Johannesburg - Much like sailors in the Bermuda Triangle, where ships and people mysteriously disappear, wine enthusiasts seem to evaporate into wine country during their exploration of Stellenbosch’s famed “Golden Triangle” sub-region.
The Helderberg, esteemed as one of the country’s finest sub-regions, is home to more than 20 wineries, on which the terroir famously produces some outstanding red wines. Prominent estates in the Golden Triangle include Waterford, Bilton, Ernie Els, Rust en Vrede and Haskell.
Though the sub-region is one of the oldest wine producers in Stellenbosch, Haskell, which was founded in 2002, is a relative newcomer to the area, occupying a 23-hectare property on Annandale Road which previously fell under the Dombeya name (the indigenous trees are dotted around the property).
American property tycoon Preston Haskell acquired the estate in 2005, luring Rianie Strydom, who had been winemaker at Morgenhof for 10 years, to be its cellarmaster.
Since her arrival at Haskell that year, Rianie has overseen production of numerous award-winning wines for Haskell and Dombeya. For the latter, she won a Veritas double-gold in 2007 for the 2005 Boulder Road shiraz, but the Haskell label has brought international glory.
At the Tri-Nations Challenge in 2009 between South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, her Haskell Pillars Syrah 2007 won best shiraz, best red wine and best wine of show – the first time in the competition’s history that a South African red wine had won.
Rianie, who worked vintages in Burgundy and St Emilion, Bordeaux, for two years, is a massive fan of the Bordeaux varieties and wants to create a Bordeaux blend in South Africa rivalling the very best of the Medoc. Wikus Pretorius, the winemaker and general manager, also has extensive international experience, having worked vintages in California, France, Corsica and Australia. Australian Grant Dodd is the estate’s chief executive.
Together, Grant and Rianie focus their attention on making terroir-driven, unique wines recognised among the country’s best.
Rianie herself is one of our most respected winemakers, and in 2010 was invited to join the Cape Wine-makers Guild as its second woman wine-maker (the first being Norma Ratcliffe of Warwick).
Dombeya, the Foundation range, is the farm’s more affordable label under screw cap, while Haskell is its premier range, which is highly regarded among serious wine critics. The brands are listed separately in Platter’s South African Wine Guide.
Over lunch at the Haskell townhouse in Illovo, Rianie and Grant are debating their best chardonnay yet. Grant says the 2006 Anvil is the best they’ve made so far, “but I reckon the 2012 Dombeya is a close second”.
Rianie adds: “Stylistically, it’s (the Anvil) a very good indication of what we want to do with chardonnay. The whole idea with the chardonnay is that it must be fruit-driven, there is nuttiness from the oak. A lot of people think there’s no oak, but there is, it’s full-on nine months in oak. We still put in 10 percent of unoaked wine into it, then we upward-blend by mixing 2013 wine into 2012, just to freshen the wine up to add natural acidity because our chardonnays (in Stellenbosch) tend to lack it.”
The concept of back blending is similar to dosage, in which sugar levels are adjusted in Champagne production.
“(Back blending) just adds freshness. The first time we did that was on the 2006. I want to make wine like they do in Burgundy – that keeps fresh forever. That you drink a 2001 and it tastes like a two-year-old wine,” says Rianie.
“We’re allowed to blend back in South Africa – up to 15 percent. We play with it, depending on what we need. I did it purely to add freshness to the wine and to allow it to age. People want that. You don’t want butteri-ness – you want creaminess which fills your mouth nicely.”
Grant adds: “We’re following Australian trends to put all our Dombeya under screw cap. It’s a no-brainer. We’ve been drinking wines under a screw cap for over a decade in Australia. There’s absolutely no reason – unless you mess up the bottling – that the wine will spoil under screw cap. You retain your freshness. You never get a corked wine. And the ageing capacity is exactly the same as under cork. But there’s a romanticism about cork and there will always be.”
The property no longer grows sauvignon blanc, so the grapes are being sourced from cool pockets, mainly in Durbanville.
“The Anvil was the first Haskell wine. It’s 100 percent chardonnay, 50 percent in new oak. The alcohol is slightly low. We’re not into the apricot flavours, more into the white peach flavours. It doesn’t show the new oak. A lot of tasters think it’s French. The acidity is there – it’s fresh,” says Rianie.
The red wines of the Golden Triangle famously show velvety tannins and nutty flavours. “Dombeya’s merlot 2012 is our first merlot under screw cap. We have a lot of cab-merlot on the property and here we skipped two vintages. It was a good decision.
“We drink merlot too young here, expecting tutti frutti flavours. By winter, this wine is going to be perfect. In our valley (the Golden Triangle), merlot is the first wine to be sold out at Rust en Vrede and at Ernie Els. Merlot needs to be older, but people start drinking red wine by drinking merlot.”
Shiraz, or syrah, is Rianie’s passion: the Dombeya Boulder Road ’09 – which they view as the label’s best red yet – is rich and intense, with violets, rose water and black pepper, and a spicy finish (R96). Haskell’s five-star Pillars syrah 2010 (R400) is a big, elegant wine – rose petals, white pepper and ripe red cherries dominate. The Aeon 2010 syrah (R290) is fruitier, with cinnamon and red cherries, finished with a touch (5 percent) of mourvèdre.
Haskell had to withdraw its Dombeya Bordeaux blend, the Altus, because the wine corporation Distell decided the name was too similar to their label, Alto.
Instead of fighting an unwinnable battle, the estate relaunched the wine as the Fenix (R120), a peculiar spelling, denoting something positive that arose from the proverbial ashes of a dirty fight.
The Dombeya website describes the fight as such: “We received a legal challenge from South Africa’s biggest wine company, Distell, over the use of the word Altus. They alleged that it infringed their trademark on Alto, a brand within their portfolio.
“Clearly, the two words are spelled differently, and while one is a brand that covers an estate and a range of wines, the other is merely a ‘stage’ name for a wine within a completely dissociated brand. It seemed to us to be about as spurious an assertion as we had ever heard.
“Subsequently, we prepared to take the matter to the high court of South Africa, confident of a win, and of Distell having to pick up the tab for their wild slash outside off stump.
“That was until we found out that the high court rarely awards costs in these matters, and that we would more than likely have to bear the full cost of defending the action.”
Even so, it was the time in which Altus won a gold medal at the 2012 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show and a gold at the Five Nations Wine Challenge that same year. - Saturday Star