KWV's Perold shiraz ... expensive but obscure 7 May 2007

From Mike Feinberg:
Something I would like to ask you pros. I receive each year a bottle of Perold Shiraz from a client in the way that companies do at Christmas. Only now learning that for years this has been the most expensive wine in SA - long before Ernie Els or the V came around. Why is this wine relatively obscure in this country? Why is it so pricey? Why do the KWV keep a lid on it with regards competitions/tasting etc? Is it a decent wine, when last did Grape-ou's taste it?

The current vintage sells for around R850 from the cellar. The way this wine is being positioned in the market and then neglected in a marketing and promotional sense is quite bizarre.
It's a strange product.

A good question, we thought, so we sent it along to Penelope Horwood, KWV's Communications Manager, who responded thus:

To date, there have been only 3 vintages of Perold: 1996, 1998 and 2001. It is a very small production, only 6 000 bottles per vintage and the actual vintage selected, is absolutely dependent on the quality of the Shiraz grapes from the specially-designated Perold vineyard "Op die Berg" on top of Paarl Mountain. It is 4 hectares in extent and "manicured" to produce outstanding fruit to produce this wine, which is then matured in new American oak for 24 months and then further bottle-aged before release.

The marketing strategy with Perold and the reason for the production of such a brand was to show the world that SA, as a New World wine country, could produce an excellent red noble varietal wine.

At each release function, namely November 1999 (for 1996 vintage), November 2002 (for the 1998 vintage) and April 2006 (for the 2001 vintage) we received a lot of publicity both in SA and overseas.

The wine is allocated to 6 markets only and is sold out very quickly, even at the R850 price point, hence there is no point in continuous publicity about it, as it is unobtainable soon after release.  A limited quantity can be purchased at the KWV Wine Emporium.

We do offer it for tastings to Press and Trade and the 2001 vintage, in particular, has received very good reviews.  It is very costly to produce such a wine, hence the price.

A further note from us:

When the first Perold (1996) was released we took its price and claims seriously and tasted it against some top international and local shirazes (reported in Grape No 4 March-May 200; not in our online archive, unfortunately). It came sixth out of nine wines (but world-famous Grange came 8th; Graillot La Guiraude Crozes-Hermitage 1996 came top; Perold was beaten by both Boekenhoutskloof 1997 and Stellezicht Syrah 1994). The Perold 1996 wine was not available locally. KWV refused to sell us (let alone give us) a bottle, and we had to source it overseas (getting a bottle couriered from Amsterdam to the land of its birth).

There was a big function to launch the 1998 wine, which continued the tradition of opulence, power, and heavy use of sweet American oak - a Barossa-styled and competently made wine, was the general opinion amongst Grape people and friends, but neither to our tastes, really, nor a patch on the best SA examples, like Boekenhoutskloof.

Unfortunately, no-one associated with Grape was invited to the release function Penelope refers to for the 2001 vintage (no doubt because of the lawsuit institgated against us by KWV/Sterik de Wet around that time). None of us have tasted it. Apparently the wine doesn't get offered to the Platter Guide for assessment, and, as Mike says, it doesn't seem to ever be entered in competitions. There have been reports of the latest 2001 doing very well in Canada (see the KWV website, which doesn't offer any other reports of enthusiasm). Googling doesn't reveal much more in the way of local or international opinion one way or another. Incidentally, local Wine mag has never rated the wine highly: one star for the 1996, three stars for both the 1998 and the 2001 (not that the magazine track record of assessing shiraz is at all convincing!).

It seems strange that if 'Op die Berg' really is such a good vineyard they can make a good wine from it so seldom. But if the wine does indeed sell out (whether as company gifts to people like Mike Feinberg or to winelovers), good for KWV. Such intermittent production, small distribution, and such mixed responses to the wine mean, though, that it has no chance of becoming the 'icon' wine KWV presumably hoped to produce.

If anyone can offer some opinions on the quality of the current release, please let us have them.

COMMENT

From Ingrid Motteux:
With regard to KWV Communications Manager Penelope Horwood’s reason for Perold’s R850-plus price tag, ‘It is very costly to produce such a wine, hence the price’… nonsense, there’s only so much you can spend producing a bottle of wine, which is around R800 less than the sum asked for this particular bottle. A lot to pay for KWV’s aspirations. As Angela Lloyd quipped on tasting the 1998 vintage of Perold: ‘For integrity and soul you’d have to pay a little less.’