Testing time

James Farquharson, winemaker at Boschendal, takes up the question of how to to judge wine usefully – and comes up with a radical idea

It’s impossible to get away from it. In the first half of the last century the world was bewitched by the Cult of Personality, incarnated in the likes of Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, demons all, who led their bedazzled nations and the rest of the planet into the insanity that caused the Second World War. More recently we sheep-like consumers are being led into the similar witless stupidity of obedience by the Cult of Celebrity. It seduces and confronts us from billboards, TV, movies, radio – indeed all forms of mass communication so expertly manipulated by the Great Men of the age of Personality.  We are told by the bright and beautiful what to buy, why it’s right to do so and how much, even, a thing is worth.

Sadly the wine industry is itself not immune to this phenomenon. Even wine journalism (people who can’t taste wine writing for people who don’t drink wine about people who can’t make wine, apologies to the late Frank Zappa) has crossed the blurry track between reporting about the various merits or shortcomings of wines and started to elaborate on the personal merits of the industry’s ‘celebrities’. We now read about ‘rock stars of the wine industry’. Why is the focus shifting away from the wines and on to the would-be celebrities?

The reason for this lack of focus is that wine journalism, and indeed wine tasting, is merely vinous masturbation. Other than the winemaker’s quest for technical improvement there is scant reason or merit in tasting 50ml of wine and then pronouncing lofty judgment upon its character. The practice falls short of any worthwhile experience that could be had from any wine. I say this because, as anybody who actually loves wine knows; the best part of a bottle is in the finishing of it. I have rarely ever gone to a tasting and left feeling uplifted, intrigued or even satisfied, but set me down at a table of simple delights; some ripe cheese, a small bowl of moist biltong and a well made bottle of wine or two with the time to enjoy it and I do, tremendously.

A new way

Wine tasting of this nature does nothing to inform the consumer of the true merits of any wine. By analogy you can’t tell if a hooker is any good in bed by the swift turn of her wrist in a toilet cubicle. The situation is exacerbated by pointless competitions which generally award wines medals based on small panels of so-called experts tasting 50 millilitres of up to 200 wines in a single day. How on earth is it possible to make a proper judgment on any wine with such a small sample, in such a short period of time and against so many others? Producers make wine specifically to stand out in these suspect conditions and win medals which the marketers cunningly apply in their pithy campaigns. The result is that the market is flooded with wines which are instantly appealing but ultimately undrinkable. Is it not time then, perhaps, to seek a new way to pronounce upon the merits of any particular wine?

 I believe I have a solution that would require great dedication but ultimately be worth the effort and give the consumer real evidence of a wine’s worth. I have already registered the system with the Patents Board and I call it the Triple Taste Time Adducer. The theory is simple: Good wine improves with time and exposure to air. Crap wine does not. Therefore it makes sense to expose the wine to air and monitor its progress (or lack thereof) through time. 

The method is simple: A bottle of wine is opened, decanted and tasted at the usual temperature of   20°C. The stopper is replaced and the wine is tasted again, say four to six hours later. The wine is then tasted a final time, a full two days after the bottle was opened. In this way any flaws hidden by excessive use of oak or sugar are exposed. Weak wines fail while wines requiring time to express their individuality finally have a chance to shine.

I hear you cry,'What about the whites?'  Well, what about them? If they’re any good they’ll last. Regard Coulee de Serrant’s marvellous chenin, it only gets better after a full day in the decanter.  This method is something one can easily try at home. Open the bottle on a Friday afternoon after work, drink a glass. Have another one a few hours later. Put the cork back in the bottle and wait until Sunday afternoon to taste it again. If it’s still good you know you’ve found a winner and can comfortably buy and drink it until stocks run out, or you finally get bored of it.

It’s time to reclaim sensibility in the face of overwhelming marketing driven drivel. It’s time to regard a wine on its intrinsic merits and not on the servile pronouncements of the Cult of Celebrity. It’s time to stop tasting wine and drink the stuff.  

• Any producers out there who are brave enough to test their wines against this new system are welcome to send 2 samples of their wine to me at Boschendal. Once we have enough we’ll embark upon an epic tasting to truly separate the wheat from the chaff. Those interested in joining the first TTTA panel are welcome to call me at Boschendal 0027 21 8704200, or email farquharsonj@boschendalwines.co.za.  

COMMENTS

From Chris Mullineux (Winemaker, Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards):
Brilliant ideas James. The criteria and judging might get a bit complicated, but count me in!

From Cathy van Zyl:
James, an eminently sensible suggestion, but highly unpractical one given the wretched time constraints we deal with every second of every bloody day? But, I'm in as a judge – and, because this is exactly how Marc Kent insists he learns about a wine (well, not exactly, his method is to drink a third of the bottle over three successive evenings with dinner) - I'll bring two bottles of Boekenhoutskloof as my entrance fee!

From Clive Sindelman:
A great idea! Perhaps we can expand the concept to consumers who using similar methodology rate wines and send them into a new spot on the Grape website.

From Dave Ingram:
I like the idea, but it is also flawed, in that it presupposes that all wines must be aged. I believe that all 5 star wines, Platter, Wine mag etc should be judged like this. Can we do the tasting in Gauteng? Then I'm in.

From Dave Hughes: [who's had more experience judging wines than most people – ed]
Hellout good idea. I have spent many years using very similar procedure. I also believe that drinking some of the wine each day is essential and, preferably with food. I nowadays don't use the system as dilgently as I have done in the past. However, I still have half a dozen bottles on the go at any one time.  It works well for me but for large format tastings with many tasters and many wines it isn't very practical.....but it is probably the best way to really determine the true quality of a wine. I can asure you that if the method is used  you will come out with some very different ratings. Whatever method is used the readers should know exactly what was done and then they must make up their minds from their
own judgement

From Angela Lloyd:
As has been mentioned previously, many of the most serious wines Tim and I taste for Platter are put to the test of time. Just to confirm for Dave Ingram's sake, these will be wines intended to mature, not those meant for early enjoyment. For me to even consider putting up a wine for 5 stars, it has to show well, better even, over three days - and despite the results of Tony Mossop's CWM dissertation on decanting, I can see a difference over time. Tony's tasting was, of course, held blind, while for Platter we know what we're tasting.

Unfortunately, it sometimes happens I have several excellent wines open at the same time; it would be impossible to drink them all over three evenings, so some are left half finished, with the cork pushed in. If they haven't gone within a week, that's it, they're finished – oxidised – and usually have to be poured down the sink – yes, that really hurts! This year, such a crush of excellence included all Thelema's brilliant 03 reds. After the three day test, which some passed with ease, I had to put them aside to give others a chance. Around five days later, there wasn't much worth putting on the dinner table, so, without much confidence, I pulled the corks on the partially-full bottles of Thelema's Cab, CWG Cab and Merlot Reserve. Amazingly, after around a week, these three were still going strong with little sign of oxidation. The Merlot might have gone on to get the 5 star nod, but the two cabs are just as excellent and will doubtless improve with lengthy ageing.