RESPECT FOR ELDERS

Determined to prove that South African wines can age well, Simonsig Estate cellarmaster Johan Malan hosted a Vintage Wine Day last weekend.

He’d dug deep into his cellar to find wines held back from the early 1990s, the oldest being a 1991 shiraz, with wines deemed to be drinking especially well at the moment including the cabernet sauvignon 2000, shiraz 1992, Frans Malan 2004, Tiara 1998 and 2002, Redhill Pinotage 1997 and 2006, and Kaapse Vonkel 2005.

These were sold at “special prices” on the day, ranging from R58 (for pinotage dating to 1994) to R210 for both the flagship Redhill Pinotage (oldest 1997) and Merindol Syrah (oldest 1998).

Representing unbelievable value, the wines begged the question: shouldn’t older vintages, carefully matured in optimal cellaring conditions, command higher prices?

One person who firmly believes so is Mike Ratcliffe, managing partner of Vilafonté, the luxury South African wine brand he co-owns with legendary Californian winemaker Zelma Long and her viticulturalist husband, Phil Freese.

Ratcliffe insists that good wines develop more complex flavours as they mature, becoming “more intriguing, more dramatic” — and this is certainly the case with the merlot-dominated Series M 2005, which Vilafonté rereleased on August 1 from its “prized inventories” of library stock.

Honoured to be sent a bottle (especially after discovering the rerelease price to be R1 250 a bottle, compared to R400 for the current release), I found the wine luxuriously velvety, with all the plums and black cherries of its youth now complemented by spicy fruitcake notes and just the faintest whiff (in a good way) of dusty library books.

Vilafonté’s intention with the 2005 re-release is to make a “subtle statement” about how older vintages of flagship wines should be valued. Not so subtle, perhaps, but it seems the market agrees, with Ratcliffe reporting “strong” sales so far.

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