Are SA wines losing their character as they get more mainstream? A Swede thinks so... 27 March 2007

From Jörgen Höijer

Being  from Sweden and working in the wine business, my feeling is that South African wines are becoming more mainstream and getting more uniform and moving away from the characteristic wines SA was known for, with more wines tasting the same. This probably comes from the use of the same clones, same yeast, etc.

I tasted 7 vintages of Kanonkop; 1998-2000 were really good, 2001 OK, but 2002-2004 could have been made anyware in the world - just a lot of fruit and too much oak.

So my tip is to start to grow vines instead of making wines.

COMMENT

From Vieilles Vignes:

I personally have a hard time understanding Jorgen's point. It might be important to state your role in the wine industry to clarify the issue.

South African wine sales to Sweden have grown exponencially in the last couple of years, and this is in no small way due to the change in "style". If you could call it a style, working with second-rate clonal material, of which the majority was virus infected. For a very long time and still, South African wines had to explain themselves, particularly this old style Jurgen is referring to.

As for the Kanonkop, I stand to be corrected, the 01 is still far to young to be enjoyed, 02 was a poor vintage all round, 03 amazing in depth and complexity, just a decade too young. I would perceive it as a compliment to be told the wine smacks of 'just fruit'. As for the oaking, Kanonkop traditionally uses French oak, which always takes longer to integrate on the aroma than American oak, but when integration is achieved the result is much more complex.