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CWG Auction wines woos London
14 September 2005 by Peter May (Wine.co.za)
WOSA and the Cape Winemakers Guild presented the CWG Auction wines to the UK trade and press in Londonrecently. Peter May was there, and what he really wants to know is, is Bruce Jack employing dark arts as part of his winemaking technique?
Holidays are over, small Christmas trees are appearing in restaurants to encourage early festive bookings and the wine industry awakens from its summer slumbers to start preparing. September and October's calendars are chock full with tastings as importers, merchants and trade organisations jostle to ensure that it is their wines that'll accompany the turkey and fuel the party season.
WOSA started the season on 8 September with a pre-auction tasting of a selection of the Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) Auction wines, as well as Guild members' white wines.
The imposing, but sadly empty shelved library of South Africa House, overlooking Trafalgar Square, was the location of the walk around tasting. CWG Chairman Gary Jordan (Jordan Winery) and new Guild member Niels Verburg (Luddite) welcomed visitors.
When a journalist queried Niels on why South Africa uses the name Shiraz instead of Syrah, he replied, 'Because Syrah is a bloody pretentious name in South Africa.' 'We're not French, he grinned.'
The majority of the Auction wines on show were red. There were nineteen reds, nine whites (including a Cap Classique and Noble Late Harvest), plus two ports and a potstill brandy. The red majority was balanced by an additional twenty non-auction whites made by Guild members that are currently available in the UK.
Membership of the Cape Winemakers Guild is by invitation only and members annually make an extraordinary wine to demonstrate their craft. This wine could be made from fruit chosen from a particular vineyard block, or a selected premium single barrel, or a special blend. The finished wines are submitted to be tasted blind by their peers in the Guild for selection in the annual charity auction. Winemakers who fail for three consecutive years to have a wine selected have to leave the Guild. Auction wines are sold only through the Auction, to both private and trade buyers.
This taster thought many of the red wines were over-oaked and some had alcohol heat on the finish. Of the Shiraz's, Graham Beck Shiraz Barrel Select 2002 handled both its oak and 15% alcohol well, showing restraint and offering blueberry flavours and a tangy finish. Luddite Auction Reserve Shiraz 2004 had an approachable soft front and well balanced sweet fruits. De Trafford's Perspective 2005, 67% Cabernet Franc 33% Merlot blend, had an attractive mintyness, and Cordoba's Auction Reserve 2002 Bordeaux blend showed an inviting pepperyness beneath sweet fruit. There were two Cape Blends - Kaapzicht Auction Reserve 2003 and Grangehurst Cape Reserve Blend 2003. Both were excellent, well balanced and elegant, showing the worth of the Cape Blend concept. The only varietal Pinotage present, L'Avenir's Pinotage Reserve 2004, with red plum flavours, demonstrated Francois Naude's mastery of the cultivar.
But there was one wine that everyone was speaking about, and it wasn't red. Journalists at the tasting kept asking me if I'd tasted it, and after I did, I then was asking others whether they had and what they thought. It was Flagstone's Month of Sundays 2005 white blend. This wine has an intense, delicious sweet grapey floral perfume that leads one to expect a semi-sweet wine. But it is not sweet, indeed quite the opposite. It has a firm and surprising acidic finish which follows a spicy middle. The second time around you think you won't be taken aback by the contrast between the nose and taste, but again you are, and it keeps changing in the mouth and delivering new flavours. I don't really know what to make of this wine. It's a blend of 42% Chardonnay, 29% Weisser Riesling, 19% Morio Muscat and 10% Sauvignon Blanc. But there's some indefinable extra. I can only think Bruce Jack chanted incantations to Bacchus while dancing naked and making sacrifices in the moonlight. Two tastes of this wine aren't enough - I want a bottle to study at leisure.
The CWG Auction wines do pretty much what they say on the label. They are the expressions of winemakers at the height of their careers. If you know their standard wines, then these are in the same mould but handmade to be more concentrated, more oaked, and with more intense flavours. They're the equivalent of a production road car manufacturer tuned for track racing. These wines have the best grapes, best new barrels, and individual care and attention. And sometimes they have magic.
Niels Verburg summed it up best when he said, 'We are trying to make the best, supremely balanced wines in a South African context.'
The Cape Winemakers Guild auction will be held 1 October 2005 at Spier, near Stellenbosch, with pre-auction tastings the day before. See www.capewinemakersguild.com for details and to register.
Also see Announcing 2005 Nedbank CWG Auction Wines for a list of the wines to be auctioned on 1 October.
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