Quality and character variation across years is a factor even in the Cape. Angela Lloyd looks at conditions in recent vintages, and the sorts of wine they produced

For anyone not involved with farming, let alone wine-growing, one sunny South African summer must appear much like the next (and the previous one!). It arrives around early November and generally lasts until sometime in April. Warm, dry days, with excessive heat tempered by the Cape Doctor (the south-easterly wind) are contrasted by considerably cooler nights – ‘bring a jacket’ is wise advice foreign visitors often view with incredulity before they arrive. There might be one or two downpours but nothing so serious as to damage the tourist brochure image of the Cape summer as one long paradise of continuous blue skies. Under such conditions, could there be any reason for all the summer and autumn fruits not ripening to perfection?

It is this sort of ideal picture that leads many people to believe there can be very little variation from one wine harvest to the next. That’s not true (and let’s be thankful for it: consistency is one thing, sameness quite another); the Cape does record better and lesser years if not as extreme as areas such as Bordeaux or Burgundy, where the climate is more unpredictable. Then, whilst the fruit ripens in summer, weather conditions throughout the rest of the year are also influential on the end product.

The years since the millenium have provided an interesting mix of fortunes, with the better producers taking full advantage of those which allowed for no excuses and coping, often very well, with those that threw challenges aplenty. The notes that follow would reflect the likely outcome of their efforts. Vintages covered are those most likely to still be found on the shelves or winelists in better restaurants.

It must be stressed, as always, that discussions of vintage – especially when covering a large region – must inevitably be generalisations only. Patterns vary, some producers manage better or worse than others. Take 1996: it is generally regarded as a very poor vintage for most reds; rightly so in most cases, but it produced the top-scoring Meerlust Rubicon in the vertical tasting reported in Grape 24….

2000

The year will be remembered for the big fires, both in the winelands and in the skies. Viticultural expertise was vital. It was not a memorable year for white wines, which were marked by low acids and high alcohols; even those from well-reputed producers will have tailed off. Reds were notable for sturdier than usual tannins; any taster faced with a long line up of pinotage or cabernet from that tough year will remember the experience as hard on the gums! While the tannin levels do appear to be dropping now, there is frequent disagreement over the wines’ longevity; it may be up to the blends to show the longest legs.

Real casualties of the year were wines affected by smoke from the fires, mainly those around the Simonsberg. Some, unwisely, were released; anything with an acrid smell and taste could well come from this area. Others, including Rustenberg flagship Peter Barlow, were (sensibly if financially damagingly), never bottled.

2001

The situation also looked pretty grim as the 2001 harvest loomed. The previous winter had been the driest and warmest in years, which partly accounted for a chardonnay crop down by as much as 70 per cent in some places. It was, however, the generally low crop coupled with an unusual lack of prolonged mid-summer heatwaves and good diurnal temperature variations that not only saved the day but produced some exceptionally big, concentrated and hopefully long-lived wines, both whites and reds.

Even 2001 sauvignon blancs are still invigoratingly fresh, without a dominant and age-influenced pyrazine character. It is something of an anomaly that judging panels have often come away less than enthusiastic about the reds, but the thinking is that they are taking longer than most to come together and unfold. Slowing sales means there are still an unusual number of 2001 reds on the retail shelves. Certainly the better names require further ageing. If opening a bottle now is a necessity, good aeration and/or decanting would definitely help to make the experience more pleasurable.

2002

The 2002 vintage couldn’t have been more different, not only from 2001 but almost any other year. If 2000 had been one of the driest winters on record, 2001 was the wettest in 40 years. On our Kenilworth garden, the 782mm we recorded in 2000 nearly doubled in 2001 to 1512mm. If the good news was that this broke the four year drought and combined with a colder than usual winter, the bad news was that the heavy rains continued well into spring. Rampant downy mildew caused havoc for the less than vigilant. For those who did manage to keep a step ahead of the situation, matters looked quite bright, as the cool weather persisted into early February.

By this stage, more downy, botrytis and even sour rot had developed; it’s amazing that any decent wine at all came out of this, but the determined with know-how and wherewithal sorted berry by berry.

Then came a double whammy: an extra-fierce and long heatwave towards the end of February, followed by an early autumn. What else could one expect but fuller white wines lacking freshness and the old, virus-ridden cabernet especially failing to ripen? The strange thing is that some white wines, although less concentrated than the 2001s, do seem to have life ahead of them; success depended more on producer than variety. Chardonnays from Glen Carlou (21st in the influential Wine Spectator Top 100 for 2004) and Chamonix can certainly go a few years and André van Rensburg reckons his flagship semillon-sauvignon blanc blend is a stayer, but how much better even these benchmarks can get is open to question.

The reds present a most intriguing picture for several reasons. Declassification, as mentioned in relation to the Peter Barlow in 2000, had been a very occasional feature among top wineries in the past (for example, 1985 and 1990 Meer-lust Rubicon, and 1994, 1996 and 1999 Overgaauw Tria Corda). For 2002 several big names are biting the bullet and taking this route (it’s an expensive option because of the financial loss, and there’s a sea of 2002 cabernet looking for a buyer apart from which, otherwise loyal consumers could decide to buy elsewhere – permanently). Among the declassifiers are Overgaauw Tria Corda, Delheim Grand Reserve, Laibach Fredrich Laibach – all forwarding the reason that the wines were just not up to standard.

Vergelegen’s André van Rensburg – who else? – has taken a different approach. Rather than not produce the flagship red – usually cabernet sauvignon dominated with merlot and cabernet franc – the axis of the blend shifted to merlot and cabernet franc. Van Rensburg’s reasoning is interesting: ‘When you’re focused on terroir, you have to reflect it regardless of vintage.’ There are other consequences of declassification, when the wines are channelled into a second label.

This can change the style and character quite dramatically. If cabernet was the main casualty, shiraz appears to have sailed through the vintage oblivious to all the problems. Show results and two Platter 5 star shirazes from 2002 (Boekenhouts-kloof and Eben Sadie’s Columella) would appear to uphold this impression. Opinions about pinotage differ: some tasters tend to be disappointed, others think the variety fairly unscathed – certainly in comparison to cabernet and merlot.

The general roller coaster ride that was 2002 makes recommending or cautioning against specific varieties very difficult; the best advice is to go cautiously, and if possible taste and test before you buy more than the occasional bottle. It’s fairly safe to assume, though, that the popular commercial styles, when agreeable, are for early drinking. Perhaps even the top wines don’t have the guts for the long haul.

2003

The very opposite would appear to be true of 2003. The harvest was preceded by a winter which obliged with generous downpours and cold but then remembered to switch to spring mode at the right time. From then on everything progressed more or less smoothly (unless, like Van Loveren, your vineyards and full cellar were in the path of the flash floods that swept through Robertson in March; fortunately, for most, damage was limited). There were few extreme heat peaks, and plenty of those fruit-refreshing cool nights.

2003 is proving one of those rare years where both whites and reds performed well, the whites having good fruit concentration and balanced acids, while the reds are noted for excellent flavour and structure, elegance providing the cherry on the top. The top producers, at least, weren’t complaining either about a more normal crop level, after two short years.

At the grander end of things, only whites have been released; they offer a plethora of quality across the spectrum. Any of the names associated with mainstream varieties are safe bets, while viognier (Ridgeback, Kumkani, Backsberg, Spier as well as the stalwart Fairview all full of character and promising) and the emerging category of flagship white blends scores with not only Vergelegen but also Constantia Uitsig, Lammershoek and the Sadie Family Palladius, for example, extending drinking pleasure.

Reds designed for accessible early drinking are a much safer bet than those from 2002. The more serious, ageworthy 2003 reds should start appearing with a trickle in early 2005, most some months later, but winelovers should be spoilt for choice and would be wise to shop around for value, as not all will cross into the three figure stratosphere. Talk of a red wine glut sounds encouraging, but most of that surplus is at the less than appetising end.

2004

And so to 2004, which miraculously seems to have produced the second quality vintage in a row, though caution is recommended with some reds. This didn’t seem likely when autumn 2003 showed reluctance to do anything other than remain warm and dry. Then in mid August the heaviest snow in living memory, in some parts, sounded a death knell for all bugs and sent the vines into dormancy. The rains came late, which made up for a sharp decline on the previous two winters, though it made life difficult for those without irrigation and meant a lower crop for them – not in itself other than good for quality, but vine-stress can be another matter.

Few winemakers will want to remember the 2004 harvest, which was one of the longest in memory; grapes were still being picked during the second half of April. Virused cabernet again struggled to ripen; other reds ripened very unevenly, which necessitated careful sorting on the vine or at the cellar. Success will depend on how conscientiously harvesting and sorting were carried out; some winemakers are outright enthusiastic, citing excellent colour, fruit and structure in the wines, others are less so.

Time, as the old cliché goes, will tell. The one aspect most agree on is that the grapes were properly ripe at lower sugar levels than usual; once the wines hit the bottle, this should mean alcohols lower than have been the norm in recent years (thanks to clean vine material, where the grapes have no problem picking up sugar). As in 2003, whites have fresh, natural acidity and good fruit but appear more concentrated and powerful than that year. Beyond the popular varieties, there are some lovely rieslings with plenty of development potential, Paul Cluver and Klein Constantia among them.