SOUTH AFRICA: About white

08 August 2008 By db staff writer

d=”standfirst”>South Africa’s white wines are enjoying high levels of success and recognition, thanks to their focus on regionality and varietal distinction. By Sarah Ahmed

What better way to communicate that South Africa’s white wines are on a roll than for the 2008 Platter Guide to proclaim Cape Point Vineyards – a winery that focuses almost exclusively on whites, notably Sauvignon Blanc – winner of their inaugural Winery of the Year award. But Sauvignon is not the only buzzword here. Cape Point’s success is about focus and differentiation – the production of “site revealing” wines, a factor that is accounting for a growing number of world-class South African whites wines from a plethora of grape varieties.

The other Blanc
Although Sauvignon Blanc is the grape du jour, UK sales represent less than a third of those of Chenin Blanc, whose on-trade sales dwarf those of Chardonnay or Sauvignon. The perfect fruity house wine or by the glass quaffer, sales of Chenin, South Africa’s most planted variety, remain on an upward trajectory (Nielsen MAT end November 2007).   
According to The Oxford Wine Company’s Theo Sloot, much improved brighter, zestier entry-level Chenin has benefited from a backlash against “in your face” New Zealand Sauvignons. While better known for his Sauvignons, Tokara’s Miles Mossop has no compunction in saying “Chenin is where South Africa should concentrate its efforts for quaffers”.  He adds that trendier grapes like Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon, which he describes as “a little hard and acidic” at this price point, simply cannot compete given the country’s invaluable resource of old-vine Chenin.   

Thoroughbred not workhorse
Chenin specialist Bruwer Raats, whose flagship oaked Chenin graces lists at The Fat Duck, Pont de La Tour, The Dorchester and Tom Aikens, regards this abundance of old vines as the trump card that will ultimately see Chenin outperform Chardonnay and Sauvignon at the highest level. Reporting that domestic sales of his flagship wine are now outpacing those of The (unwooded) Original, he says “people want to know what top-quality Chenin tastes like and it is great value for money.” He reckons that this long-overdue acknowledgement demonstrates that perceptions of Chenin are changing for the better – “not just a workhorse, people are now realising we have a thoroughbred”.  The spin-off is more people are treating it like one.  
An exciting aspect of this new-found confidence in Chenin is a myriad of premium styles as leading producers refine techniques and take full advantage of regionally differentiated fruit.  Hedonistic, rich wines like Ken Forrester’s FMC and Jean Daneel’s Directors Signature 2006, (winner of South Africa’s 2008 Chenin Blanc Challenge), are statement wines with ample use of new French oak and botrytised fruit.  While this Rolls Royce treatment is shrugging off Chenin’s low grade image, Raats is changing tack –  “I’ve learned Chenin doesn’t need a lot of oak and very little new oak at all.” He has reversed the proportion of oak to stainless steel from 80% to 20%, with only 2% new wood versus the 20% he used initially. Preferring lees contact to enhance complexity, body and texture, Raats has also downsized barrels.
While top producers have typically sourced Chenin from cooler Stellenbosch sites like Bottelary, Helderberg and Koelenhof, some are now spreading the net more widely. Daneel is buying fruit from Paardeberg, Durbanville, Stellenbosch and Stanford.  Different soils, vine age, trellising and climate are helping achieve an optimal balance of fruit, minerality and acidity. Daneel adds, given Chenin’s sensitivity to botrytis, “it’s better not to have all your eggs in one basket”.  Raats, who is using fruit from Paarl, Durbanville and, since 2008, Swartland, says his chief criteria is soil type: sandstone for apple and golden delicious flavours and granite for minerality and acidity. Particularly excited by fruit from Babylon’s Peak, a south-facing granite peak at Swartland‘s highest point, Raats concludes, “with four different regions, I’m making a better wine”.

Mixing it up
Traditionally regarded as South Africa’s “bread basket”, Swartland has enjoyed a reversal of fortune thanks to innovative white blends that put old-vine, dry-farmed Chenin at the core. Eben Sadie, pioneer of leading blends Palladius and Sequillo White (Chenin with Viognier, Chardonnay, White Grenache, Roussanne and Clairette), reasons that only northerly European regions have mono-varietals, so blends make sense for South Africa, especially for warmer regions like Swartland.  Sadie convinced Mossop to blend Viognier into his Chenin when he created Miles Mossop Saskia.  Mossop says it has proved popular with younger people looking for interesting wines to enjoy with food. For Richard Kelley MW, Richards Walford’s South Africa buyer, “white blends are the most interesting categories emerging in the Cape”. It would seem his customers agree because Saskia and Palladius are both sold on allocation.

Location, location, location
South Africa may have less experience with Sauvignon Blanc but this popular variety has not had to win its spurs like Chenin.  Treated with respect from the outset, it is no coincidence that Sauvignon has shot to prominence at a time when there is a growing appreciation of regionality, especially cool climate areas.  Describing South Africa’s Sauvignons as “clearly world class”, The Wine Society’s buyer Jo Locke MW says, provided sales justify it, she would consider augmenting their own-label Exhibition Sauvignon from cutting-edge Elim with Sauvignons from other regions.
The good news for South Africa is, according to Duncan Savage, Cape Point Vineyard’s winemaker, “it has a multitude of sites suited to the variety that offer the consumer a unique drinking experience from region to region, where many other New World producers tend to be fairly monotonous”.  Sauvignon hotspots include regions on the south coast (Cape Point, Constantia, Elgin, Elim, Walker Bay), west coast (Durbanville, Darling, Bamboes and Lamberts Bay) and inland (Robertson). Referring to Tokara’s Walker Bay and Elgin Sauvignons, also Tokara White (a Sauvignon-led blend from Stellenbosch), Mossop says, “because they are so different, I like to blend them separately”.  He finds Elgin offers pungency and textural richness while Walker Bay is steely and mineral.  As for Cape Point and Bamboes Bay, whose reputations were made by Sauvignon, he says “Cape Point has something quite unique in sweet pyrazines”, while Fryers Cove in Bamboes Bay demonstrates that, in the right spot, northerly sites have very good typicity, balance and low alcohol.   
In common with other leading Sauvignon producers working in a single region, Savage’s wines are “vineyard specific and farmed to reflect the site as best as possible”.  This differentiated approach follows through in the winery.  Cape Point’s best clay-based blocks are a combination of inoculated and spontaneous ferments, aged on lees in tank and barrel then bottle-aged because Savage believes they become “so much more complex with better integration of acidity and balance”.  Semillon is blended in varying percentages “for texture and longevity” – another exciting trend among top producers (as are white Bordelais blends like Cape Point’s Isliedh, Vergelegen White and Steenberg Magna Carta, all of which were awarded five stars in the 2008 Platter Guide).  Grapes from sandier sites are made reductively and channelled into the winery’s Stonehaven label for earlier release and consumption.  In Durbanville, where Thys Louw makes four different Sauvignons, he explains “we have four clones and all the slopes that anyone can dream of”.

Lees is more
At Klein Constantia, winemaker Adam Mason believes that coupling regionality with “some winemaking soul searching by the more avant garde crew” is also contributing to the buzz around Sauvignon. He says “more and more colleagues are moving away from reductive winemaking techniques in favour of more oxidative juice handling”, trading off primary fruit for mineral/steely characters. He adds judicious use of solids and extended lees contact are “a powerful tool in aiding the expression of powerful Sauvignon aromas and flavours”. Louw agrees and is also experimenting with 36 hours skin contact, even fermenting a Sauvignon with beer yeast at two degrees celsius “to ensure a huge mouthfeel”.
As for bigger volume brands, Mason says planting in more northerly, traditionally irrigated areas like the Olifants River shows that the cooperatives have really got behind Sauvignon. While he believes that the truly great expressions of Sauvignon will come from cooler areas, Mason sees this as an indication of “a better understanding of what needs to be done viticulturally to ensure quality from these ‘warm to hot’ areas”.  He also attributes the development to a “kid-glove approach” in the winery (early picking, must enrichment and cold fermentation with expressive yeasts) to achieve consistently pungent, fresh wines.  While Mossop agrees that all sorts of techniques are now available “which make for better wines than otherwise would have been the case”, he cautions “South Africa must be careful not to overwork Sauvignon”.  Describing bulk prices as “ridiculous”, he is concerned that this will encourage planting in the wrong areas and tarnish Sauvignon’s reputation.  Ataraxia’s Kevin Grant agrees but is resigned to the fact that “the less sophisticated wine drinker still feels more comfortable with the ‘safer’ less ethereal aspects of fruit bomb Sauvignon Blanc”.

The comeback kid
For Grant, who makes acclaimed Sauvignons and Chardonnays, Chardonnay is “the usurped monarch of white wine” and Sauvignon the pretender. He believes “callous use of wood, malolactic fermentation and insensitive winemaking – an alarming lack of understanding of the site from which the grapes originate,” account for why Chardonnay still suffers from the “ABC syndrome”.
Grant, who sources from the coolest sites possible, reckons that less tropical, cooler climate styles with more white stone-fruit and grapefruit, are the way forward.  Adding, “happily, I am not on a lone crusade”, he reports that more sensitive, site-aligned winemaking and a focus on the best regions – in his view, Walker Bay, Elgin, Elim and Constantia – is producing “a new, classier breed of Chardonnay” and the grape is staging a comeback at home. Mossop agrees that more respect for the fruit following a shift away from oak, less working of the wines and more natural acidity, has produced an upswing. Having sold off Chardonnay in bulk because it was moving so slowly, he recently had to buy in more or less the same amount to meet demand.  As for UK sales, South African specialist Andy Langshaw of Harrogate Fine Wine says, “It’s really flying at the moment. In terms of volume it’s head and shoulders above other New World countries – only white Burgundy can beat it… it is certainly not the devil’s spawn it was five years ago.”

Watch this space
While Chardonnay is on its second wind, South Africa’s Riesling has yet to make its mark. It has not helped that wines labelled “Riesling” are actually made from the vastly inferior Crouchen Blanc  – “real” Riesling is distinguished by the prefixes “Weisser” or “Rhine”.  However, help is at hand in the form of “Just Riesling”, an association formed last year by South Africa’s foremost Riesling producers to raise awareness about this overlooked variety and focus on viticultural and oenological research.
Committee member, Flagstone’s Bruce Jack, explains: “We plan on doing some big things… Initially we are importing plant material from Australia and Germany which will be the property of the group.  This is to supplement the two clones we have that tend to rot easily.” Jack, who has enjoyed success with Jack & Knox’s Frostline Riesling (from Swartberg mountain vineyards at 1200m above sea level), is facilitating an extensive planting programme for Flagstone in Elim.  At Klein Constantia, Mason says, “We are committed to planting a few more hectares, mostly because we just can’t make enough, but also because we really believe we can make a seriously good one on our vineyard.”

Every one a winner
With no shortage of producers keen to champion its white grape varieties, South Africa has an enviable resource. Healthy competition has contributed to raised standards across the board and, on a micro level, a vastly improved understanding of what variety works where and, wed to that, how best to make the wine.  In Raats’ salutary words, the way forward “is to produce a truly unique wine from your region that is focused on your blend or variety, otherwise you are just another producer out there in the market who is jack of all trades and master of none”.  db  © June 2008