Martin Moore likes his vines suckered, his brand protected and – sometimes – his
pinotage chilled

Dit is die maand Oktober…
These are the first words of a poem from my childhood days in which C Louis Leipoldt, that remarkable Afrikaans spirit - medical doctor, poet, chef and wine fundi - sang the praises of October as the most beautiful month of the year. I couldn't question the savvy of the good doctor when the hail started pelting down a week or two ago and the snow reached lower down the mountain slopes than in the middle of winter as his poem preceded climate change by a good few decades. Although I feel deeply for the fruit farmers further inland who suffered severe crop damage from the hail and untimely cold weather, I was intensely grateful that in our area the hail, coming down in only very light showers, didn't cause any damage to the budding vines. One can only hope that the weather will stabilize as we approach summer.

So, the hills and valleys around the cellar are still a lush, intense green, spring flowers still abound and in the vineyards the promise of a good vintage I referred to last time has not been compromised by the weather.

Cellar tours!
It is thus a time of year we like to show off our area to visitors, especially those from overseas. And do they come! In their droves. Most of them were in the Cape to attend the two major wine auctions held these last few weeks and our overseas agents used the opportunity to bring their clients to Durbanville Hills. Having been extensively involved in its planning I am, and I think justifiably so, very proud of our cellar. However, I have to admit that leading cellar tours and a tasting three times a day taxed my stamina.

I have come out of this ordeal unscathed, I think, although I have noticed a tendency for my clothes to shrink alarmingly in the wash. Thank goodness that, with the social pressures behind me, I can now get back into the vineyards where it is time for the farm workers to sucker the vines - removing unwanted shoots growing from buds on old wood that in all likelihood won't bear any grapes.

Protecting your brand
Even though I am no marketer, I was fascinated by a book given me by a group of Dutch supermarket owners who came to visit. Called Retailization: Brand survival and the age of retail power, it investigates the pressures on brands in the context of present-day mass retailing. The pressures – or "squeezes", as the authors term them - seem to be the same wherever in the world you have, like here, a sophisticated retail industry. Very briefly, they identify four such squeezes:
• The retailer, on whose shelves all brands compete for the same space
• The shopper, on the look-out for the best prices negotiated for him/her by the retailer
• The private labels developed by the retailer to provide a better profit margin; and
• The media, who do not promote brands but write from the consumer’s perspective.

Marketers believe strong brands are the best defence against downward price pressure. They hotly debate whether "specials" benefit a brand by making it available to a wide audience, or whether it debases the product's inherent value. I was reminded of a comment by a British consumer on buying a greatly discounted wine on a "special" who said: "If they can afford to sell it at £3,99, who are they going to convince it was ever worth its full price of £7,99?"

However, in my humble opinion price also depends very much on circumstances: standing in an air-conditioned liquor store awash in wine, price might be the deciding factor. Sitting at a water hole in the Etosha Game Park on a searingly hot day nursing the last bottle of perfectly chilled Sauvignon blanc it becomes priceless! The use to which a wine is put can also determine its value. A good example is provided by British writer Frank Muir who observed: "Strategy is buying (the right) bottle of wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it."

Using soft hands for our Pinotage
Our 2006 Pinotage has just reached the market. I am often asked by overseas visitors why it tends to be so different from the Pinotage they tasted in other areas, claiming it reminds them more of Pinot noir than the typical Pinotage they have come across. This Pinot noir character is something I’ve only found in cool climate areas such as ours. I believe Pinotage must be made with "soft hands" to preserve its lovely fruitiness and without extracting too much hard tannin. I have often at winemakers' dinners combined chilled Pinotage with a fruity or even chocolate dessert and always enjoy the stunned looks on guests' faces when they confess that "it works"!

Do try chilled Pinotage this summer and I bet you'll be surprised. I often point out to people that we tend to drink our whites too cold and our reds too warm. The tradition of serving reds at room temperature applies to European room temperature and not that in the Upington station café on the brink of the Kalahari Desert in midsummer on a Sunday afternoon.

• This contribution is extracted, with permision, from the Durbanville Hills October newsletter. It may be read in full on the Durbanville Hills website.