RECENT RELEASES
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Autumnal offerings (2) 12 May 2008
Wines from Blank Bottle, Fairview, Freedom Hill, Meerlust. Metzer, Slowine, Solms Astor, Zonnebloem
Blank Bottle
Pieter Walser is a sort of negociant who buys up smallish parcels of wine and packages them – very elegantly, let it be said – under his own label, where the details about the wine, are not revealed. Origin, vintage and varietal make-up are easily available on the Blank Bottle website, however. The wines are sold by direct marketing, via the website rather than through the usual outlets, thus saving the hefty retailer mark-up. And the wine? This one is, the website tells us, a 2007 Wellington blend of chardonnay, chenin and viognier. It works well as a blend, with no varietal dominance, though chenin’s dry grass aromas are clear, with a little spice and ginger coming probably from the oaking. Pretty decent if not spectacular, and fair value – though there were complaints, especially from CvZ, that the big burliness of the wine was a bit excessive, and the high alcohol showed inf burn on the finish. – TJ
Fairview • Pinotage Viognier 2007 R60 14 • The Beacon Shiraz 2005 R150 16
The grapes for the Pinotage Viognier blend are co-fermented to ensure a more subtle and complete integration of their different characteristics before the resultant wine is aged eight months in predominantly American oak (30% new). Echoing its vibrant magenta hue, it brims with toasted coconut nuances and overripe strawberry fruit, and has an almost diacetyl texture rescued from ‘slipperiness’ by some rather drying tannins. Apparently hugely popular in the United Kingdom, the style certainly has validity but, on a warm autumn day in Cape Town, neither it – nor its 15% alcohol – provided much refreshment. The Beacon Shiraz is named for the surveyor general’s trigonometric beacon 194 found on the Dreyer’s farm in Paarl. The family has farmed here since 1705, but The Beacon vineyard was planted to bush vines only in 1995. The deep soils retain sufficient moisture to ripen their fruit without stress during the hot Paarl summers. Indeed, the grapes for the 2005 vintage were harvested at close to 27° Balling (very ripe indeed, in terms of sugar levels) yet the wine shows no over-ripe or stressed characters. Fermented in a mix of new and used French barrels, 40% was aged in new French oak, the remainder in used barrels, for 16 months. This combination of nature and man has produced a wine with intense savoury aromas and flavours. Despite its 15% alcohol and ripeness, it has a vibrancy and elegance, and shows greater intent and conviction than the other two in this line up. This should reward those with sufficient patience to cellar it for 4–8 years. – CvZ
Freedom Hill This Parl winery takes its name, they say, ‘from the fact that the vineyards overlook the legendary Victor Verster Prison (now Drakenstein Prison), where Nelson Mandela took his first steps to freedom … Today, each wine in this range is a joyous tribute to liberty.’ Well, yes. In the glass, this offering shows marked development, with more than a hint of a garnet flush to its rich papal cloak. Its bouquet is initially dominated by the coconut and sweet vanilla of American oak (too much for AL), but scrub and meaty tones do evolve. The palate is bold with lively red fruit and savoury tones, a firm tannic grip and a hint of oak bitterness on the finish. The over-riding impression is that of sweetness – from the fruit and the oak – which is a trifle uneasy alongside the drying tannins. The wine is maturing quickly and should probably be drunk as soon as possible (for AL, it is already too mature and oxidised). For others, a friendly sort of wine. – CvZ
• Rubicon 2004 R230 17.5 This famous wine scarcely needs an introduction, of course, but always merits a welcome. This is the first vintage, however, for which Chris Williams has been fully responsible since succeeding Giorgio dalla Cia as winemaker, so one looks for stylistic changes. The obvious one is that Williams is picking much riper grapes: the alcohol level of the 2004 is, at 14.42, nearly one percent higher than recent releases, and two percent higher than the wines of a decade back. It must be said, however, that there is no perceptible imbalance, and the wine is perhaps even a little fresher than in the recent past, along with a depth of sweet black-berry fruit. It remains a fine, elegantly rich, unshowy wine – although the new wood (80 percent new, for 24 months) is still a touch too obvious. The tannins are firm but silky-smooth, the acid cut nicely harmonious. With the substantial break with tradition implied by the new picking regime, it’s difficult to argue too much from the wine’s track record (it’s one of the oldest Bordeaux-styled reds in the Cape), but there seems every reason to suppose that it will improve for another five or so years at least, and keep well for another five at least thereafter. – TJ
Metzer
This is the maiden vintage from the man who, for several harvests, worked alongside Signal Hill’s Jean-Vincent Ridon in his Cape Town city centre winery. Swartland’s reputation for fine shiraz has grown enormously over the last decade and fruit from three different Swartland vineyards and soil types - schist, clay and weathered granite - went into Wade Metzer's shiraz. He deployed minimalist wine making techniques to retain as much terroir and fruit character as possible: whole berry maceration (no destemming or crushing); indigenous yeasts; no mechanical intervention, that is, no pumps or presses; no new oak and only two rackings; and no fining or filtering prior to bottling. The resultant wine, according to CvZ and AL, smells of dark, wet earth and fynbos, and is fiercely intense with a depth and structure that seems to be far more than simply the sum of acidity, alcohol (14.6%) fruit and tannins. Despite its current sense of completeness and long silky finish, they believe it needs several years cellaring to show its best. TJ and GdF are less enamoured, finding it a little ‘too worked’ (a lot of extraction, too-heavy oaking), with slightly unbalanced tannins. – CvZ
• Rosé 2007 R35 14.5 • Shiraz 2006 R45 15 !!! The Slowine range is the result of a ‘collaboration between friends’ in the Overberg. The winemakers of the friendly estates – Andries Burger of Paul Cluver, Niels Verberg of Luddite, Sebastian Beaumont of Beaumont Wines and Ryan Elan-Puttick of Villiersdorp Cellars – pool talents and grapes to make wines that seem to be improving year by year (and these two at least have recently been well received in the US too). The colour of the Rosé seems a particularly, if not inappropriately, frivolous shade of pink. But other aspects are a little more restrained, and just as much fun: it’s a light, tasty wine, with a decent freshness, dry and fruity, with some lingering charm. That is, it pretty well does what a modest rosé is meant to do. The eminently quaffable, good-value Shiraz is also a modest, friendly wine. It starts with nice smoky, spice-tinged aromas, then offers a well-balanced and refreshing package of ripe fruit (but not too simply fruity), support by an understated tannic grip, and departs unhurriedly (as friends should). Enjoy. – TJ
Solms Astor
• Cape Jazz Shiraz NV R46 12.5
The Cape Jazz Shiraz is a low-alcohol (9%) gently sparkling (from carbonation) and sweetish wine made in the tradion of Italy’s Lambrusco. GdF has doubts about this example, finding too much volatile acidity (essentially = vinegar) aroma. The rest of us aren’t as sceptical but acknowledge that the wine’s been made, literally, just for fun: drink up and enjoy, as soon as you’ve chilled the bottle. Langarm (like the Vastrap which we reviewed some months back, given the Afrikaans names of a local dance) is a ‘complicated’ Cape Blend (pinotage 29%; touriga nacional 22%; tannat 19 %; grenache 12%, cabernet sauvignon 14% and primitivo/zinfandel 4%) tickled with oak staves while in tank. The Langarm should also be drunk fairly soon to be enjoyed at its best, but it has far more complexity. Given its make-up, its nose and palate are interesting – there’s spice, savouriness, salty licorice, black fruit and white pepper plus a dollop of refreshing acidity and decently dry finish. – CvZ Zonnebloem Viognier 2007 R38 GdF 12.5, AL 13.5, TJ/CvZ 14.5 Shiraz Mourvèdre Viognier 2006 R65 15 Two reasonably priced wines in the Rhône tradition from one of the most enduring of Cape brands – even if its modern wines don’t summon up quite the tingle of expectation that the rare examples of their vintages from the 1960s andd 1970s still do. The Viognier comes from Stellenbosch and Wellington grapes. It gave rise to different estimations of quality, but we generally arrived independently at one unifying factor: it seemed to be made by someone who doesn’t much like viognier. There was little of viognier’s typical aroma, for example, and the obvious woodiness supplemented the idea that this was made to be rather more like a chardonnay. But for some of us there was a pleasing subdued lightness, an attempt at elegance, if not quite the achievement of it; although for GdF this was interpreted as a dull wateriness. AL found it somewhat bitter and rough, while for me and CvZ it was pleasant drinking, if somewhat oaky and lacking in varietal character. The shiraz-based blend (it has 12% mourvèdre and a splash of the white grape), has a fairly old-fashioned feel to it, with a bluff honest decency to it. A bit hefty and jammy, the ripeness of the Stellenbosch fruit is clear – though there’s obviously been quite a bit of acidification to compenstae for the freshness that was sacrificed to ripeness. The tannin structure is nicely handled: there’s not too much ‘bite’ to make early drinking a problem, but there’s a bit of grip to balance the fruitiness. Easy-going stuff, which should give plenty of pleasure at superior braais. – TJ
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Scoring We continue to partly use the suggestion made by one of our readers: when the panel members' scores are not very close, following discussion, we have not noted a consensus score, but indicated the whole range of scores. (When this does not happen, it can be assumed that the scores were either identical, or close enough that nobody felt strongly about stressing a slight difference of opinion – given that we do not regard scores as scientifically precise, or the most important part of our appraisal of a wine.)
Grape’s interpretation of the 20-point rating scale 0-10: Faulty or just unpleasant 10.5-11.5: Dull, uninteresting but sound 12-13.5: Pleasant enough, decent but basically simple quaffer 14-15.5: Good and enjoyable, but no real excitement 16-16.5 Very good wine, offering something special 17-17.5 Fine and beautiful world-class wine, among the best in SA 18-20 Truly excellent, some even among the world’s finest !!! indicates especially good value
Prices Tasters for these wines
TJ – Tim James GdF – Ginette de Fleuriot, Cape Wine Master For more information regarding the tasting procedures, tasters, etc, see the Recent releases contents page
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We would welcome adding your opinions of these wines |
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Fairview,
under the inspired leadership of Charles Back, continues to grow as one
of the more innovative and interesting of Cape wineries. Years back they
pioneered viognier in the country. The latest vintage is lightly oaked
(just half with 10% new) and, for CvZ and TJ at least, is quintessential
and fairly charming; brightly coloured with a forthcoming bouquet of
apricots and nuts and a whiff of vanilla oak, followed by a rather
broad, densely textured palate, pleasantly lifted with a warming alcohol
(14.7%) and phenolic flick in its tail from four months' ageing on its
lees. Not quite as successful for GdF and AL who find it a more
refreshing style than the richer, heavier earlier Fairview bottlings,
but not nearly as impressive. 
Meerlust
Slowine
In
the few years of its modern winemaking existence, Solms-Delta, on the
edge of the Franschhoek valley, has rapidly acquired a reputation for
innovation and distinctiveness, as well as quality. The wines in its
flagship range, Solms-Wijn de Caab, as well as the none-too-shabby
Solms-Hegewisch range, typically offer something unexpected: sometimes
the wine-making techniques used are not common to the South African
industry, sometimes the varieties used are not mainstream. This new
range – launched at the farm’s inaugural Harvest Jazz Festival – is no
different, though it is more affordably priced, given that the expensive
dried-grape techniques that characterise all the other wines to some
extent are not used here. The Astor part of the name, by the way,
reflects the partnership with British philanthropist Richard Astor, who
owns the neighbouring farm – and has something of a passion for African
music, whence the musical allusions. 