Grape 23

FINE WINE FOCUS
A series examining the best wines of the Cape’s top producers

Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

An appraisal by Tim James

Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
1997- 2001

1997 * * * * [4 stars] A long growing season (picking of Jonkershoek and Firgrove grapes was only in mid-April) helped produced a well-balanced wine, with good acidity complementing the sweet red berry fruit, all the flavour lingering nicely on the palate. The oak (46% new, for one year) integrated and supportive rather than apparent. Some savoury development, but now surely at its peak. Providing very attractive drinking, and (if well stored) should continue well for a few more years at least. 12.75% alc. Only 36 barrels made.

1998 * * * * * The epitome of this label: definitely modern and assertive, deeply though translucently coloured, with a full rich generosity tempered by elegance and restraint. Developing well, with vinous secondary characters enveloping the fruit flavours and mitigating the fruit sweetness, adding complexity. All supported by firm, smooth tannins. Again, the oaking was modest: 55% new, for a year. Should happily outlive its decade and provide pleasure for much longer than that (till 2013 or so, I'd guess, for those who enjoy mature wine), as it gets more ethereal. Grapes from Jonkershoek, Firgrove and Bottelary; 13.3% alc.

1999 * * * (*) The lightest of the line-up, with the most evolved colour and flavour. From a cool ripening season and warm vintage weather, the winemaker notes. Certainly very elegant, if comparatively lacking intensity. At 20%, the proportion of new oak is the lowest of the line up – appropriately for a lighter year; maturation was for 18 months. Showing the appealing but sufficiently serious balance of cherry fruit, alcohol, tannin and acid which are the Le Riche leitmotif. This wine unlikely to improve, but its serene equilibrium means it should drink well for years to come. 12.8% alc. (Note: there is an inevitable element of confusion over bottles of this vintage, as the standard Cabernet and the Reserve swopped labels at a fairly early stage following release.)

2000 * * * * (*) Grapes from Jonkershoek, Firgrove, Muldersvlei and Bottelary. Still youthful, the components balanced but not yet integrated or evolving. The flight's highest proportion of new wood – 70% for 12 months, and oakiness still apparent, though should get absorbed in time. Although there is a lovely richness of taste and texture, the wine is probably in a temporary phase of being rather closed and a little awkward, and will repay keeping a few more years, and should last happily beyond 2010.

2001 * * * * (*) Although there is clear continuity with the earlier wines – especially the 1998 – this might announce a slightly less classic intent, or merely be a response to this good vintage, with noticeable ripeness and softer smooth tannins (though these, together with fine acidity, do support and restrain the exuberance). Packed with fruit and flavour. Some evidence still of the 60% new oak used (18 months), though this will soon become fully integrated. The highest alcohol yet, at 13.65%, adds to the feeling of controlled bigness and concentration, though the Le Riche smooth elegance is still evident – even if some drinkers would welcome a little more tannic 'grip' and a touch less overt amiability. Readier for drinking than some of the earlier vintages, and a reasonable guess would be that it will drink well till 2010 at least.

When Rustenberg and Etienne Le Riche parted company in 1995 after a long partnership, there were those who thought his best winemaking opportunities were past. How wrong they were. The wines that this quietly spoken and unassuming man has made under his own label since then have been widely praised, particularly the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. This wine has the rare achievement, for example, of Platter five-star ratings for three of the five vintages released.

The winery is in Stellenbosch’s Jonkershoek Valley, on the Leef op Hoop farm which gives its name to one range of wines made by Le Riche since 1996. (‘Live on hope’, it means, but the wines offer rather more security than that!) With largely second-hand equipment, Le Riche refurbished the attractive old cellar, which had last been used for winemaking in 1967, subsequently serving as a tractor and tool shed.

In 1997 he started sourcing grapes for a further small range, this one to appear under his own name: a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Reserve version, and a cabernet-merlot blend. The Reserve 1997 achieved instant acclaim – including from Platter, SAA, Veritas and Preteux Bourgeois Classic Trophy judges. Since then it has built a reputation for consistency, offering a wine which is clearly modern in its bright clear fruit and ripe approachability, but which is based on the durable classic virtues of harmonious balance and a firm structure designed to allow the wine to mature over a decade or so.

The vineyards

For the Cabernet, Le Riche has used grapes from four Stellenbosch vineyards, at Jonkershoek, Firgrove, Muldersvlei and Bottelary, though the last of these is no longer used. Because the wine for the Reserve label is a barrel selection it is not easy to be precise about the contributions from each vineyard in a given year.

These vineyards are not owned or leased by the winemaker, but, he says, he has established a long-term relationship with their owners and they should provide material for his wine for the forseeable future. All are trellised on the conventional hedge system, and harvested by hand. When selecting the vineyards, Le Riche says, he put a premium on non-virused vines, and good drainage rather than fertility, as balanced concentration rather than quantity was the goal. Irrigation is available when necessary in dry years. Yields are around seven tons per hectare.

In the winery

Le Riche is happy to leave his winemaking techniques largely traditional. Fermen-tation, initiated by inoculation, takes place in large open cement tanks, with the cap of skins punched five or six times daily. Cooling facilities are available to keep the temperatures down, if the fermenting must threatens to rise beyond 30ºC. Le Riche attributes the elegant, soft structure of his wines to these kuipe, and has no intention of changing – although in 2004 there is some experimentation with fermenting in oak vats; clearly he has no fondness for stainless steel. Occasionally acidification is necessary, though Le Riche resorts to it increasingly little, and at lower levels.

After fermentation the wine macerates on the skins in closed tanks for some fourteen days. Malolactic fermentation occurs in tanks, before the wine is racked to barrels. Le Riche uses 225-litre barriques of medium-toasted Nevers oak, from four coopers. Over the 18 months or so that he now keeps the wine in wood, he will rack it from barrel to barrel three times. Generally he finds that, depending on the structure of the wine, that it needs no fining – or only a light egg-white fining at most. There is a light filtration before bottling.

Mention must be made of the other wines under the Le Riche label: there is a standard Cabernet Sauvignon which is only slightly a lesser wine than the Reserve, and a blend (in varying proportions) of cabernet and merlot. Both of these are usually readier for early drinking than the Reserve.

Five released vintages is not many, and Le Riche is still experimenting (those oak fermentation vessels!), and fine-tuning his techniques. There are, however, already hints of a common character emerging though those five vintages: modern, but elegant rather than simply fruity, woody wines, marked by fine tannins, vibrant acidity and a sweetish cherry fruit. A track record of longer-term ageability is obviously not yet sufficiently established, but the structure of the wines and their harmony suggests that patience for at least five years after the vintage will bring rewards, and certainly not exhaust the possibilities of increased pleasure to be offered.

Ex-farm price for the 2001 vintage: R130 per bottle.