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Winemaker arrogance and marketing
machines
Recent comments from Nederburg’s
cellarmaster relate less to reality than to
Sometimes, almost against my will, I feel a little sympathy for wine marketers, and it’s usually when I realise how difficult it must be dealing with the arrogance of winemakers who think that worldly success is only about quality. ‘The Distell marketing machine’ is what Nederburg winemaker Razvan Macici calls his bunch in one of the quotes on Christian Eedes’s latest Gulp!. But the main victim of Macici’s arrogance here is the Platter Guide.
As the person who did the Platter appraising last year, and did it unfairly and without respect, according to Razvan, I thought I’d interrogate some aspects of Nederburg’s performance. First, let it be pointed out that Nederburg gets a whole slew of four-star ratings in Platter, and I gave a wine four-and-a-half stars, which is a lot for me and surely signals at least an openness to recognising excellence. Many of the cheap, lower-scoring wines are singled out as being especially good value. I’d really like to know why Macici feels short-changed. In a blog I wrote on Grape last year while doing the Platter tastings I said: my impression [is] that over recent years this label is, under the guidance of Razvan Macici, re-earning the reputation for quality it used to have and then seemed to lose. … I was very impressed by the sound quality… and it’s a label that deserves more respect than I had realised. Clearly not enough for Razvan, who's convinced he’s a superstar so, OK, let’s do what’s been usefully done before with a producer who feels hard done by in Platter because of a few fancy performances in big blind-tasting competition line-ups (the sort of competitions winemakers sneer at as being lotteries when they don’t do well in them). Let’s look at how Nederburg has done in recent years in Wine magazine’s blind tastings.
I checked the Wine results for all of Nederburg wines tasted of the 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 vintages. If my counting was correct, there were 49 wines tasted. Out of these, 36 scored three stars or less (two scored zero). Only five rated four stars, and none rated higher. Of the expensive top-range Ingenuity wines, the red got three stars, the white got a half star more. (We were more generous on Grape: we rated the Ingenuity white 16.5, the red 15.5. They weren’t tasted in Platter.) Not really superstar stuff. Is this really a basis for Razvan Macici to whinge about how badly treated he is in Platter? And, moreover, while he’s complaining to the editor of Wine magazine (who didn't point out in his article how much more poorly Nederburg fared in his magazine than in Platter)! Incidentally, talking of the modest-scoring Ingenuity wines, in the Gulp piece Macici is quoted as saying that the Ingenuity red especially is ‘way too cheap for the quality on offer’ (it costs R180!). He finds it, says Eedes, ‘hugely frustrating that the wines of boutique Stellenbosch winery Tokara, for instance, sell overseas for twice the price of his best. "The Tokara wines are impressive but they've still got a lot to prove."’ So the arrogance is directed not only towards Platter, but also towards Tokara, where Miles Mossop has ‘still got a lot to prove’. Razvan and Nederburg do not, apparently, have anything to prove. Because, one presumes, they’ve proved everything by doing well on a couple of shows recently.It's all starting to seem just a little too far removed from reality!
Nederburg have indeed done well. At the Trophy Show, thirteen Nederburg wines got medals. The red Ingenuity was not among them. There is no way of my knowing if it was entered, because these shows don’t tell you about failures (both because it reveals the problems of their tasting systems, and because it upsets the producers who give them lots of money). I’m pretty confident to here challenge Macici to let us know if Ingenuity red was entered, and also to tell us just how many Nederburg wines were entered, and just how many rated lower than bronze medal scores, and which they were. (Three vintages of the famous Edelkeur just scraped bronzes, by the way.) Because, as marketing machines and ambitious winemakers know, it is certain that the more wines one enters in a competition, the better chance one has of some of them doing well, and the better the chance of becoming the top winery – as far as I know the rating system used doesn’t take account of the number of failures, only of successes. And while Macici is crowing about his achievement, and sneering at Tokara and complaining about Platter, let him consider some of the ‘most successful cellars’ in recent years. A few years back Vergelegen was winning trophy after trophy (but not now); last year the most successful winery was Cape Point Vineyards, which didn’t do better than silver this year. These two are by common consent amongst the Cape’s top wineries – though perhaps Razvan thinks they also have a lot to prove, compared with him and Nederburg. Can he really be confident that Nederburg will be there again next year? The point is this: Nederburg is doing well, has improved greatly under Macici, but it’s hard to see how an objective observer would not think that Nederburg’s wines have been respectfully treated and well rewarded in Platter. Razvan should concentrate on doing what, I’m glad to say, he does well.
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COMMENT From Philip van Zyl Editor of the
Platter Guide: We do, however, have a comment on Grape’s opinions about Nederburg. Firstly, the manner in which they are expressed could offend the Nederburg team, in particular cellar chief Razvan Macici. As a guide, we have a great deal of respect (to use the contested word) for their efforts to restore an SA icon brand to its erstwhile status, and we would like to believe there is nothing in the current edition, or in previous books for that matter, to suggest otherwise. We do not believe, as Grape does, that the Nederburg team is arrogant. They, too, are entitled to their opinions, and (assuming they have been quoted correctly) to express their disappointment over perhaps not being sufficiently recognised for their efforts. Does that mean we should ululate over every product in their range? Hopefully not. As it is, we’re accused of being uncritical and relentlessly upbeat. But we do take the point.
Note from Tim James: Please note that this article is not written by 'Grape', but by me myself, nor was its publication due to anyone but myself. 'Grape' does not have opinions, beliefs, etc – in this case the opinions expressed are mine, and I know that they are too intemperately expressed (I have amended the final paragraphs since the article originally appeared). I have subsequently heard from Razvan, assuring me that he had no intention to make personal accusations against me and that he and everyone at Nederburg considers my assessments 'extremely fair'. He does add that, over time, 'it is hard for us [at Nederburg] not to conclude that there is something of a pattern in the way our wines are appraised that could well be linked to our size and our prominence in the market. While we fully accept that tasting panels differ and that one’s top wine may be another’s less illustrious contender, it is a great disappointment to us that amongst our many wines to have earned international acclaim, not one has been able to muster a five-star rating in Platter’s.' Razvan and I both accept that it is good that the matter has been raised, as it gives everyone the chance to discuss it frankly.
From
Gert:
From
John Weaver: These wines were always stunning drinking wines, but unfortunately the style was unfashionable and did not sell all that well at auction. For me, who loved these wines, this was a wonderful buyer’s market as I was able to buy these wines for low prices at retail, sometimes at lower prices than the standard Special Late Harvest, a much simpler wine. Sadly these wines have now disappeared, I guess after discussions between the marketers and the wine-makers. Maybe Razvan could re-think these wines and start making them again, hopefully not at the price point of the Ingenuity and Special Bins. Maybe the 5 stars will come back again. More importantly: Razvan, if you do happen to find a few cases of the old stuff in your cellar, please contact me and I will very happily take them over.
From
Poor Tom!:
From
Gert:
From Billy Bob:
From Marcus Londt: |
Macici,
proudly beating his chest because of Nederburg’s success at the latest
Trophy Wine Show (
The
blind tasting verdict on four vintages
Show
success