Chameleon changes:
New Jordans 23 August 2006

Melvyn Minnaar feels the urge to blog a pleasant little launch

This should really be a blog. But Cathy does the blog. So this will be, well, just some words about, well, some nice, enterprising people in the winelands. (Maybe it was triggered off by Gary Jordan signalling that he actually reads Grape frequently. Maybe that he seems to share my strong sentiments about cork and screwcaps - but more about that later.)

The occasion in question seemed low-key enough to counter my general scepticism about wine hoopla and PR operatives (see an upcoming piece). The Jordans – who (thanks to a bank they support or supports them) have recently had their ever-smiling faces, together with their cellar’s hi-tech look, featured in more newspapers that any PR could possibly make happen – were at a Waterfront restaurant called Den Anker to show (to a few wine scribes as well as the trade) their two new vintages of the red and white blends they call Chameleon.

There were new vintages on offer – a 2004 red, which makes a ‘modern’ break with a ten-year tradition by adding fashionable shiraz (17%) to the blend (of cabernet sauvignon and merlot), and a 2006 white, which comprises the (somewhat odd, some say) blend of chardonnay with sauvignon blanc and a smithereen of chenin blanc (13%). Furthermore,  the look of Chameleon has been jacked up with a new label and a redesigned (stylishly simplified into a logo) chameleon.

The first thing to notice about the white is that it makes a jolly good quaff (with food in particular, as we noticed quickly with the decent titbits, like deep-fried cheese and fish and steak tartar, that Den Anker’s friendly staff carried around). The other nice thing is that it (some of it any way) has been sealed with a screwcap.

Thinking longingly of a similar future for the red Chameleon, I turned to Kathy Jordan, who explained that they play to what the market wants. The Americans (a good market for them), she says, are happy with screwcaps, but locally? Of course, my argument was that it is precisely ‘leaders’ like the Jordans who should show reticent South Africans the way.

Maturing
We agreed to leave the closure debate there, and I moved on to a line-up of older vintages of the red, opened for tasting comparisons. This testified to the ageing ability of well-made wines (the 1995 flaunting delicious secondary aromatics; the 2003 confirming the lushness of that vintage), but also clearly showed up the new take of the 2004 blend: the previous top-up of cabernet franc now makes way for that shiraz glow.

If anything, the Jordans know how to move with the times. Chameleon, established more than a decade ago as a kind of a modern ‘good-drinking wine’, is widely respected (and has won a number of solid awards), obviously gets tweaked as the winemakers keep their consumer-taste sensors on high alert.

The ambience of this pleasant little introduction to their new wines, on a coolish, pretty Cape waterfront afternoon, was precisely tuned for a good reception. The Jordans provide yet another model for emulation.

• The 2006 Chameleon white is a blend of 46% sauvignon blanc, 41% chardonnay and 13% chenin blanc. The Jordans say ‘the palate displays the chameleon-like, changing characteristics of grassy sauvignon blanc balanced by intense, citrussy chardonnay’.  It sells for about R47.

The 2004 Chameleon red is 17% shiraz, 52% cabernet sauvignon 31% merlot. About R62.

• Link to the Jordan website