Francois Haasbroek is always sceptical about vintage assessments – and perhaps more so than ever this year

The season has come to an end. Well almost. Now the next stage is set: preparing first-release white wines, taking decisions on ageing and wooding of the late-release whites, and nerve-wracking batch tastings of the red wines.

It also seems time for interested parties to start ‘assessing’ the overall quality of the vintage. Herein lies the pre emptive strike! On many a previous occasion I have added my voice to so many others, that with wine, one thing counts and none other: it is what is in the bottle that is all that matters. The inherent problems with assessing vintages makes it almost more daring an activity than claiming one wine is better than any other. Says who? Based on what?

So the questionnaires are trickling in, the under-the-breath ‘so what are the wines looking like?’ questions are becoming more frequent. As  always, you need to box clever, so to speak. Making bold statements and putting my foot in it does occur on a regular basis, except when it comes to vintage assessment. Unless you had a drought, flood, hail, snow, land slide, accidental weed-killer spray accident, there is no such thing as a vintage report for the whole of a country such as South Africa. It’s akin to saying that if Burgundy suffered serious heat one year, leading to them making atypical wines there, so the Rhône valley will also have atypical wines.

‘Diversity is in our nature’ – that actually has some truth to it; it’s not just a clever slogan.

Admittedly local published vintage reports do give a breakdown of region, after talking to various role players in each region, but this almost always morphs into a blanket call for an entire region, then the whole of South Africa.

There are those brave enough to say, well it was a tough, long season (as opposed to a what? an easy, quick vintage?). And they might be doubtful that quality will be what it was in the past four years.  Yes, 2008 was – and in certain cases still is – a long vintage, with variations almost like four seasons in one day; but does ‘different’ always translate to worse? Because the previous method of treating your winemaking needed tweaking and adaption, does that mean it’s not up to scratch? Hardly.

It might be a year when the difference between run of the mill and exceptional are a little wider than usual, but the good to amazing wines will no doubt be out there to be found. The only certainty for me in 2008 is that it is less a matter of how good your winemaking team is, and more a matter of how dedicated and sharp was your viticulture team. The sharp ones should get the rewards due to them this year.

COMMENT

From Angela Lloyd:
I would agree with Francois that assessing the 2008 vintage now is an activity fraught with pitfalls, akin to declaring the two month old babe is destined to be a nuclear physicist, only to find 20 years later, he or she becomes a landscape gardener. But while caution is a wise watchword, there are interested parties who do need an overall view of the conditions leading up to the harvest and how it progressed from both quantity and quality points of view.

As the person responsible for writing up the harvest report for WOSA (essentially for their international offices to pass on to journalists, importers and the like, though also for anyone who visits their  website), I have to rely on getting such information from as many producers as possible to assess that overall picture. This I do by approaching  individuals as well as with the help of Wine Route PRs, who canvass their members.

The reliability of the report is thus dependant on the number of respondents and the honesty of the information they provide.

With regard to Francois's comment that each regional review 'morphs into a blanket call', that's the nature of an overview, such as this report. To include each producer's vintage experience would be a long and dreary tome and not fit the needs of those for whom the report is intended. In any case, many producers compile a report reflecting their own particular circumstances, which complements the bigger picture.

So, to the other purpose of this note - any producer who would be willing to help me with information for the 2008 harvest report and who has not yet received a copy of the form I have sent out, either from their Wine Route PR or me personally, should please contact me as soon as possible.

Finally, Francois might feel encouraged to know that his 'certainty' that '2008 is … less a matter of how good your winemaking team is, and more a matter of how dedicated and sharp was your viticulture team.' is echoed in one report I've already sent to the UK, which began '2008 has been dubbed "a viticulturist's vintage", as vineyard work primarily determined success or otherwise.'  Otherwise, there are sure to be surprises both on good and less good scores but we'll have to wait and see how the babes develop before confidently determining their future.