Cape classics 4 February 2008

What are the legendary wines of South Africa?

From Grant Dodd:

As an Aussie involved in SA wine [Grant has an interest in Haskell Vineyards] I'm really keen to taste and experience the best of what South Africa has been able to produce over the years. In Australia, the legendary wines are quite easily defined... the O'Sheas of the 1930s and 40s, the Great Westerns of Colin Preece in the 1950s, the Woodley Treasure Chest reds of the 1950s, Kalimna 1962, Mildara 1963, 55,71 Grange and quite a few others that are still drinking beautifully today.

What wines occupy the upper echelons of 'legend status' in South Africa, and are they still hiding away in peoples cellars today, and drinkable?

Tim James responds:
I asked Michael Fridjhon, as one of the people most experienced in older local wines, for his list, which is given below, with a few amendments. These wines are not easy to get hold of, but many are treasured in private cellars, and older Nederburg and associated wines turn up in tiny quantities to sell for high prices at the Nederburg Auction.

And at least many of them are drinking excellently still. Last year, for example, I had the GS Cabernet Sauvignon (much admired by American James Molesworth) 1966 in the company of, amongst others, Neil Beckett and Steven Spurrier who compared them favourably to top Bordeaux of that year; the 1968 GS, shared with Neil on a later occasion, was equally fine and remarkably youthful. But hard to find, like the others listed below, especially in the absence of an established secondary market for SA wines via auctions or whatever.

Anyone’s list would, of course, be headed by the great old Constantia wines. Bottles from the latter 18th and early 19th centuries still turn up very very occasionally and very very expensively. I’ve only once tried one, a decade ago, and it was certainly still fresh and rather lovely – gingery spice is what I recall, and a bottle that remained fragrant long after the last drop had been coaxed from it. More recent classics, up to the beginning of the 1980s (a decade that produced sadly few classics, Rustenberg 1982 one of the tiny handful) would include:

1930 KWV Muscadel

1940 Chateau Libertas

1945 Zonnebloem Cab

1953 KWV Muscadel

1956 Zonnebloem Cab

1957 Lanzerac Cab

1959 Lanzerac Pinotage

1959 Uitkyk Carlonet [MF's 'memory might be out' on the vintage]

1961 Lanzerac Pinotage

1962 Nederburg Selected Cabernet

1965 Nederburg Selected Cabernet

1965 Alto Selected Cabernet

1966 GS Cabernet Sauvignon

1968 Nederburg Selected Cabernet

1968 GS Cabernet Sauvignon

1970 Johann Graue Cabernet

1970 Fleur du Cap Vintage Shiraz

1972 Rustenberg (Cabernet)

1972 Meerendal Shiraz (KWV)

1973 Kanonkop Cabernet

1974 Rustenberg Dry red

1974 Nederburg Auction Cabernet

1974 Meerendal Pinotage

1974 Meerendal Shiraz

1976 Nederburg Auction Cabernet

1976 Nederburg Auction Shiraz

Probably there should be a Monis Port or two included too.

Incidentally, Michael is in the process of trying to pull together a tasting of some of these old classics for an article in World of Fine Wine – so perhaps in some months there might be a more up-to-date overview.

If anyone out there has additions or comments, please make them. (And I dare say that if anyone has bottles of these wines they’d be interested in offering to Grant Dodd, I’m sure he’d be pleased to hear from you – perhaps depending on the price and the provenance of the wines!)

COMMENTS

From Jeremy: Does Grant Dodd exist? Mike Fridjhon quotes him in the Weekender just as he pops up in Open Space. Did Preston Haskell appoint you guys as his SA PR machine or what?

I'm pretty confident Grant's for real, despite being an Australian – he's sent in various interesting questions and observations before. Whether Mike Fridjhon exists is perhaps what you should be asking. – Ed

Further from Grant Dodd:
Many thanks for your input. I guess the question that keeps popping up for me is what is the benchmark for SA wine? Is there a wine from the past that exemplifies what great South African wine should be, or are the greatest SA wines still to be made?

Looking back to the 60's and 70's, does anyone have any record of the extent of the leaf roll virus problem? Was it recognised as an issue, or did it even exist in measurable forms. Did it necessitate regular re-planting back then, or was it just accepted as a part of South African wine? My readings and research so far have more or less suggested that things were pretty much controlled by the KWV pre 1990's, but I'm a neophyte with regard to such things and would love to hear more.
 

To which Tim James adds:
Also note that there wasn't irrigation in those days! But a lot depends on what you mean by best.  Personally, I much prefer, eg, the style of the old Rustenberg Cabs to the Peter Barlow, but I wouldn't insist they are 'better'. There are certainly a lot more good wines around today because of better understanding of winemaking, etc. I think chenin blancs in SA are better than they ever were - whether they'll improve (as the stock of old vines depletes) is uncertain. Ports are probably better, and sauvignon blancs certainly so. Who's to say that Vergelegen V 2003 or Columella 2005 are 'better' than those old Nedeburg or GS Cabs.

It's a big topic. Take Bordeaux: A lot of extremely credible people would insist with certainty that the best wines there are better than they were in, say the early 1980s; but some would say not, and some would probably say - they may be 'better', but they're not as interesting or enjoyable.

As to the virus issue: The last census of virused vines was apparently 1970, when virtually 100% of the vineyards were found to be virused (nearly 70% leafroll). If anything, things are better now. Certainly many first class wines have been made in the Cape (and elsewhere) from virus-infected vines, whatever the fetishists might say! But it sometimes seem to be assumed that only South Africa has this problem, which is very far from the truth - leafroll is a problem in all wine-producing countries to varying extents. Click here for a good basic overview of leafroll by R. Carstens of ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij. (If anyone has better information or better links, please send us details.)