Ticking off lists 20 November 2006

Birdwatcher (and wine-man, radio-man, and raconteur) John Maytham reviews two
annual books on the world's wines

• Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book 2007 Websters, London; approximately R150

• Wine Report 2007 by Tom Stevenson Dorling Kindersley, London; approximately R150

Let me start by establishing my credentials – or, more accurately, my almost total lack of same. Wine and birds are the two consuming passions in my life, and because it’s easier to open a new bottle of wine in my kitchen than it is to spot a new bird in my garden, I tend to do more drinking than birdwatching. But that doesn’t mean I know a lot about wine. I know what I like, and I know about an increasingly lower percentage of South African producers, and I can (just) distinguish a semillon from a viognier and a merlot from a pinot noir.

In my favour, though, is that I am hungry for all the knowledge that I can find. My first choice of learning material is wine in the glass; next best is conversation with somebody who knows more than I; and then comes the written word. Informative websites like this one, wine magazines, and books are sought and consumed hungrily – no, thirstily. And I am as keen to learn about foreign wines as I am about the local industry, so I was very pleased when Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book 2007, and Wine Report 2007 from a team led by Tom Stevenson fell into my lap.

Clarke’s book is in a familiar format and style – some opening remarks about the world’s wine regions, and then an informative and opinionated A – Z of 7500 wines from 400 producers. Oz is one of the most successful wine communicators around and the book is down-to-earth, chatty and informal, and very easy to use. I don’t know enough to pick up whether he might have placed a wine in the Jura rather than in Savoie, but I did pay special attention to what appears about South Africa and South African wine, and that seemed to me on the button, with the right producers chosen to be highlighted. (That’s not surprising because Mr. Clarke had the help of Angela Lloyd in compiling these entries.) I particularly enjoyed his 'Some of My Favourites’ section where he lists some of the wines he’s most enjoyed drinking this year. Boekenhoutskloof Syrah is selected as a world-class wine that doesn’t cost the earth, and Vergelegen makes it alongside Opus One as one of four Best Look-alikes to the Classics. Sadly, though, no locals are listed in the Producers to Watch section.

Two more of Grape’s regular contributors, Cathy van Zyl and Tim James, are the authors of the South African section in Tom Stevenson’s Wine Report 2007. This is a very different sort of wine guide, and in my view, invigoratingly so. It makes no attempt to cover the world’s wine regions in anything like an exhaustive fashion. Stevenson gives his contributors a simple brief – give news and express opinions, any opinions you like, about aspects of the industry in your part of the world; supply a vintage report, and then list your Top Ten in the following categories: greatest wine producers, fastest-improving producers, new up-and-coming producers, best value producers, greatest quality wines, best bargains, and most exciting or unusual finds.

So, if I travel to Chile I know to try and scrounge a bottle of what Peter Richards thinks is the country’s best wine, an EQ Syrah, my daily tipple will probably be something from the top value producer, Concha y Toro, and I’ll do my best to bring home a couple of bottles of the most exciting find, an Erasmo 2001 – ‘a Bordeaux blend made by an Italian in the backwater territory of Maule.’ Imagine how that’ll confuse the pundits in a blind tasting!

One of the satisfying aspects of this kind of approach is the way it allows the reader to pat him/herself on the back for having made a discovery before reading about it. My thrill of recognition came when I found out that Bob Campbell MW and I both think that the Moutere Chardonnay from New Zealand is the best non-Burgundy chardonnay we’ve ever drunk. And, of course, intriguing to see how Tim and Cathy rate our local wines. Their ‘greatest wine producer’ is Vergelegen, with the Sadie Family, Boekenhoutskloof and Kanonkop in the next best slots; Capaia, Vilafonte and Tokara are nominated as the three leading up-and-coming producers; the Vergelegen White gets their vote as the greatest quality wine with two Sadie wines, the Palladius at 2 and Columella at 4 sandwiching the no 3, the Vin de Constance. And their nomination for the most exciting or unusual find of the year goes to the Pinotage/Syrah ’04 from Tom Lubbe at The Observatory.

The book closes with another fascinating list – The 100 most exciting wine finds. I’ve tasted only two of them – the Black Rock Red ’04 from The Winery here in little old RSA, and a completely stunning 03 Pinot Noir from Sandhurst Vineyards in the UK. I can’t wait to get hold of the other 98.

Both books would be very rewarding purchases. I’d like to leave home on international travel with both, but if I had to choose, I’d take the Wine Report, because I love strong opinions and I love ticking off lists – I am a birdwatcher after all.

• Declaration of interest: As mentioned above, Grape editorial staff are variously involved in the production of both books reviewed