Stellenbosch has what it takes to deliver the best

Much has been written about Stellenbosch’s failure to capitalise on its position as the pre-eminent South African wine appellation.

Given the prominence accorded to the name of the town that lies in the heartland of the wine industry, this is tantamount to not getting the chequered flag after starting from a pole position. While some of this marketing lapse may be due to complacency, there’s no doubt that part of the problem lies in the region’s extraordinary versatility, which makes it almost impossible to deliver a focused message.

I can think of no other wellknown production area where benchmark fine wine can be produced from so many different varieties.

Some of the Cape’s best chenins — DeMorgenzon’s is an example — come from Stellenbosch old vine sites. The same property also made this year’s Old Mutual trophywinning chardonnay. A few years back, this accolade went to another Stellenbosch property, Rustenberg.

Likewise, a recent vertical of Vriesenhof wines showed that Boland Coetzee’s chardonnays have great ageing abilities.

I CAN THINK OF NO OTHER … AREA WHERE FINE WINE CAN BE PRODUCED FROM SO MANY DIFFERENT VARIETIES

There are also a number of lesser-known varieties that seem to have their best Cape outcomes from sites around Stellenbosch. The Credo Stellenbosch Verdelho was also a trophy winner at the 2017 Old Mutual event.

Morgenster has just released its latest (2014) Italian collection wines, where the Sangiovese (both the Tosca and newly launched unwooded version) showed very well. The single vineyard Nabucco Nebbiolo offers an impressive take on the great Piedmontese variety.

Morgenster and Vergelegen consistently produce a couple of the Cape’s best white bordeaux blends, with the Morgenster 2015 and the as yet unreleased Vergelegen 2015 probably the finest examples.

It’s not surprising that Vergelegen’s Schaapenberg Sauvignon Blanc is an unshowy but impressive unwooded example of the variety best associated with the Loire Valley in the Old World. The StarkConde Round Mountain 2016 (also a winner) illustrates what careful and thoughtful oaking can achieve with Stellenbosch fruit from a different terroir.

Ordinarily, you wouldn’t expect to find pinot noir triumphing in a zone that seems to ripen everything from sauvignon to port, but at the same Vriesenhof vertical Coetzee and Nicky Claasens showed a series of pinots going back to the 2003 vintage.

It was the oldest of these that was the most authentically burgundian: an indication both of the versatility of the Stellenbosch appellation and the fact that it is unfair to condemn so many New World examples for their primary fruit characters if they’re not given the chance to age properly.

Of course, in the end, the punters turn to cabernet and bordeaux blends when it comes to assessing “traditional” red wines and this is where Stellenbosch has enjoyed a reputation for so long that its current image shortcomings may be little more than a failure to keep up with the burnishing of its reputation. Certainly, there’s no shortage of fabulous examples, from cellars such as Kanonkop, Rustenberg, Thelema, Jordan, Neil Ellis and Meerlust to newcomers (in production terms) like Tokara and Morgenster.

However, it was a recent tasting of prerelease wines to highlight the changes that have been wrought at Vergelegen since Michel Rolland became the estate’s vineyard and wine consultant that revealed the regional strength in bordeaux red cultivars. From Rolland’s “mistake” merlot via a DNA blend dominated by remarkable cabernet franc, to a compelling reserve cabernet sauvignon, every example showed what is possible if these varieties are carefully managed in the vineyard and thoughtfully vinified in the cellar.

Riper, yet more savoury than before, and with lower alcohols despite the enhanced fruit intensity, they tell a story not just about Vergelegen, but about the prospects of Stellenbosch and the ultrapremium Cape wine industry.