Grape wine news

A good World Economic Forum for Vergelegen 2 February 2008

Both red and white perform well in Davos tastings

Each year, British wine supremo Jancis Robinson organises and presents wine tastings for those amongst the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum. This time around, what she calls ‘the most surprising event’ was a blind tasting of 11 cabernet sauvignon and Bordeaux blends from around the world, all from the 2001 vintage.

The surprise seems to have been less the comparatively dismal performance of Château Lafite than the fact that Jancis’s own top-scoring wine – and the fourth-favourite of the assembled tasters, by their vote – was by far the cheapest in the line-up, and the only South African wine on offer: Vergelegen Cabernet Sauvignon (not V, nor the flagship blend). Jancis (who notes in an article on the subscriber-restricted part of her website that she saw Vergelegen’s chairman Michael Spicer ‘on his blackberry to winemaker Andre van Rensburg the second he realised I had given my top mark to their 2001 Cabernet’) scored the wine 19 out of 20 – just a little more than she gave to the general favourite, Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia, and to the Californian cult wine Screaming Eagle, and one of Bordeaux’s great names, Château Haut-Brion.

Vergelegen was also included in another tasting, ‘of top wines made in mining areas, interpreted in the loosest possible sense’. A vote among the 50-odd attendees as to their favourite red and white wines saw the Vergelegen White 2006 triumphing (along with another Moss Wood Cabernet, the 1995). Vergelegen V 2004 was just behind (perhaps the generous representation of Vergelegen in the line-ups was not unconnected to the estate’s intimate connection to some of the rich and powerful at the Forum?)

There’s a full report by Jancis Robinson in the latest issue of the Financial Times, and the article is also carried in the free-access part of her website: find it by clicking here.

Which wine? A further note 7 February 2008

Extraordinary as it might seem, there seems to be some doubt as to which Vergelegen wine Jancis Robinson rated so highly. Vergelegen has since reported that it was in fact the 2001 red blend (known just as Vergelegen) which was delivered to Davos for the tasting. It says it has checked its cellar records extremely carefully, in case something had gone wrong, but found nothing to indicate that this was possible. On the other hand, Jancis Robinson (who's read a few labels in her time) is pretty sure that she remembers the black (as opposed to white) Cabernet Sauvignon label, with the varietal name on it (and the sommelier's notes also list the wine as the Cab)!

The mystery must, then, remain. Both are, in any case, undoubtedly fine wines. But fortunately, no doubt has been cast on the other two Vergelegen wines at Davos, the V 2004 and the White 2006.

COMMENT

From Mark de Witt:
Quelle stuff up! And now there are reports that the Vergelegen (whichever one it was) came fourth overall, not third.

Ahem! Yes, a pity to have a blot on a happy story, but still. As to the placing: on the tasting report on the restricted pages of www.jancisrobinson.com, the wine is credited with being fourth overall, but the printed article says third. Of course, the scores were very close, so it doesn't make all that much difference; and perhaps the arithmetic was re-checked after the first report.... Exhausted by the long process of trying to work out which wine it was, I haven't got the energy to follow up this aspect, I fear.... – TJ

From Peter May:
Firstly, re the Widow's comment 'chief of Anglo American, Cynthia Caroll, who assured her how dear Vergelegen was to her heart'. I don't know how it works in SA, but in the UK whenever a British Prime Minister expresses 'complete confidence' in a Minister it is only a matter of days or weeks at most before that minister is an ex-minister.

What has puzzled me for the past few years is the unending piles of Vergelegen Estate Red 2001 and now 2002 that UK supermarket chain Tesco (click here) has had for sale and on offer. Don't you locals buy any of the stuff yourself? Currently 21.84 pounds a bottle or R273 at the exchange rate I got just before leaving blighty for your sunblessed shores. (Of course, we wait for a regular 25% off deal before 'filling our boots' - I have 24 bottles of the 2001). – From a windy but warm Gordon's Bay.

Response from Tim James:
A very interesting observation and question (re the sales - as for Peter's sceptical observations on expressions of confidence and affection, we must wait and see). Perhaps in terms of local buyers, it's yet another healthy sign that they don't always pay much attention to the experts. Take the Vergelegen White, for example. Made in tiny quanitites, it is usually available for a long time from the farm (at admittedly a high-ish price of around R200), despite being the most consistently celebrated wine, red or white, in South Africa (when last did it miss Platter 5 stars or a Trophy Wine Show trophy?) This also despite Vergelegen being in the popular view (witness the Wine mag poll) and the critics' view (witness the Grape polls) the top SA producer.

It's not just Vergelegen where our advice is spurned! Morgenster, for example, a big critical success, has not performed as well in the market as it should have. Certain other red blends, rather sneered at by many of us critics, and at least as expensive, do much better. Very irritating - what are we here for if people don't obey us?

As for the Vergelegen red flagship specifically. The 2001 is so good it should have sold out ages ago at what is a pretty reasonable UK price. I envy you your 24 bottles. The V sells out quickly here at three times the price, though it's only arguably as good a wine (in 2001 it wasn't, in my opinion). It's possible that Vergelegen confuses the market by the very large range of wines they have on offer (how to project an as-yet unestablished flagship blend, for example, if you suddenly introduce V at a much higher price, thereby suggesting that the producer thinks it that much better?). I'd suggest they also made a mistake by pushing, at full price, the markedly inferior 2002 vintage for so very long - and from what you say they risk diluting their reputation overseas by trying hard to sell it there, discounted or not. We don't have the established Bordeaux system of admitting to an inferior vintage by lowering the price. Anyone who tries just the 2002 flagship at that price, without realising what a bad vintage it was for many Cape cab-based wines, including Vergelegen, is perhaps unlikely to ever try the wine again. The estate should, I think, have swallowed hard, put the 2002 in a deep cellar and rushed out the excellent 2003. But it's a pity for Vergelegen that the confusions over the Davos tasting will limit the tasting's usefulness for marketing - though surely it will help boost things for them in the UK.

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