The Hindu Business Line : Spirited highway

It couldn’t have been a better day to embark on a wine and cheese tasting journey; clear blue sky, temperature hovering around a balmy 27-28 degree Celsius, smooth, pothole-free roads and a skilled driver-cum-tour guide. We set out for Stellenbosche, Cape Town’s second-oldest wine route.

The 60-km journey is made in less than an hour but before we hit the green trail, a long patch of unpretentious, little shacks in what is obviously the poorer locality on the outskirts of Cape Town meets the eye. It reminds you not only of Mumbai’s Dharavi, the biggest slum of Asia that has now been improved substantially, but the fact that despite the great roads and the comfortable Toyota Verso you’re travelling in, this is not a European country but a developing country like South Africa where inflation is double digit and the unemployment rate hovers around a steep 25 per cent.

Wine on board

But the speeding car soon leaves behind this picture and you are once again savouring the picturesque beauty of the green expanse around you. My tasting of South African wines begins on board the South African Airways flight from Mumbai to Johannesburg. As always, one opted for a white (Chenin Blanc) first… light, fruity, slightly sweet, and delicious. The switchover is then made to a Pinot Noir red — stronger with a distinct cherry flavour, spicy, oaky and dry — and then a firm ‘no’ to more helpings. The combination of the two was sufficient to help one snatch some sleep in the cramped economy class seat through the early hours of the morning. And if you know what is good for you, stay away from too much alcohol while flying.

The wine experience continued through the welcome dinner organised for the journalists invited by South African Tourism to cover the international jazz festival held in Cape Town in March, and one had the opportunity to taste some excellent Cabernet Sauvignons. Obviously, the next move was to go shopping for wine, and an opportunity came when we stopped at a supermarket to grab staples such as some exotic bread, cheese and orange juice.

Even though South Africans have been cribbing about food prices shooting up, you can buy food in Cape Town at inexpensive rates… for instance a pint of deliciously fresh jumbo prawns, served with lemony peri-peri sauce (made from red chillies, crushed garlic, olive oil and finely grated lemon rind) at a four star hotel, with freshly baked bread, costs only around 50 ZAR (South African Rand; about Rs 250), and this can serve as a light meal by itself.

But it came as a shock to know you can pick up wines at as low as Rs 120-150 in a supermarket; of course one could not vouch for the quality of the wine, but our tour guide Conran Gabriels was willing to put his stamp of approval on a couple of reds — Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blends — which were around Rs 200 a bottle!

The mission

So it was with great gusto that the two Indian journalists set out on their wine and cheese tasting mission to the Cape Winelands, barely an hour’s drive away from the city, which boasts of over 200 cellars to choose from. That South African wines are increasingly being accepted and cheered around the world can be seen from this comment in a Financial Times article dated March 31, 2007. “One of the great mysteries of the world of wine is why South African wine is not more celebrated. The best examples offer wine lovers some of the finest value in the world today, yet they remain a secret relative to the wines of, say, California or Australia, even though it is only recently that Australia has made more wine than the Cape. South African wine producers increasingly need friends abroad.”

The first stop

Our first stop was at the Neethlingshof Wine Estate, and even before you can sniff one of its wines, the almost-kilometre long picturesque driveway lined with unique pine trees takes your breath away. Located in an area of 274 acres, this estate is one of the most beautiful properties in Cape Winelands and the picture of the avenue that floors you is reflected on each wine bottle it makes. Giving us a tour of the freezing area where the red wines are resting in huge oak barrels for which the wood is imported from France and the US, its wine guide Antoinette Adams says the estate is over 300 years old and was started in 1692. It produces over 7.8 lakh litres of wine every year with the red and white ratio being 60:40. “About 80 per cent of our produce is exported and our biggest markets are Sweden, Finland, the UK, Belgium, Germany and Japan. Generally we store our red wines in oak barrels, and they stay here between eight and 24 months; the longer a wine stays in the barrel, the better it becomes. Each barrel can store 300 litres.”

She explains a barrel is used about four times for storing the reds, after which they develop tannins and can’t be used for wine and are sold to brandy and whiskey makers. The white wines “are lighter and hence can be stored in steel tanks”. Each wine expert has a different take on storing wines, and Antoinette believes that you can store a white wine “for two-three years, but you can keep reds for much longer… about 10-12 years in a cool place.”

Beginning with a Sauvignon Blanc (this is a green grape that originates in France) white with fruity and grassy aroma, we move on to a much more mellow Chardonny Wooded 2006 (50 ZAR) with a citrus and nutty flavour, and then to a full-bodied Pinotage Red 2003, which is rather sharp and dry. My favourite is the one that comes last… a dessert wine, Weisser Reisling, which is sweet and yummy tasting of apricots and raisins. Dessert wines are typically made from late harvest grapes... when the grapes are shrivelled and look like raisins. “Every year this wine of ours has been winning awards; it has picked up gold medals for the last 10 years”, beams the guide, adding, “put a little of it on ice cream and it is delicious.” This one comes with a price tag of 80 ZAR; one turns down the offer to try more wines, in order to savour the lovely taste till our next stop.

Cheese and Wine

This is at the Anura Vineyards in the Stellenbosch area, where we settle down to an elaborate wine and cheese tasting session. I begin with a 2006 white Cabernet Sauvignon which smells of fresh lemon and grapefruit and has tones of pineapple and passion fruit; consumed along with the wide varieties of cheese placed before us on a platter that has been done up beautifully by the chef with fine drawings of wine cups with a tangy sauce accompanied by a delicious dip laced with red chillies. The cheese varieties on offer include those with green peppers, red chillies, chives, onions soaked in red wine and Cajun spice.

The wine is delicious but does cause a bit of heartburn when you see the offer price; it costs 40 ZAR (around Rs 200), but “if you buy six bottles, we can give you a special cellar door price of 30 ZAR (Rs 150) per bottle,” says the lady who serves us the wine. She has no answer to how I am supposed to fly back home with six bottles of wine — particularly when no airline allows you to carry liquids in cabin baggage — and the astronomical price one would have to pay to get it shipped home would convert this fine wine into bitter medicine!

The next wine chosen — a Chardonnay Limited Release 2006 — is described in the brochure as an “elegant wine with honey, butter and ginger integrated with French oak”. The wine tastes good enough, but one can’t make out the aromas suggested; and anyway, how does a wine become elegant? I ask the in-house expert and she offers an explanation that is hardly convincing. But then don’t we journalists also play around with words... sometimes? At least the wine was good… and relatively expensive at 85 ZAR.

After another white Chenin Blanc, the switchover is made to reds, beginning with a Legato 2006, followed by a Merlot Reserve 2004 (85 ZAR).

In this one can get the deep cherry flavour. But I reckon my wine savouring sensibilities need to graduate some more as I failed to taste the “bitter dark chocolate and roasted coffee beans on the finish”! The next red that followed was a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2004, and while one savoured fully the fruity aroma — blackberry and raspberry as also the spicy tang — once again there was failure to detect the “hint of tobacco in this complex yet elegant wine.”

But one thing was abundantly clear; if elegant behaviour was expected on the ride back to Cape Town, this was enough for the day.

So Gabriels’ invitation for yet another wine tasting session was politely turned down and one headed back to the hotel, happily clutching the 60-ZAR Cabernet Sauvignon red, offered at a special cellar price of 40 ZAR, and two complimentary wine glasses. Not a bad deal… hic!

South Africa's wine facts

And now some details of South Africa’s wine production.

In 2006, South Africa had 1.02 lakh hectares under vineyards; and the 2007 harvest is estimated at 736.9 million litres, which would be 27.2 million litres more than the 2006 production.

According to Wines of South Africa ( www.wosa.co.za), an independent not-for-profit company based in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape that represents South African wine exporters and promoters, in 2007, wine exports during the first 11 months of last year registered a 16 per cent increase in volumes over the previous year, and the provisional figure for the whole year was a record 300 million litres, the highest for South African wine exports.

What is encouraging, says the Web site, is the widening of the export base; five years ago, 72 per cent of its packaged wines went only to the UK, but now more European countries and the US have come on board, though the UK remains its biggest export market, followed by Sweden.

Even in Germany, the volumes have jumped up by 40 per cent.

Interestingly, export of red wines has grown by nearly three times that of white wines, indicating a strong preference for South Indian red wines and a shortage of red wines by 2010.

“As it is, there is currently some shortage of certain white cultivars, notably Sauvignon Blanc. Although shortage might mean higher prices for grape suppliers, the situation will not be to the advantage of our industry.

South Africa is still a very young exporter in global terms and our inability to meet market demands could make us vulnerable,” says WOSA’s CEO, Su Birch. — RB

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)

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