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Goats, digestive systems and grapes 18 April 2007 Inspired by misinformation about a particular kind of coffee, Tim James wonders what goats might have to do with wine With tasting notes on the full Goats do Roam range
Any reader is better than the much-feared none, so I was pleased to get an email from a wine industry colleague who claimed to have seen my abashed thoughts on coffee expertise in this column [in noseweek] a few months back: “I want”, Emile said, “to try the coffee that gets crapped out by some bean-eating bird. Perhaps we shall one day see a vinous version.” Vinous version, indeed: there are already wines tasting as though the grapes might well have been swallowed by, and fermented within, some dubious feathered creature. And there is Delheim’s Spatzendreck, featuring on its appalling label (which won, as Delheim’s website proudly proclaims, a Worst Label award in 1970) a perky sparrow blithely defacating into a wine barrel. The story of this whimsy goes back half a century to the early wine-making days of Spatz (“Sparrow” in German) Sperling. He was told, by a friend more truthful than diplomatic, that a particular proud creation tasted “like dreck”. Not the first or last winemaker determined to make a critic drink her own words, Sperling bottled the first Spatzendreck in 1961. Nearly fifty years on, how nice it is that parts of our wine industry can still muster enough humour and charm to see to it that such historic products are still around, in defiance of good taste and international standards of excellence. The wine itself? It tastes like … er, sweetish, grapey stuff. As to those excreted coffee beans, I’d vaguely heard the story but thought the defecators involved were goats rather than birds. This suggestion made Emile retract (“Do you know what some people do to goats? I don’t want to get mixed up in that”). In fact, I learn that this gourmet curiosity involves an Indonesian animal called the luak, which adores the fruit of the coffee bush. Its digestive process usefully removes the tough stuff around the bean, thereby imparting a certain something, as you might imagine. Sumatran villagers rootle around in luak droppings, collect the beans and sell them to connoisseurs for a vast price. Sadly, it’s hard to envisage transferring this methodology to top-end wine production – but then, wine producers manage to get ridiculous prices even without such murkily romantic origins for their grapes. The goat story I’d been confused by is one of those once-upon-a-time tales about the discovery of coffee. In Arabia (or perhaps Ethiopia) lived dull Kaldi the goatherd and his equally world-weary goats. One day Kaldi found his charges gleefully dancing about, having consumed the berries from a nearby shrub. Investigation and experimentation soon led to Kaldi dancing too, with the rest of the world not long behind. No-one beats us winelovers at gleeful dancing, of course. And no-one beats Charles Back of Fairview when it comes to making lucrative connections between goats and grapes. In the forms of cheese and wine, they have long been offered by Fairview in a pretty big way. Then the Goats do Roam Wine Company emerged to push the goat-wine link, expanding from one original pun: a wine named to have a laugh at (and gently exploit) one of Europe’s best-known wine appellations, Côtes du Rhône.
The anxious French authorities protested, and obligingly started legal action, the effect being to not only make everyone laugh derisively, but also to give the wine lots of free publicity. There are now nine wines in the range, which is doing substantial business around the world. I tried them all recently, and was just moderately disappointed in some. Favourites were probably the superior level Goats do Roam wines, both white and red versions (“in Villages” is added to these ones’ names) – but at R72 and R50 respectively, they’re pricey, though juicy and interesting. Better value might be the latest red offering: Goatfather (R52), whose splendidly absurd label features a Mafioso goat trying to look like Marlon Brando. The opportunistically claimed Italian connection lies in some of the varieties used (babera and primitivo), which contribute to a richly tasty and individual offering. There are also Goat Door Chardonnay, Bored Doe and Goat Rotie (Côte d’Or, Bordeaux, Côte-Rôtie – gedditt?), with labels wittily related to the appropriate French traditions. All worth trying, but for better value leave the tourist bustle at Fairview and go a few farms down the same road in Paarl to Landskroon for the characterful Paul de Villiers range. Certainly the Shiraz and Reserve I tried recently have a touch of real class, but are modestly unshowy and good drinking; at under R50, excellent buys. No kidding.
• This article first appeared in Noseweek, 'South Africa's unique investigative magazine'
Further notes on the Goats do Roam range Prices indicated are approximate retail; scores out of 20 on the usual Grape scale I was disappointed with this range, not having tried any for a few years, and expecting something more interesting. It seems to me that what's happened with these wines is what usually happens to characterful wines when they get turned into biggish brand stuff: quantities go up requiring a whole different sourcing regime, the wines get made by a co-operative somewhere (in this case the good Perdeberg one), and more attention is paid to the labels than to the wine. The character that made the wines attractive in the first place disappears, the price goes up and quality goes down. This doesn't, unfortunately, necessarily mean that the brand is not successful. These are not at all bad wines, just very overpriced, most of them; but their biggest market is the USA, I believe, and perhaps they're better value there.
• Link to the Goats do Roam website
Fresh and lively blend, showing plenty of chenin character, but also evidencing some floral viognier. Straighforward and tasty.
Like the standard white, expensive for what it is, but this is worth the premium over the other. More interesting altogether, with a steely freshness to the satisfying balance. Mostly from grenache blanc and viognier, with a little chardonnay and chenin, there are peach and lemon notes, with a little oak influence showing on the flavour, but more affecting the open, developed, integrated character.
Straightforward, respectable chardonnay: lightly citrusy, with a touch of cinnamon toast from the oak – but the wooding does not dominate at all, and is largely supportive. Well balanced, with a moderate alcohol and a good acidity ensuring that this would be a good partner with even quite rich food.
Somehow more like a very light red wine than a rosé, which is fine. There’s plenty of boiled-sweet fruitiness and unpretentious charm. It’s dry and bright and would go well with a whole range of things on the lunch-table. (The cynical note is not in the wine, but, as with many of these wines, on the back labels, with its goat talk: ‘setting the friskiest of our flock to roam the vineyards’, etc. These grapes were never within 50 kilometres of any of Fairview’s goats – neither growing or fermenting. But this whole range is now a good deal about marketing, of course.)
The biggest disappointment for me, remembering how characterful wines under this label used to be in the pioneering pre-brand days! This is very ripe, the fruit (mostly highly cropping shiraz) rather dull and lumpish – slightly at odds with the over-bright acid they’ve added to try bringing it all to life. Some wood flavour apparent, but altogether very mass-market stuff. If you sip and don’t pay much attention, and forget that you can get vastly better wines for the money, it’s pleasant enough, I suppose.
Much like the standard one, but much better – tastes like a selction of the best of that. It’s livelier, with more solid fruit, with a nice richness. The lovely softly fine tannin structure that comes so naturally to Swartland shiraz (which I’d guess is a major component) is an attractive feature. Like most of these reds, rather heavily acidified.
Ultra-ripe fruitiness leaps out. Wham-bang – this is altogether big, powerful stuff with an alcoholic punch, and none of the delicacy associated with its Côte-Rôtie namesake. But that’s what Cape shiraz is all about for many people. There’s good smoky shiraz character, with a hint of liles, even, and some white pepper. As with the Villages Red, the tannins inform the whole thing appealingly, but what you’re getting for the extra money is a lot more alcoholic ‘hotness’ and a sweeter, riper character. One expects a little more flair at this sort of price.
The new Bordeaux-style blend in the range, but I found myself as bored as the nanny goat on the label. Nothing really wrong with it though: its very ripe, quite acidic, with pleasant merlot notes of choc-mint, and a gentle richness. Smooth, soft tannins, restrained wooding. Easy drinking, rather formulaic wine; designed to appeal widely and to not have enough character to put anyone off. Should survive a few years, but not like to gain much thereby, I’d guess.
To me, the best of the reds and reasonable value for money. A blend of a few Italian varieties (barbera, primitivo) with shiraz, cab and merlot, it has more interest and character than the others, scrubby and fruity with a few excitingly dark notes. Good firm structure, skillfully wooded to give support to the fruit. Drink anytime over the next few years – it might well gain in complexity still.
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COMMENT From Emile Joubert:
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Goats do Roam White 2006 R38 14