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The temperature soars when you put seven seriously cool
winemakers from new cool-climate appellations in one room.
Graham Howe zooms in via google earth to new vineyard areas
whose potential is attracting the big players in the wine
industry.
"Consumers are hungry for difference. They want to know all about the new style of our cool-climate wines." - Morné Jonker, The Goose Wines, Upper Langkloof.
You can see Virgin Earth from outer space. Zooming in via Google Earth, we watched the remote cellar materialise in the Klein Karoo. A telescopic view of the blue planet morphed into a lonely green vineyard in Riversdal. "Can you play it again?" pleaded an entranced buyer in the audience. "We were so distracted by the wines, we couldn't watch all the amazing visuals." We watched a re-run of remote cellars appearing like an apparition from Cederberg and Outeniqua to the Langeberg.
Morné Jonker of The Goose Vineyards in the foothills of the Outeniqua said he was inspired by Anglo American scenario forecaster Clem Sunter's model of "building South Africa through small pockets of excellence". Jonker reckons the new Upper Langkloof ward is arguably the coldest wine-growing pocket in South Africa - with a terroir that finds expression in a new fresh style of wine under The Goose, a brand endorsed by South African sports icon Retief Goosen. "We're putting on more air miles promoting wines for export" says the winemaker from a valley where the vineyards record an annual temperature of only 17° Celsius.
These new wards are linked by the primacy of cool-climate terroir, a focus on varieties like Sauvignon, Semillon, Pinot and Shiraz - and the sharing of production facilities with cellars in the main wineland areas. Morné Jonker likes to talk about the process of "cross-pollination" - whereby "twenty cellars on Route 62 and the Garden Route convey unique fruit in grape trains to better-equipped cellars along the longest wine route in the world". New wards on affordable land are ahead of the pack in the global village - and specialisation in varieties in these wards a sign of maturity.
The lone rangers out on South Africa's new wine frontier rarely assemble together to debate trends in terroir. The seven winemakers at the cutting-edge terroir seminar at Cape Wine 2008 - Cape Point, Cederberg, Lambert's Bay, Luddite, Scali, The Goose and Virgin Earth - are at the forefront of a growing movement enticing the big players to invest in land in the little wards. The big terroir debate echoed in the opening address by Su Birch, CEO of WOSA, who predicted that new vineyards planted along South Africa's western and eastern coasts would account for much of the new growth in vineyards over the next decade - attracting foreign investors to cooler areas less susceptible to global warming that are becoming the source of distinctive wines.
A key terroir debate concerns whether new wards with unfamiliar names on export markets will confuse consumers who are only just discovering traditional areas of South African wines of origin. Chairman Duimpie Bailey championed the diversity and distinctiveness of South Africa - especially in the higher premium category - emphasising winemakers in the new world are free to experiment with new terroir in an appellation system unhindered by the old world's top-down regulatory framework. He commented, "South African winemakers are free to plant whatever varieties wherever they want to. These guys are mavericks - they know what they're doing."
Another key debate concerns the evolution of different styles of wine and the longevity of white wine from cool-climate areas. Duncan Savage of Cape Point Vineyards and Niels Verburg of Luddite Wines commented that Sauvignon Blanc benefits from two to three years in the bottle, develops fantastic flavours and can age up to ten years or longer. Verburg comments, "We like to let the terroir speak for itself. We don't use much wood. There's nothing as exciting as laying claim to your own terroir. Bot River WO will appear on our labels in future instead of Walker Bay."
The teroir debate also focused on the special characteristics of cool-climate viticulture. David Nieuwoudt, who presented his single-vineyard Cederberg Teen die Hoog Shiraz 2005, commented, "Long ripening is the best attribute of a cool continental climate - and fresh, healthy fruit. We've not seen a single rotten grape in our high-altitude vineyards in ten years. Our ward is very small (78ha). Physiological ripeness combined with low yields means we work with softer, elegant tannins." Duncan Savage added: "Cool-climate terroir is more a site than a clone issue."
Minimal intervention in the vineyards is somewhat of a mantra for winemakers like Willie de Waal of Scali in Voor Paardeberg who said, "We try to express the terroir through a new style of viticulture and our winemaking style. Verburg added, "We don't have to fiddle in the vineyard or cellar. Our cool clay soils are ideal for wine production. We're eight kilometres from the ocean. A long hanging time means we get small berries, purity of fruit and good tannins. We nurse the wine into the bottle."
Emerging trends in South African wine blends were also highlighted at the closing seminar of Cape Wine 2008. Strandveld Vineyards, a new cellar in the Elim district of the Cape Agulhas ward, wowed buyers with their Adamastor blend of cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Named after the great spirit of the Cape of Storms encountered by early maritime navigators (in Luiz de Camoes epic poem "Os Lusiadas", 1572), the wine epitomises the fresh style of the new maritime terroir. Unlike the Adamastor who foretold disaster to Vasco da Gama on his voyage to India in the 16th century, it is an omen of the brave new world of wine rounding the Cape.
Προσθήκη:
16/10/2008
Τελευταία Ανανέωση:
16/10/2008
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