Elgin: wine hub in its own right
Late October is peak season for wine launches and highend tastings. This year was no exception; two in particular come to mind. One was a group show by the wine producers of the Elgin Valley. The other was the release of the latest vintage of Vilafonte Series C, something of a Cape wine icon.
What they had in common was the idea of site. In the case of Elgin, it is the valley that lends its name to the appellation. In the case of Vilafonte, the 15 or so hectares of vineyard planted in Vilafonte’s soils on the outskirts of Paarl.
Elgin has long enjoyed a reputation for its apple and pear orchards. The mainstream farmers of these (largely exported) crops have never really had a commercial reason to grow grapes. The financial yield per hectare of the bigger fruit can be five to 10 times the revenue potential of grapes.
The growth of Elgin viticulture was slow and unspectacular from the 1980s, when Paul Cluver agreed to be part of an experimental project with Stellenbosch Farmers Winery, until around 2000. Then there was lift-off, driven mainly by the passion of producers who chose to make less money from grapes than they might have from apples.
Production capacity has not quite grown at the same pace. But that imbalance is lessening. There are now enough wineries to justify a trip to the region, and enough good wine to provide a powerful gravitational attraction to go nowhere else.
The valley is surrounded on all sides by mountains. It enjoys a higher-than-average rainfall — though with quite extreme variation between the southeast and more northern portions. Even during the drought, it had ample water.
Given the generally cooler climate (it is the most temperate of the major Cape appellations) chardonnay, sauvignon, pinot and syrah are the dominant varieties. That said, the Cape’s consistently best performing merlot, Shannon’s Mount Bullet, is an Elgin wine.
Chardonnay drinkers can find much to fill their trolleys. Oak Valley Groenlandberg, Cluver — from the great value Village wine to the Seven Flags
— Iona, Boschendal Elgin, Neil Ellis Whitehall and Kershaw all come to mind. For me the surprise discoveries of the tasting were the intensity and purity of the 2022 Sutherland, and the beautifully textural La Brune. Cooler climate wines need to age, and there is clear evidence that Elgin makes ageworthy chardonnays which reward time in the bottle.
I’m less of a fan of the region’s sauvignons, but I make up for that with my enthusiasm for the pinots. Here the regular Iona (Elgin Highlands) 2020 is a standout example, as are the estate’s single site releases. Likewise the latest vintages from Paul Cluver, Kershaw and La Brune. Damascene’s Molly Meaker is an Elgin pinot and is also worth tracking down.
The mind shift required to move from Elgin’s to Vilafonte’s wines is considerable. The extreme variations typical of an appellation with many producers are entirely absent when contemplating a single vineyard, on a dominant — rather than diverse — soil profile, and with a common winemaking team for much of the brand’s life.
Vilafonte was developed at the end of the 1990s by two Californian legends, the husband-and-wife viticultural and winemaking team of Phil Freese and Zelma Long. They established the vineyards, trained the winemakers and made the key stylistic decisions.
The latest release (already on allocation despite the eyewatering price of R1,950 per bottle) is the 2020, presented alongside the 2017 and the 2014 at the launch event.
Despite vintage variation and the differing percentages of the components in the blends — or perhaps because of them — there is very little separating these wines except for bottle age. Leave them open in your glass long enough and they begin to taste very similar.
They are a precise expression of place, and the vision of those responsible for producing them. The raw materials that went into their production are never the same each year. The end result, however, is remarkably coherent and remarkably consistent.
Not like two Michelangelo Piètas: more like two Patek Philippe watches.