Wine Industry Report

‘All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’, reads the opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. And the same might be said of overripe wines, writes Sophie Kevany from Bordeaux.
‘All ripe wines tend to taste the same, and there’s a problem of identity. Identity is strongest where the wines are ripe but not too ripe,’ said revered Bordeaux oenologue, Denis Dubourdieu, speaking after a conference given during primeur week on the 2005 Bordeaux vintage. ‘Ripe but not green, ripe but not cooked,’ advises Dubourdieu.

He said that in such a competitive global market it was increasingly important to distinguish one wine from another. Asked about South African wines he said they were significant, but a bit uniform, and suggested trying other grape varieties. ‘Why not try a later ripening variety,’ he asked, ‘like Nero D’Avola for example, or Petit Verdot?’

‘It is too hot in South Africa for Merlot,’ Dubourdieu said. ‘Although the altitude helps, it is still a question of temperature. Merlot is too quick to ripen. Cabernet Sauvignon, and above all Pinot Noir, also ripen too early for hot countries,’ he said. ‘But I am not telling people what to do, it is not my job.’

Dubourdieu’s main point about the greatness of the 2005 vintage was that the hot days and dryness of the summer, were tempered by cool nights, reducing the risk of over ripeness, keeping the fruit, and thus the wine, fresh.

He said 2005 is better than any vintage he had seen since he came to Bordeaux in 1972, surpassing legendary years like 1982 and 2000. Dubourdieu currently consults for Yquem, Cheval Blanc and Haut Bailly among others.

At Château Angélus, Hubert de Boüard, who was offering informal en primeur tastings of the South African grown Anwilka 2005 - which he makes with Bruno Prats, former owner of Château Cos-d’Estournel and Lowell Jooste of Klein Constantia Estate - agreed up to a point about Merlot. ‘It is 100% wrong to try and copy the north in the south. For the Merlot I agree with Monsieur Dubourdieu, it is too hot. But it is also too simple to say that. We have so many different climates, in Paarl, in Simonsberg, in Franschhoek. In Helderberg, where we are, it is cool,’ he said.

‘Also the soil is different in the mountains and the valleys. I am very happy with my Cabernets and very proud of the Syrah,’ said de Boüard, who is also planting some Petit Verdot.

De Boüard has another reason to be proud. Anwilka 2005 is sold out. ‘We have kept 8,000 bottles for the South African domestic market, but the rest, 35,000 bottles, is sold.’

Anwilka, which has just under 14% alcohol, is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon and 37% Syrah, or Shiraz as it is better known in South Africa.

Robert Parker said the debut 2005 vintage, was ‘world class’, and the finest red he had ever tasted from South Africa.

Asked whether there was a move away from the Parker/Rolland style, de Boüard claimed it was never that powerful, but he said certainly the style is evolving. ‘Its less heavy, more fresh, more drinkable. There is a slowing down on extraction and a move to keep freshness.’

Bill Blatch, an international wine seller based in Bordeaux who has been in the business for over 25 years, said he was certain people are moving away from big, jammy wines, at the 10 euro range. ‘It was big in the 80’s and 90’s, but there is a definite pull back now from what I would call “fat” wines. And people are doing less things to the wines.’

Blatch, who set up his own company to sell Bordeaux internationally in 1983 and has been tasting primeurs since 1970, said 2005 has everything. ‘It’s like sometimes, when I look at a starry sky, I think its all a bit too much. It has power, 14% alcohol, tannins, acidity and fresh fruit.’

Others believe the demand for Maryland wines, as Parker favoured wines have been dubbed, is simply a matter of taste. Says Xavier Copel - a new breed of wine maker who leases vines from top vineyards and works with the producer to make terroir specific wines labelled ‘Bordeaux’, ‘Medoc’ and ‘Roussillon’ - ‘We have everything today, you just have to choose.’

‘The prêt a boire (ready to drink) style certainly pleases buyers from the new world and new drinkers. Even the big names here are doing it. Rothschild 2001 is prêt a boire. Magrez (the multimillionaire owner of 32 wine properties around the world, and a Parker favourite) is prêt a boire, Rolland (the well known consultant who works with Bruno Magrez among others) is prêt a boire. But it is a choice for everyone.’

Copel added that in wine terms South Africa was still relatively young. ‘Producers and consumers are educating themselves with the wines they make and drink. This is a normal evolution. We start by sweet and go to bitter. When they are saturated with sweet we will see them drinking fresher wines. More elegant and structured.’

[Source: winec.o.za by Sophie Kevany ]