19 January 2005

Additives and oddness

Does music count as an additive, I wonder? A British journalist who’s clearly been doing some deep research into either Cape wine in general or Bruce Jack in particular has, anyway, discovered distinctly odd musical occurrences in at least one local cellar. It seems that the Flagstone winemaker has taken to heart the example of Prince Charles, who famously advocates chatting to one’s potplants: Bruce apparently brings in a bagpiper and a cellist to serenade his vines several times a year. ‘He claims that the subsequent electromagnetic reactions "soften the tannins and brighten the fruit”’ – so says the journalist, but this is no doubt another smear campaign against our best and brightest: Bruce would never interfere with terroir in this way, I’m sure.

Talking of evil manipulations, there was a poignant item in some recently received bumf from the International Wine and Spirits Competition, proudly proclaiming their list of judges for the next round of competitive nonsense. To fully get the smidgen of inherent irony you should know that this particular show prides itself on also doing technical test of the wines they judge, to ensure there’s nothing too odd going on. Well, among the list of recent judges is one Gideon Theron, Laborie Estate. Name ring a bell? Yes, one of the KWV winemakers who resigned when they were found out to be doing, er, experiments that were secret from everyone else at KWV. Wouldn’t it be funny if he actually turned up to judge again this year – presumably in the sauvignon section?

Another proclaimed IWSC judge is KWV’s senior winemaker, Sterik de Wet. Here we confront the strange situation of the ambiguous role of such people in wineries. The Cape Winemakers Guild tries to convince us that some of their members are entitled to be called ‘winemakers’ even though they probably haven’t splashed about in a tank for many years – because they are, apparently, in some more or less mystical way, still ‘ultimately responsible’ for the wines, despite other people being on the payroll as ‘winemakers’ (but not part of the Guild). What’s the situation with Sterik? He’s not a member of the Guild, but is he responsible for the wines made in his cellar or not? Well, yes, until there’s a scandal; then he apparently doesn’t know much about even the important wines being in the cellars he’s supposedly in charge of….

For me, though, there’s a stranger thing about the scandal. Surely the flavourant involved is pretty weird. Green pepper! This at a time when the world’s critics (in the Anglo-Saxon world particularly) are turning up their noses at the merest hint of what they call ‘green flavours’ and a ‘touch of unripeness’ in wines! While lush over-ripeness is generally deemed the best possible accompaniment to high alcohols and wood flavours in what passes for wine, some people are adding green pepper to sauvignon blanc – and everyone from august critics down to mere winedrinkers seems to loves the result!

Quite apart from this seeming contradiction of taste where ultra-ripe flavours are wanted in all wines except sauvignon, if they’d been adding something that would make this very dull but oddly fashionable grape seem a little more interesting, I could have understood, and perhaps even sympathised.