anise and pure white stone groove me in a gather of complimentary and controvertible Chenin (and friends) complexity. “Uhh! Awww, sookie sookie now!” @SwartlandRev

Other White

What obscure or less heralded white grape variety would you like to play with? Ask the Cape winemaker that question and he or she might keep you awhile. The rules again need not apply. Spin the wheel and work your magic. Odds are at even that a handful of least employed Châteauneuf and/or Gemischter Satz varietal wines show up at a CapeWine Fair sometime soon.

Cederberg Bukettraube 2014, Cederberg Mountains, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

David Nieuwoudt’s Dwarsrivier rare take on the cultivar (less than 77 hectares of vines remain planted worldwide) is a wine with altitude and attitude. Cederberg is one of only three South African farms in kind of these vines in Glenrosa and sandstone soils on the escarpment atop the Cederberg Mountains. Natural sugar of 25 g/L from the arrested ferment is toothsome in a next to Spätlese way, though the citrus and herbal crasis separates this from Riesling. What brings it circling again is the formidable acidity, circulating and rounding up, culminating in a viscosity and a palate coating that ends with none word. Delicious. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @Cederseun @imbibersreport @PIWOSA

Cinsault

There was a time when all South African Rhône varietal wines needed to be compared to the mother land and many continue to encourage the adage “you can take the varieties out of the Rhône but you can’t take the Rhône out of the varieties.” The modern Cinsault maker has turned expatriate exploits on its axiomatic head. You’ve not likely had your way with these versions of Cinsault and like me, once you have, you may never go back.

Radford Dale ‘Thirst’ Cinsault and Gamay Noir

The Winery of Good Hope Radford Dale Cinsault ‘Thirst’ 2015, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery)

If the Thirst Gamay from vignerons Alex Dale and Jacques De Klerk is “a live rock concert rather than a manufactured, boyband studio album,” the carbonically macerated Cinsault is weekend long palooza replete with music, clowns, acrobats and roaming minstrels. The wonders of natural, nouveau Gamay are well known but the natural fermentation application on Cinsault goes funky, wild and complex in a whole other attitude. Chilled properly this Thirst adds a Mad max factor to the circus, tannins even and most certainly an explosive grit. If the Gamay is smashable, the Cinsault is obliterateable. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted September 2015 @Radforddale @WineryGoodHope @Noble_Estates @PIWOSA

Syrah

The globe trekking grape has been backed into a corner, with blood primarily spilled at the hands of big box Australian producers but some blame has also circulated South Africa’s way. Heavy petting, elevated heat and alcohol, street tar and vulcanized rubber have combined in resolute, culprit fashion to maim the great variety. As with Cinsault, but in an entirely more mainstream way, the fortunes of Syrah are wafting in the winds of change. Natural fermentations, some carbonic maceration and especially prudent picking from essential Syrah sites are turning the jammy heavy into the genteel and dignified wine it needs to be.

Journey’s End

Journey’s End Syrah ‘The Griffin’ 2012, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Winery, Agent, WineAlign)

The ’12 signifies a departure and a new style for the winery and for Syrah in the Cape. Some (three weeks) of carbonic maceration leads to a dichotomous passion play in which the middle romance is acted out in seven barrels for 18 months of (70 per cent American and 30 per cent French) oak. It’s as if the grapes are shocked into an awakening and then slowly brought down to calm. As if the fruit develops a protective shell, protected from and coerced by and with ushering along by slow motion micro-oxidation. This is Syrah void of cracked nut, pepper, veneer and big league chew. It’s a terribly beautiful experiment, the Syrah equivalent of similar function world’s away, done with Chardonnay, in Orange and all the while with natural yeast that sling the fruit to destinations previously unknown. At least around here. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted September 2015 @JourneysEndWine @colyntruter @vonterrabev @PIWOSA

Callie Louw’s smoker

Porseleinberg Syrah 2013, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

They call Callie Louw a lekker ou. Having played on his side and under his tutelage for a bowl and a bat or two, I can concur. He is a nice guy. Having eaten his smoked pork shoulder, brisket and wings, I can tell you that he is a master smoker. Having tasted his ’13 Syrah twice, I can also say he is a great winemaker. Louw is proficient at many things, including cricket and smoking Swartland’s best BBQ. Making Syrah from the schist soils of Riebeek Kasteel is his true calling and with thanks to Marc Kent (of Boekenhoutskloof) he is able to work with some of South Africa’s best fruit out of one of its harshest climats. Picked fruit is left to its own devices, 40 per cent in concrete eggs and 60 in larger foudres. I’d hate to smack a natural sticker on this one because it resides outside the realm of labels, generalizations and uneventful stipulations. It has killer tannins and the legs to walk the earth. What else do you need to know? Drink 2017-2030. Tasted September 2015 @SwartlandRev

Porseleinberg Syrah 2013

Pinot Noir

The future for Pinot Noir is bright beyond the pale, with certain exceptional growing sites producing varietal fruit so pure and of ripe phenolics as profound as anywhere on the planet. A few producers have found their way. More will follow and when they do, South Africa will begin to tear away at the market share enjoyed by the likes of New Zealand and California.

Blackwater Wines

Blackwater Wines Pinot Noir Cuvée Terra Lux MMXI 2013 (Winery)

Winemaker Francois Haasbroek is not merely on to something. He has it figured out. The elegance of his wines (sourced from vineyards across the Western Cape) share a strong affinity with one another. In a consistently distinguished line-up this Pinot Noir may not be his most accomplished but it is his most definitive bottle. From three Elgin Vineyards this spent 18 months in older 225L barrels and help me if this does not purely express the humanity of Pinot Noir. Oh, the natural funk of Elgin, where Pinot Noir need be embraced and fostered. Not unlike Haasbroek’s Syrah, the sweetness is impossible, the imagined imaging haunting and asomatous. With time the true luxe will emerge, in the form of mushroom, truffle and candied cherry. Drink 2016-2021. Tasted September 2015 @Blackwaterwine @ZooBiscuitsWine

Pinotage

For so long we ignorant, pathetic and far away people knew not from Pinotage. We imagined its machinations through, by way of and expressed like espresso, forced and pressed with nothing but wood in mind. That the grape variety could have a personality bright and friendly was something we had no reference from which to begin. A visit to the Cape Winelands re-charts the compass and the rebirth is nothing short of born again oenophilia. The new Pinotage may be what it once was but it is also what it can never be again.

David and Nadia Pardelbosch Pinotage 2014

David and Nadia Paardebosch Pinotage 2014, Swartland, South Africa (Winery, WineAlign)

From parcels of the highest possible elevation and black rock that imparts swarthy tannin on a frame of alcohol sharpened at 12.5 per cent. Nothing short of stunning aromatics. Whole bunch fermentation, three weeks of skin contact and minimal punch downs are directed with pinpoint precision to what Pinotage should and simply must be. Fresh, lithe and promising. Good-bye Pinotage being Pinotage. Hello Pinotage in pure, honest perfume. Older oak barrels (4th, 5th and 6th fill) round out the texture, amplify the arroyo seco and excellence washes through, with simple acidity and riverine length. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted September 2015 @DavidandNadia @SwartlandRev

Red Blends

The sky is the limit for what can be attempted and achieved with the varietal kitchen sink of availability. In consideration that any red variety can scour the Cape Winelands in a journeyed search for phenolic ripeness, a prudent pick, ferment (or co-ferment) will certainly, invariably conjoin towards assemblage nirvana. Rhône styling is most often mimicked, from both north and south but OZ indicators and even California flower child prodigies are both seen and heard. There is no tried and true in this outpost of red democracy. In the case of Cape wine, anarchy rules and there is really nothing wrong with that.

Sheree Nothnagel, Wildnhurst Wines

Wilde hurst Red 2012, Swartland, South Africa (Winery)

Shiraz (62 per cent) co-fermented with Viognier (5) is joined in rank by Mourvèdre (33, though is some years it’s Cinsault) in an unembellished red that not only lies back but rises in free spirit. A red to express the personality of its maker, Sheree Nothnagel. Silk and lace, cure and mace, spice and so many things nice are the aspect ratios of a very natal wine, like a prevailing wind. A real stretch in tannin, sweet and smooth of grain leads to length, from Koringberg to the slopes of the Picketberg and Paardeberg mountains. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @WildehurstW @ShereeNothnagel @SwartlandRev

The wines of Duncan Savage

Savage Wines Follow the Line 2014 (Winery)

The Western Cape has likely never seen such polish and precocious affinity with its varied soils as it has or likely soon will when Duncan Savage is making wine. The blend of Cinsault (58 per cent), Grenache (21) and Syrah (21) is predominantly Darling grapes and shows a deeper, funkier understanding of Cape soil. Bright red cherry fruit supports life on this brooding planet and propagation is furthered with cinnamon-like spice and a purity for supplementary red fruit so direct and so very pure. The wine’s moniker comes from the farming expression “follow the line.” All rows lead to the farmhouse, eventually. All winemaking roads in the Cape will lead to the name Duncan Savage or at least involve him in the conversation. He is the farmhouse. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted September 2015 @ZooBiscuitsWine

Alheit Vineyards Flotsam & Jetsam and Cartology

Alheit Vineyards Flotsam & Jetsam Days of Yore 2014 (Winery, WineAlign)

Other Red

Momento Wines

Momento Wines Tinta Barocca 2013, Bot River, South Africa (Winery)

From a south-facing, 40 year-old, one and a half hectare vineyard in Bot River that Marelise Niemann convinced the farmer not to rip out so that she may continue to produce some 2,000 bottles of a variety you can’t really find or are want to grow anywhere else. This has been a small love affair since 2007 with this block. “My child, my charity case,” she admits. I am not sure I tasted any other wine in South Africa with such fresh, pure, unspoiled innocence as this Tinta Barocca. “You have to have a connection to the vineyard. To guide it.” The underlay of perspicuity is a streak provided by Bokkeveld shale. The clarity of red fruit and deferential tannin is too sacred to spit, too beautiful to spill and too genteel to waste. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted September 2015 @ZooBiscuitsWine

Godello and Marelise Niemann, Momento Wines

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Category Archives: South Africa

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Chenin Blanc

Riesling

White Blends

Other White

Cinsault

Syrah

Pinot Noir

Pinotage

Red Blends

Other Red