Zoo Crew enjoys freedom to explore new frontiers
The world is full of good, ordinary wine. It’s also not short of wines so off-thewall, geeky, imbued with passion and strategy rather than taste and finesse that a Martian turned loose at a wine show might well prefer the red planet, cosmic dust and all, to a second sip. Just because someone is “focused on expressing site” or refuses to use sulphur it is not a guarantee that the result will be worth the risk to your metabolism.
Much of what determines style has little to do with winemaking competence. Commercial producers even those with the very smallest cellars usually understand the science of converting grapes to wine while minimising the risk of transforming the fermenting grape juice into vinegar. But this does not mean they are capable of distinguishing the folly of imposing a philosophical idea on an agricultural product while still hoping for an aesthetically satisfying outcome.
In short, adventurous winemaking is no guarantee of drinking pleasure, though without producers with a pioneering spirit there would be none of the excitement that distinguishes wine from most other beverages.
Many of our finest younger winemakers do not own their own vineyards, which gives them the freedom to seek out interesting sites. This combination of skill, vision and a willingness to open new frontiers has become a defining feature of the Cape’s new wave wine.
An informal grouping (which goes by the name of Zoo Crew) of some of the best of these producers hosted the final tasting session for the recent Masters of Wine tour of SA. I used the occasion to catch up on several of the latest vintages.
HIGH ALTITUDE
Jocelyn Hogan, who makes some of the Cape’s most refined and nuanced wines, showed her 2022 chardonnay from high-altitude sites. One block she sources fruit from is in the Elandskloof at 700m; the other is in Banhoek, not far from Delaire-Graff. The wine is superfine, with a lovely almond fruit note, which comes from the grapes, rather than from any layerings of oak.
Equally pure, and probably the most surprising in the lineup, was Craven’s Pinot Gris, pale strawberry pink and with a lovely refreshing intensity the hallmark of a great Provence rosé but made from a variety totally alien to the south of France.
From Momento’s Marelise Niemann, my standout wine
was her chenin-verdelho blend (the 2020 vintage of which won a Platter five-star award). The chenin delivers texture and depth, the verdelho freshness and a food-friendly savouriness.
For those in pursuit of the slightly geeky, Francois Haasbroek’s Blackwater Palomino should be a mandatory purchase. It’s an extraordinary wine, made from 96-year-old palomino vines. Unsurprisingly (given that the variety makes fino sherry in Spain), there is a luminous, slightly oxidative note to the bouquet and palate the artefact of a perfectly managed evolution in cask delivering the aroma of a palo cortado sherry and the palate of a manzanilla.
MANY OF OUR FINEST YOUNG WINEMAKERS DO NOT OWN THEIR OWN VINEYARDS, WHICH ALLOWS THEM TO SEEK OUT INTERESTING SITES
From John Seccombe (Thorne and Daughters), the Wanderer’s Heart 2022 Rhone blend was an intricately managed marriage of syrah, grenache, mourvedre and carignan nuanced, detailed, almost weightless.
Miles Mossop’s Saskia 2021 is equally carefully woven together, while still showing the dominance of the chenin, the breadth of the clairette and the grenache blanc, and just the right shadow of the perfectly managed perfume of the viognier.
Chris Alheit whose wines pretty much sell out on release
generously shared several of the latest vintage. The 2022 Cartology (there may still be bottles about) captured the essence of new-generation Cape white wine: the brooding beauty of old vine chenin kept in check by the small percentage of old vine (1936 planting) sémillon from the La Colline vineyard in Franschhoek.
Duncan Savage’s 2022 Sémillon delivers a restrained opulence with its promise of age-worthiness for those patient enough to wait, while his splendid Walk the Line cinsault offers the quintessential expression of the variety in its current incarnation in the Cape.