Getting to meet wine geeks and rock stars 27 July 2006

Chris Williams takes time off (and the boss also has fun)

Just occasionally one is allowed a day off on a marketing trip abroad, and I found myself in the rarefied atmosphere of the Mondavi-Rothschild operation Opus One, in Napa Valley, California. This was just as the dust was settling over the recent acquisition of Robert Mondavi Corporation by the wine industry behemoth, Constellation Brands, (now also the proud owner of South Africas’ only true wine brand, Kumala).

The glamour and slight chilly reception of the Gallic-American architecture belied the  modesty, dedication and professionalism of the cellar master, Michael Silacci, who kindly met  and tasted with me and openly discussed the fanatical and super-scientific approach to wine growing and making at this property. I could see my companions’ eyes glaze over with boredom as we two wine geeks thrilled to the obscure details of experimentation and terroir. We tasted five wines, going back to the early nineties and I was very pleasantly surprised by the classicism and finesse of these vintages. I did notice, however, that the alcohols had crept up by 1.5 percent over a decade and a half.

Meerlust shares a US agent with another Californian icon wine, Dominus, owned by Christian Moueix of Chàteau Pétrus fame, and I visited their intriguing vineyard, with the winery exterior built of fist-sized basaltic rock wrapped in stainless steel wire cages to form large building blocks. Simplicity pervades the vineyard and winery. The wines are modern, stylish but still remain very classical and quite French in style. I was hosted by the charming young winemaker, Boris Champy and one gets the sense that the wines are made more with French flair and gut-feel than the raw technology of Opus One. Apart from the rather macho sound of ‘Dominus’, the cabernet sauvignon-based wines have an elegance and opulence which hints at the owners’ Pomerol roots more than the Médoc-influenced Opus One.

We had lunch with Boris at Bouchon, a little brasserie in Napa owned by the same people as French Laundry down the road (supposedly the best restaurant in the world). The food was exactly what I love, superb ingredients, simply done, bursting with flavour, with slight gastronomic fanfare. You really do get the sense in Napa that everything is very wholesome: the food, the wines, the people. All the owners and winemakers wear neatly pressed denim jeans and collared, cowboy type shirts and suitably, almost meticulously, scuffed leather boots. People are polite, tasting staff helpful and the town is quaint and clean. There is something almost Stepford about the whole place.

Hannes and the stars
Meerlust’s owner, Hannes Myburgh, also has to travel and represent the wines abroad, and I think he invokes owner’s privilege when it is he who gets to present tastings backstage to some world renowned artists at the annual Werchter rock festival in Belgium as part of their chill-out between sets! I imagine Hannes trying to elucidate the niceties of the bouquet of our Pinot Noir to a band like The Raconteurs, started by ex-front man of the White Stripes, or the opulence and subtlety of the Merlot to Robert Plant, formerly of Led Zeppelin – all this while 60 000 screaming European adolescents are rocking to the Scissor Sisters, Depeche Mode, Franz Ferdinand or the Black Eyed Peas.

All this was arranged by Herman Schuermans, close friend of our Belgian agent Pieter de Leeuw. Herman also happens to be a member of the Belgian parliament, with the portfolio of youth and culture. He has been organizing this annual event since he was 18 in 1970, when 800 people first attended the concert.

Hannes also found himself backstage at the Haymarket theatre in London recently when he was introduced to Dame Judy Dench, who was appearing in Noel Coward’s ‘Hay fever’. He happened to have two bottles of Meerlust wine with him (as one does) and Judy  was said to be much revived by the wine after the rigours of  her performance.