Martin Moore on MLF, screwcaps and old-style winters 5 July 2005

MLF – do we need it?
The young red wines are currently undergoing malolactic fermentation (MLF) after which they will be ready for racking. Some winemakers are convinced that converting malic acid into lactic acid enhances flavour. I have never been much of a fan. I induce it in our reds simply to be able to control the process, for if it happens afterwards in the bottle, you end up with a sparkling red wine with an off odour. The only advantage I can detect is that the lactic acid is slightly softer on the palate than the malic. However, the lactic acid also causes the pH to rise, so reducing the ageing potential of the wine.

MLF or not, you are going to enjoy these red wines from the 2005 crop once they hit the shelves!

The screw cap is upon us!
We have just bottled our first Sauvignon Blanc under screwcap. Relax, the wine is intended for the UK and US markets and was, in fact, requested by our agents in those countries because of a shift in consumer preferences. Elsewhere in the world there is a swing to screwcaps for quality white wines and, as you know, the majority of New Zealand's famous Sauvignon Blancs are already packaged this way.

However, I don't see our local winelovers being ready to embrace screw caps for their favourite wines, and the cork, I am sure, will still be with us for many years. Let me say immediately, I am a cork supporter. In my view, the miniscule quantities of oxygen moving through the natural cork do help to open up the wine and bring out its flavours.

So it does play a role, however small, in the maturation of red wines. But when it comes to white? Depending on the style of the wine and remembering that more than 90% of wine gets consumed within 24 hours of purchase, I can't see any benefit using a cork. The biggest advantage of the sterile screwcap is, of course, that it does not have any detrimental affect on the wine. It is calculated that some 3% of all local wines go off because of the poor quality of the cork, which also means that for tastings as winemakers we always have to take additional bottles as a backup, just in case.

Most of us have no difficulty determining when a wine is corked – the taste is simply awful. However, in the early stages of corking it is far less pronounced and thus much more difficult to detect. At that stage it manifests itself by making the wine flat, dull and uninteresting. Even experienced tasters will, if there is no second bottle available for comparison, blame the wine and, of course, winemaker.

An old-style winter
The Winelands seem to be experiencing, for the first time in several years, a real old-style winter. Gone are the brutal downpours of earlier this year that flushed everything into the streams and rivers. In their place came the gentler, penetrating rains that build up the water table, fill the dams and create that wonderfully snug feeling of winter well-being.

And it is cold, with temperatures dropping every night below 10ºC. All the vines have gone into hibernation, or so it seems, for one can never be sure of Chardonnay. That is a cultivar without a suggestion of a brain. In an area such as Robertson where the difference between day and night temperatures is much more pronounced they don't have the same problem that we have with our more temperate coastal climate.

And once the Chardonnay vines have gone to sleep, you have a problem waking them up again when spring arrives. When the other vines have already sprouted fresh green shoots with tendrils climbing all over the place they are still standing there with nary a bud on them. I sometimes feel setting an alarm clock in the vineyards is about the only way of shaking them out of their slumbers.

Our Pinotage quite a hit in the UK
I was quite surprised at the recent London International Wine & Spirits Fair at how many people came to taste our Pinotage, and how many claimed they really liked it. It was the Pinot Noir characteristics that attracted them, characteristics that tend to dominate in a cooler climate such as ours in the Durbanville hills. A great many Pinotages are made in our country and in wildly differing styles, which is perhaps why this cultivar has never been a top priority for me. How wrong can you be.