Page 42 - IWSC Tasting Guide 2017

Wine focus
South Africa’s finest wines shine at IWSC
From pinotage to chenin blanc, South Africa shows its wines can take their place among the best in the world. By Adam Lechmere
South Africa has had its biggest-ever haul of gold medals at the Interna onal Wine and Spirit Compe on – cemen ng the republic’s posi on as one of the world’s most exci ng wine producing countries.
Winners were announced at a Wines of
South Africa event in London. IWSC Judges were delighted by the quality of the wines presented at the judging, which took place last month in Paarl, South Africa, and yielded 53 gold medals, including three gold outstandings.
Pinotage, that most singular of South African grapes, did par cularly well, with six golds and a gold outstanding (Spier 21 Gables Pinotage 2014), 17 silver outstanding and more than 30 silvers.
“It was a very, very good three days,” panel chair Lindsay Oram told World Travel Guide. “Pinotage and Chenin Blanc did excep onally well but there were some brilliant blends as well.”
Pinotage – a hybrid of pinot noir and cinsault (or cinsaut, as it can be spelt)– is South Africa’s signature red grape. It has a unique taste and importers have tended to consider it too unusual for the European palate.
It’s a dark, thick-skinned grape which gives inky-black juice. It’s a vigorous grower, and in the bad old days it would be overproduced, and over- extracted during fermenta on, with the result that the wines’ dis nc ve smokey, tarry avours o en turn to burnt rubber or burnt tar aromas.
Some producers s ll pour scorn on pinotage. Andre van Rensburg, the renowned and pugnacious director of Vergelegen, can hardly bear to have it men oned in his presence. “I won’t plant or make pinotage in your life me or mine,” he told Decanter magazine.
South Africa exports a lot of its produc on
– some 15m litres a year – but it’s not widely understood, despite huge improvements over the last decade.
But, “These were serious wines,” Oram said of the pinotages on her panel. “And there were vintages going back to 2009, showing how well Pinotage can age.”
She singled out the Stellenbosch producer Kanonkop for par cular praise. “We were all very enthusias c about their wines. They were very well made – powerful but not clumsy, ripe but not jammy, concentrated with layers of complexity.”
Chenin blanc, South Africa’s most-planted white variety also did well, with three golds and a gold outstanding (Nederburg Private Bin Edelkeur 2013 late harvest), 13 silver outstanding and over 40 silvers. “It’s a superb variety,” said another judge, Kris na Beuthner, principal educator at the Cape Wine Academy. “The chenin being produced nowadays is me culous, upli ed.”
The two cri cs pointed out how South African winemaking is “coming of age” (both used that phrase). The wines that are aimed at the world stage, they are more elegant, and there is “de use of oak”.
“We need to grasp the ne le and say how good the wine is,” Oram said. “For too long we’ve been hiding our light under a bushel – we’ve always had the view that South African wine is cheap.”
Beuthner agreed, no ng that South Africa is the eighth-largest wine producer in the world (a er Italy, France, Spain, USA, Australia, China and Chile). “We now need to be careful how we portray our wines.
“Our Cabernet Sauvignon is incredibly reliable and a hell of a good buy, for example. We need to be more on it. Show what we can do.” l
IWSC Winners - top pinotage and chenin blanc
Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage 2013
Producer: Kanonkop Wine Estate
Tas ng Category: Pinotage - WO Simonberg- Stellenbosch - 2014-2012
Tas ng notes: Dense youthful looking purple ruby colour with an en cing perfumed nose packed with summer
fruit compote and owers. Very elegant palate with ne youthful tannins, silky body and an opulent texture. Finish is supremely balanced, long and generous. Drinking wonderfully now, but set for a long life due to a rm structure and backbone of acidity.
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IWSC Tasting Guide 2017