Winemakers play to their strengths to define identity
• Specialisation is a survival skill, so the Regional Series pinpoints signature wines from different parts of SA
When it comes to wine, there ’ s nothing wrong with a bit of parochial thinking. Just look at France. The most celebrated wine-producing country in the world is as delineated as it is imitated.
If you want the best cabernet blends, you know to go to Bordeaux. For chardonnay and pinot, Burgundy’s the place to be, the Rhône is renowned for its shiraz blends, Champagne for its bubbly, and the south for its crisp rosé.
Outside France, Mendoza in Argentina is acclaimed for its malbec, while Marlborough (on the South Island of New Zealand) has acquired a formidable reputation for its sauvignon blancs.
Now turn your mind to SA wines. If a foreign visitor were to fly in and ask you to recommend just one wine that represents a region, what would it be? Do any of our wine regions really focus on a single cultivar and commit to making it their benchmark wine? Perhaps a few might, but in a characteristically low-key fashion. Certainly, to the international market at least, it would seem most of our regions suffer the double-edged blessing and curse of being Jacks-of-all-trades yet masters of none.
For Cape wines to receive the worldwide recognition they deserve, the country’s wine regions need to identify their unique strengths and play to them. In the highly competitive international wine trade, specialisation is less of a luxury and more of a survival skill.
The good news is that the first buds of pride in a regional identity have already begun to bloom in many parts of the Cape: Stellenbosch with cabernet, Hemel en Aarde with pinot noir, the Swartland with shiraz-style blends, Breedekloof with chenin blanc and the Constantia Valley with its white blends.
MAKING WORLDCLASS WINE ISN’T ANYTHING NEW, BUT CREATING WORLDRECOGNISED REGIONS IS THE NEXT FRONTIER
Identifying and appreciating regional strengths is one thing. Getting the vast array of stakeholders to implement a programme and work together in one regional direction is quite another. With each winemaker and each wine estate focused on an individual brand, the time, resources and space required to work on a more collective regional identity all too often fall away. It has taken passion and drive to unite the often disparate elements within the various regions and to find enough common purpose to create a wine that is a reflection of the identity of an appellation.
Out of this effort has emerged a Regional Wine Series, drawing on the key areas and pinpointing what that region’s signature wine is. The best winemakers have embraced this concept, bringing to the party their best grapes in a bid to create a blend that truly reflects the essence of that region. The first Regional Selection was the Constantia White 2018, a sauvignon blanc/semillon, which saw seven Constantia winemakers come together to create a blend that received a highly rated 92/100 by Christian Eedes Wine Mag and a sought-after 4½ star rating in John Platter.
Next up, five of Stellenbosch’s most accomplished winemakers collaborated in creating the Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon 2017. Released towards the end of last year, it’s already achieved a coveted 5 star rating from John Platter, with more positive attention certain to follow.
Set to be released in the next few months, the Breedekloof Chenin Blanc awaits and, after that, there’s a shiraz from the Swartland planned too.
Greg Sherwood, international master of wine, writing about this regional initiative, observed: “I said it a decade ago and I’ll say it again, it’s the trickle-down halo marketing of regionality ... that drives a seductive, alluring marketing message.”
Making world-class wine isn’t anything new for many of our wine estates and winemakers, but creating world-recognised regions is certainly the next frontier. To get there, it’ll take a growing collection of wine estates, makers and drinkers who all share in the conviction that the whole is certainly greater than the sum of its parts.