Grape wine news

Bordeaux blend competition announces results
7 March 2008

Cape ‘first growth’ wins Calyon, but famous young pretender just behind on leader-board

At this year’s Calyon-sponsored competion for South African bordeaux-style blends, Kanonkop Estate broke the recent runs of victories (two in a row) by another famous property, Rustenberg. The winner, announced at a function in Johannesburg last night, was Paul Sauer 2004. The first runner-up was Ernie Els 2004, followed by Bowwood Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2004 (a joint venture produced by Flagstone).

The other seven wines making the Top Ten were (in alphabetical order): Dombeya Samara 2005 (from Haskell Vineyards); Eikendal Classique 2004; Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2003; Klein Constantia Marlbrook 2006; Môreson Magia 2003; Saronsberg Seismic 2005; and Stellenrust Timeless 2004.

All of the nearly 90 entries were blended exclusively from at least two of the Bordeaux varieties: effectively cabernets sauvignon and franc, merlot, malbec and petit verdot. The judging panel, chaired by Michael Fridjhon, included retailers Carrie Adams and Carolyn Barton, winemaker Howard Booysen (Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé and distinction candidate of the Tasting Academy), winewriters Christian Eedes and Tim James, and experienced wine judge Yegas Naidoo. For the first round, two panels each tasted half the wines; the second round brought the panels together to rate and rank the 16 wines which came through the first round

The competition’s sponsor, Calyon Credit Agricole CIB, will donate the competition’s entry fees, matched by an equal sum of its own, to a bursary fund for students of wine business.

Grape editor Tim James was one of the judges, and comments on this year’s competition:

As usual the comparatively small number of wines to be judged, the generous time allocated, and intelligent chairing of the two panels meant that conditions in this competition are as good as possible when it comes to assessing a line-up of mostly tannic, serious young wines, even if it remains hard to perceive subtler virtues.

It also enables a clearer picture of the vintages submitted. In the past two years the results have been dominated by the excellent 2003. Last year 2004 was rather disappointing, despite a significant proportion of the entrants. This year the 2004 wines showed rather better, giving some good, serious wines with maturation potential. Nonetheless, this is again revealed as, generally, a vintage without quite the generous harmony of 2003, although the wines are not unbalanced.

The question of balance came to the fore more with 2005. Some of the wines showed an excess of alcohol, giving a hot finish. ‘Bigness’ was a common feature, but some of the wines had enough fruit intensity to act as a counterweight to the alcohol – giving a balance if not a gracefulness.

It’s good that there are so many South African wines of this genre that are still aiming at a level of profundity and showing the need for a bit of bottle-ageing, rather than trying for a facile fruity charm – though there were some that definitely showed a slightly over-ripe sweetness, and a few instances of serious over-ripeness, where the fruit had ceased to provide any fresh flavour, and the wines were already essentially hollow. There were, as usual, some wines that showed a use of new oak that was disproportionate to the amount of fruit, and the consequence was some over-dry astringency on the finish, but on the whole the oak was well managed and not too excessive.

Cheeringly, there was little in the way of obvious fault – with problems like brett and microbial spoilage few and far between.

If the standard of wines this year was a little lower than in the past few years, it is a matter of the dominant vintages – we learn increasingly what a difference the vintage makes to the character and quality of the wine, and how important it is for viticulturists and winemakers to learn how to handle different years.

For me, perhaps the overall lesson from this tasting, as usual from a tasting of Cape red wines, is that there is still a need to be a little more modest overall: pick a little earlier, extract a little less, use a little less new wood, and generally aim for more freshness and drinkability.

COMMENTS

From Tiny Deventer:
Your ramblings on the merits of 2003 over 2004 are not supported by the results as both vintages of Kanonkop made the final and the 2004 triumphed. Interesting that no French palates were present this year which probably explains why such overwooded and overalcoholic wines did so well.

Response from Tim James:
Sorry about the rambling (to ramble in one short paragraph is surely an achievement!). If (apart from my own opinions resulting from tasting the ranges over the past years) you want some better evidence from this competition than what you adduce: in the past three years of Calyon, eight of the thirty top ten wines have been from 2004, while twelve have been from 2003. As to 'overwooded and overalcoholic wines' doing 'so well', I'm not sure which you are accusing. Paul Sauer, for example, uses all-new oak, and is 14% ABV (the 2003 a bit less) but I seldom hear anyone complaining of it being guilty of the lapses you suggest. Incidentally, I have preferred the 2003 to the 2004 in sighted tastings; I haven't been able yet to check whether I did so here, but I know that it is perfectly plausible that I liked the bigger wine more – that's one of the problems with competition line-ups. Incidentally, the Paul Sauer 2003 most pleased the all-French judges of the 2007 Classic Wine Trophy (where four wines from 2003 were in the top ten, compared with two from 2004) – not that those French panels have been at all hostile to big, sweetish, alcoholic wines in their winning line-ups over recent years!

From Clive Sindelman:
Bordeaux is also making wines that are getting bigger, sweeter and more alcoholic.However, I suspect that our battle to achieve balance in our copies of Bordeaux starts from the dearth of old vines giving grapes with character and until we overcome the nemesis of mature vines ie leaf roll virus, the struggle will continue in vain. Can you tell me whether any of the wines on show came from vines older than say 15 years; if so were they virus free and lastly what was the average age of the vines used to produce the winners?

I would love to be able to answer your questions, Clive, but without some research I can't. Kanonkop says that the vines for Paul Sauer average 26 years of age, and I'm pretty confident that that would be the oldest average amongst the winners here. But I should think that quite a few of them must be made from mature vines - say eight years old or more, which would be about the minimum age of vines contributing to top Bordeaux wines (younger vines going into second labels at best). Very few much older vineyards here would be lacking virus altogether - but don't underestimate the amount of virus in Bordeaux either. Further information would be welcome, if anyone has it. – TJ

From Tertius Boshoff (owner-winemaker at Stellenrust):
Hi Clive. Just a quick note to tell you that some 30% of the Cab/S in the Stellenrust Timeless 2004 came from a 36 year old Bottelary block of vines at that time, whereas the rest of the blend came from vines not much younger. Proud to say as well, that they were (and still are) virus free. You are welcome to come and have a look.

From Angela Lloyd:
According to winemaker Louis Strydom of Ernie Els, 'the average age of the vines is 9 years all virus free material'.

From Vieilles Vignes [never has this pseudonyum been more appropriate, of course!]:
Clive I am in agreement with you that the dreaded virus does hamstring plenty of efforts that would otherwise be wonderfull. But as Tim rightly mentioned there are wines out there made from 70% plus virused vines that would (do) blow your socks off. Not entirely sure if unblanaced wines equals virus.
Personally, choice of site and common sense might lead to better balance in general. I do find it hard to swallow when a producers extolls the greatness of their Sauvignon blanc which is grown right next to their amazing Shiraz! As for age, no question a aged vineyard does deliver amazing qualities (if it was meant to be in that location to start with) – there are more than enough 100 year plus Barossa Shiraz and Californian Zinfandels to prove how a good 100 years can be wasted by leaving vines on the wrong site, but around the corner you might also find a Hill of Grace!

From Clive Sindelman:
What does Tertius think has kept his treasured old cab vines virus-free? If it's a genetic mutation then he will make a load more cash from cloning the vines than from making his wine....

From Andre van Rensburg (winemaker at Vergelegen):

I honestly doubt the statement about 36 year old vines nogal virus free! We would love to collect material from both Stellenrust and the 9year old vines from Louis Strydom. I really believe that after proper Elisa testing less than 50% vines would be virus free.

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