Johannesburg - I recently spent two days of rigorous wine training with wine industry guru Cathy Marston.
Marston, a renowned wine commentator and educator, teaches what has become the international standard for wine education: courses offered through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) in Britain.
Since its founding in 1969, WSET has raised the bar in the field of wines and spirits education, with sought-after qualifications ranging from beginners to diploma levels. It’s the leader in wine education, with up-to-date, internationally recognised courses presented by WSET qualified teachers and industry professionals.
Their exams are rigorous and marking is unbiased – set and marked in London.
Just this year alone, 56 000 people have written their exams, in 62 countries around the world. Working with approved programme providers, WSET have rigorous checks to ensure that teaching standards are kept high.
If you’re curious about wine, learn about it. It’s an art form, as much as a business – as Juliet Cullinan reminded us at her early festival launch at art auctioneer Stephan Welz’s Strauss Art Gallery in Houghton, which aimed to offer an immersive experience of music, art and food.
While wine is art in a glass, our choices are often affected by emotions. Don’t we feel better about supporting estates that care for their staff? Aren’t our purchasing decisions affected by brand loyalty forged by some personal association with the product, having met the winemaker, been to the estate, marked a landmark event with it?
I’ve scouted a few wines for all occasions – great to have around a braai, at dinner or to keep for a special occasion.
* First up, I discovered a bottle of Bosman Family Vineyards’s Erfenis 2011 blend. Bosman is an eighth generation family-owned estate in Wellington, which is one of the southern hemisphere’s leading vine nurseries and a producer of top-drawer wines from some of our oldest vineyards.
Erfenis, which means “Heritage” in Afrikaans, is their flagship wine from their Family Cuvée selection. It’s a pinotage-led Cape blend which is made from the harvest’s best batch of grapes. Other varieties blended into the mix are shiraz , cinsaut, cabernet franc and merlot.
Unusually, the Erfenis is both fermented and matured in French oak. The result is a big wine with concentrated bramble, caramel, red fruit, cinnamon and clove flavours.
The Bosman Erfenis 2011 was recently awarded a Silver medal at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards. Sells for R378 a bottle.
* On the more affordable side of the spectrum, is the new De Krans range.
The Calitzdorp producer is renowned for port (Cape vintage) as well as other still wines, but port is losing popularity worldwide.
This diminishing interest has encouraged some winemakers to be more creative with their grapes, which is what De Krans have done.
To their portfolio, they’ve now added a super new range of Portuguese varieties which are not experimented with much by local wineries. Perhaps more should because these varieties are eminently drinkable.
Calitzdorp is in the Little Karoo so the climate is hot and it’s ideally suited to the classic Portuguese varieties.
And while purists will argue that these grapes should be grown in their traditional terroir, these are quite lovely local expressions of the varieties. The range, which includes a touriga naçional, tinta barocca, tinta barocca rose and the Tritonia blend. Prices from R40 to R120.
* Stellenbosch producer Hartenberg is synonymous with shiraz – having won two gold medals this month at the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) for their 2010 Hartenberg shiraz (R130) and 2012 Hartenberg The Eleanor chardonnay (R210) at the Beautiful South Tasting at Olympia, London.
They also won two Outstanding Silver awards for the 2012 chardonnay and 2010 cabernet sauvignon, and attained six silver medals.
The 46-year-old IWSC was the first competition of its kind to promote the world’s best wines, spirits and liqueurs.
The judging panel comprises industry experts who are Masters of Wine, buyers, sommeliers, WSET qualified educators and top wine journalists.
While the Hartenberg cab-shiraz might not be up to such rigorous competition standards, it offers an idea to what the estate has to offer.
They hold back their vintages so you won’t find their red wines in store younger than four years and their white wines younger than two years, when they’re ready for drinking.
The cab-shiraz is currently on special at Makro for R49.50, which is incredible value.
The estate recently released a new range called Alchemy.
While their classic ranges focus on single cultivars, the Alchemy wines are blended. These include white blend (chenin blanc, semillon and sauvignon blanc); syrah and cabernet; Bordeaux; and Rhône blends. The range is youthful, made for everyday enjoyment. Costs R50-R70.
* French winemakers with vision are increasingly becoming enamoured with the Cape.
Back in 2003, May de Lencquesaing, a member of one of Bordeaux’s oldest wine families, bought Glenelly Estate outside Stellenbosch, believing the farm had the soil, the micro-climate and the potential for quality wines.
Was it coincidence that her great grandfather, John Benjamin Butler, had stopped at Cape Town en route from the Philippines to London for family business in 1855, more than a hundred years before?
Glenelly, then a pear and plum farm in Idas Valley just outside Stellenbosch on the southern slopes of the Simonsberg, belonged to the Garlick family (formerly of the Garlicks’ chain of department stores) who owned it for 138 years before May-Eliane de Lencquesaing acquired it. It was originally granted by Simon van der Stel in the 1700s.
She first visited the Cape in 1988 as part of a delegation from Bordeaux, with her late husband, the General de Lencquesaing. After his death, she returned in 2003 to buy Glenelly.
Former Rustenberg winemaker Luke O’Cuinneagain now produces for Glenelly, while Swartland maverick Adi Badenhorst consults.
Styled as a “South African wine with a charming French touch”, there are three ranges: the Lady May flagship estate wine, a cabernet sauvignon that spent 24 months in new French oak; the Grand Vin de Glenelly signature Bordeaux red blend of syrah, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot and merlot, which had 18 months in French oak barrels and a white chardonnay aged in new 500 litre French oak barrels; and the introductory single varietal Glass Collection which was named after her personal collection of prized antique glass and artworks which includes Roman period pieces.
* For info on the WSET courses, see www.thewinecentre.co.za.
* Cathy Marston recently released her book, Love your Wine: Get to grips with what you are drinking which sells for around R170.
Saturday Star