Swartland – land of promise 17 May 2007

Jancis Robinson looks at some wines from one of the Cape's most interesting regions

This article is reproduced, with permission, from the restricted access section of www.jancisrobinson.com

One of my great sadnesses in being struck down by a fluey-cold just before setting off for South Africa last week (see my lone blog) was that it meant I had to miss my day scouting round Swartland, the diverse but extremely interesting emergent wine region north of Stellenbosch and Paarl, the traditional heart of Cape winelands. Swartland is rolling farming country with soils that vary from granite to shale and clay-loams. It was for long ignored by quality-conscious wine producers but has since the late 1990s emerged as a source of particularly interesting fruit, thanks to Charles Back of Fairview and subsequently Eben Sadie, once winemaker at the pioneering Spice Route winery, which was established under joint auspices in Malmesbury but subsequently taken over by Back alone. Dry-farmed Rhône and Languedoc vine varieties are the norm in this warm, Mediterranean climate cooled to a certain extent by influence from the Atlantic ocean to the west.

There’s a wide variety of quality and style of fruit available here with much of it still disappearing into the local co-ops. (The Swartland co-op itself is likely to be the source of a new range of South African wine made by Gallo of California but don’t expect to find the S-word anywhere on the label.) Gradually, however, more and more Swartland fruit is to be found in bottles carrying mainstream, highly respected labels. Much of the Syrah for Boekenhoutskloof’s soaraway Porcupine Ridge label, for example, comes from the lower-altitude flatlands of Swartland, where the corn is as high as both an elephant’s eye and the roaring pH level (see previous wine of the week). This is potassium-rich terrain for easy, early-drinking red wine from relatively young vines.

But in various parts of the region, notably around granite Perdeberg (also known by its older, Dutch name Paardeberg) and other mountains such as Riebeeck, the fruit tends to be much more serious, concentrated and built for the long term. Below are notes on some of the more notable reds and whites. I didn’t understand why in my tasting the whites tended to be even more impressive than the reds – until Chris Mullineux of Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards, who buy in substantial amounts of grapes from Swartland for their TMV range, explained to me that Syrah vines tend to be so much younger (typically 8 to 10 years) than the interesting old white wine vines, largely Chenin Blanc, Grenache Blanc and Clairette, with some more recently planted Viognier and Chardonnay. In terms of build, these seriously exciting white wines are not totally unlike those of the upper Agly valley (Le Soula and the like), which is a strange coincidence since there are particularly close links between many of these winemakers and those of Swartland. Tom Lubbe of The Observatory, for example, is now based in Roussillon (and married into the Gauby family, no less), with his sister Catherine in charge of the Swartland operation. The Sadie and TMV wines are imported into the UK by Richards Walford, also importers of Gauby of the upper Agly valley and co-progenitors of Soula. One of Boekenhoutskloof’s dogs is called Gauby. I could go on. (See below)

Scali’s wines carry the origin Voor Paardeberg because they come from the ward of that name in the northernmost part of the Paarl district where it abuts Swartland’s Perdeberg mountain. I have included the TMV wines, made by Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards from bought in fruit, and the Porcupine notes because the blends contain substantial proportions of Swartland fruit even though these proportions are less than 100% and so the wines are not due the Swartland origin.

The most obvious omission from the notes below are wines from Lammershoek, who sell fruit, especially white wine grapes, to some of the producers listed below but who also produce their own wines, Spice Route’s current offerings and the (screwcapped) wines of Black Rock (nothing to do with the Central Otago one).

WHITES

Sequillo White 2006 Swartland 17.5 Drink 2007-11
Another label made by Eben Sadie. Notably deep gold for such a young wine. Tangy nose with honeysuckle and tangerine skin flavours. Not heavy on the palate despite the alcohol, and full of interest already. Surprisingly open, very suave. Very neat, confident finish with marked acidity – indeed it may even be very slightly too marked? But a one-off style. Much more sophisticated in structure than the average southern French white blend. A little more raw than Palladius but not necessarily worse – more obvious acidity and chew.
11 demi muids, 14.5%

TMV White 2006 Coastal Region 17.5 Drink 2007-10
The range from the Tulbagh Mountain Vineyard team made from bought-in fruit. This has the most delightful honeyed texture with honeysuckle flavours again and really quite notable freshness and acidity – more so that the 2005 noted here. Jewel texture, great raciness and a hint of honey. Funny – all the tasting notes add up to Chenin Blanc but I originally wrote down Grenache Blanc and wondered how they managed to conjure something this light-footed from that usually heavy grape variety.
90% Swartland Chenin Blanc, 5% Tulbagh Clairette, 5% Viognier. Fermented in old barrels. 13%

The Observatory White, Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay 2005 Swartland 15?? Drink 2008-09
Lubbe wine. Pale honey colour. Broad nose with a certain saltiness and lightness. Seems a little sour and astringent, not knit together. Perhaps needs time to aerate? I’ll try it again later. Later – very pronounced acidity and really aggressive astringency.  This may have been a particularly disappointing bottle as my colleagues who tasted it several days previously were apparently impressed by it.
12.5%

Scali Blanc 2005 Voor Paardeberg 18 Drink 2007-10
The super-focused de Waals. Quite deep honeyed gold colour. Very distinctive nose – lime blossom and hint of oak but deeply mineral fruit and really rich, round texture. Tastes like burnished gold – definitely like a shiny mineral of some sort. Good lift and life on the finish. Really quite delicate on the finish. A very beautifully constructed wine. Really interesting! Rich and rewarding but with enough (interesting) green notes to keep it refreshing.
5 barrels, 14.5%.

The Sadie Family, Palladius 2005 Swartland 18 Drink 2007-11/2
Swartland’s champion. Very arresting nose which cut through my congestion with no trouble. Mid golden honey. Layers of flowers and herbs – very wild, that array of Nature that’s familiar from biodynamic viticulture. On the palate very smooth and ambitious. Beautiful texture, lots of care lavished on this, unctuous. A salon smoothie compared with the Sequillo white though I wonder whether it will last any longer? Sweet and luscious and satiny with no single varietal component dominating the blend – and just a hint of that intriguing tangerine flavour on the very finish, plus a hint of coffee too, extraordinarily. Very well done!
14.5%

REDS

Porcupine Ridge Syrah 2006 Coastal Region 16.5 Drink 2007-08
Bit of a cheat to include this wine here as only part of it comes from Malmesbury in southern Swartland and the rest from Wellington, where Boekenhoutskloof's truly excellent Syrah comes from. Very deep colour, very polished, slightly tarry. Great texture for a 40,000 case wine that starts sweet and finishes both dry and salty. Fantastic value. If only South Africa made more wine at this sort of price. It’s a bonus that it tastes as though it costs at least 50% more.
£6.99 Waitrose and the Wine Society. 

TMV Swartland Syrah 2006 Swartland 17+ Drink 2010-15
(The 2005 noted here is sold out.) Youthful, tense, inky fruit. Bone dry. Quite light, delicate and dancing - obviously made with a very light hand. Still embryonic.

The Observatory Syrah-Pinotage 2005 Swartland 16.5 Drink 2009-12
Felicitous recipe in which the Syrah adds lift and suavity to the Pinotage. A bit awkwardly acid on the finish, perhaps just a slight lack of follow through.  Hard work on the very end. Just goes slightly to a grinding - metallic? – halt. Not as mellifluous as some others.
About 60% Syrah, 35% Pinotage, 5% Cabernet and Carignan.

Fairview, Caldera 2005 Swartland 17 Drink 2008-12
Made by king of the goats, Charles Back. Much the deepest colour of all these reds. Very meaty nose and much closer to the modern ideal of a red wine than the Sadie-influenced reds. Some obvious oak! Quite tight fruit-forward wine with chewy tannins on the finish. A bit of rusty nail character on the very finish but very user friendly. Less obviously worked than the Sadie wines. The fruit is doing the talking. Not intellectual but lots to get your teeth into. Called Caldera, reminiscent of the volcano-hollowed topography of Santorini, for the calderata Catalan cooking pot.
61 year-old Grenache “South Africa’s oldest” (50%), Mourvèdre (27%), Syrah (23%). 14% alcohol

TMV Swartland Syrah 2004 Swartland 16.5 Drink 2009-12
Relatively pale. Still quite dumb on the nose with some rusty nail chew on the finish and a lack of great fruit intensity on the mid palate though not overdone.

Sequillo 2004 Swartland 17 Drink 2009-14
Reasonably transparent, bright crimson. Sweet, broad nose with real transparence of aroma too. One can read this as opposed to being bludgeoned by it. A certain smokiness (terroir effect?) and liveliness. Dances. Pretty clever winemaking even if a little rigid inkiness on the finish at the moment. Will the fruit hold while the tannins soften, I wonder?
30 demi muids 14.5% info@sequillo.com

Scali Pinotage 2004 Voor Paardeberg 16 Drink 2009-12
Bright crimson. A bit smudgy and stinky on the nose. Mouthfilling – great sweetness and resilience on the palate but the uninitiated would get a shock. “What’s with the paint stripper?” they might ask. Comes to a grinding halt on the back palate. Very good for a Pinotage – which sounds more damning than it’s meant to be. Still pretty youthful.
11 barrels total, 14.5%