Over the past few weeks I’ve been lucky enough to taste a selection of fabulous white wines – all of which you should look out for this summer.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I find nothing more dull than reading other people’s tasting notes. So instead I have tried to give you a snapshot of my impressions so that you can decide whether the wine appeals to you or not.
Most of the wines are a Sauvignon Blanc – people clearly know my penchant for this varietal. But I did have a rather pleasant encounter with a Riesling as well.
Four Paws Sauvignon Blanc 2007 & 2008
The 2007 is the current vintage from Four Paws and drinking extremely well. Give the 2008 a few more months to settle into its flavour and it will be delightful. The 2007 offers green peppers, elderberry and tropical fruits, balanced with a slight flintiness. Crisp and elegant.
If you like your wines fruity yet with a crisp acid, this is the wine for you. Not overpowering, like some of its contemporaries, the 2007 would go well with food or alone. Seafood or chicken would be a winning combination, but the wine stood up well to a mild curry too.
The alcohol level is 14% – so tread carefully.
Springfield’s Special Cuvee Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Next up is the latest offering from one of my all time favourite Sauvignon Blanc producers. After being a staunch fan of the Life from Stone Sauvignon from Springfield, I started shifting to the Special Cuvee towards the end of last season. Less in your face, with well-integrated flintiness and minerality, the grapes that make this wine come from an especially rocky, calcerous part of the estate. They are harvested at night in the cool from this prime spot, and the wine is made with minimal interference.
I love the minerality you find in many Robertson wines, and if you want to get your head around the concept of terroir – start here. It’s amazing how wines from different parts of the same estate can have such different characteristics.
At 12.5% this is a relatively light wine by South African standards, and would go brilliantly with seafood such as grilled sole or sushi.
Spier Private Collection Sauvignon Blanc 2008
I was very surprised to find myself enjoying this wine – as typically I am not a fan of the fruitiness of warm climate Sauvignons. However, some of the grapes for this Spier wine are sourced from the Tygerberg region which gets the benefit of cool sea breezes, so perhaps this has toned down the fruit flavours.
Classic Sauvignon freshly cut grass combines with fig and gooseberry. Ideal with picnics, chicken dishes and pasta in my view. 13.5% alcohol.
Frostline 2007
Finally I got my hands on a bottle of Frostline 2007 – a Riesling made by Graham Knox from Stormhoek fame, and Flagstone’s Bruce Jack. The range of wine is called Extreme Vineyards and Graham and Bruce seem to be having fun making wines on the edge.
In this case the grapes are harvested from the highest vineyards in South Africa, in the Outeniqua mountains. This means the grapes are exposed to frost – which is ideal for Riesling which originates in Germany. Classic Riesling apple flavours lead this tight, crisp and fresh wine. I’d drink it by the bucketload with seafood and especially prawns. Again, at 14%, not shy on the alcohol front.
At a social wine tasting last week, Stormhoek’s 2007 Pinotage was the hands down overall favourite out of the six wines tasted. Stormhoek also featured in the whites – with the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc getting the thumbs up.
Stormhoek kindly sponsored three of the wines for a social tasting to raise money for charity at the Blaauwberg Intercare.
The Pinotage has also been voted best value by Wine Magazine. It is a ruby-red, easy-drinking mix of banana and red berry flavours, with a fair bit of cherry coming through. It has a slight smokiness on the palate, with hints of ash and toast. Drink this smooth, balanced red now. Its milder tannins make this a great summer time red wine, for all the red wine fans struggling to make the shift back to white after the winter.
Earlier during the white tasting, the Sauvignon Blanc had come out tops, despite my badly disguised penchant for the Pinot Grigio. Pinot Grigio is my call for favourite picnic wine this summer with its crisp dryness and light easy-drinking style.
Being from warm Wellington, the Sauvignon Blanc leads with fruit flavours: tropical, banana, grapefruit, granadilla, gooseberry and lime. It has a slight hint of canned peas, but not a lot of asparagus, grass and green pepper so typical of a cooler climate Sauvignon Blanc. It doesn’t linger on the palate, but that may come with time, as it has been fairly recently bottled.
The remainder of the wines were kindly donated by Intercare staff. My surprise of the night was the Spier Chardonnay 2007. I am not a great Chardonnay fan, but this one was not at all over-oaked, and is a delicious mix of grapefruit, guava and honey-suckle, with vanilla, butterscotch and toasty brioche adding complexity without overwhelming. Definitely a wine to go with a meal though – especially with the hefty 14% alcohol level.
Look out for my series of articles on basic wine tasting tips, based on the notes I prepared for the wine tasting evening.
Update: Check out the latest wine offer from those crafty guys at Stormhoek. They have teamed up with Barringtons Wines as part of its lease a vineyard deal. You lease a vineyard block and you get a whole lot of unique wine – wine everyone else has heard of but can’t get – and this will be delivered to your door.
I arrived at the Cape Town public tasting of the Veritas award winners totally unprepared and was greeted by the sight of hundreds of wine farms displaying their award-winning wines. I needed a plan of attack and I needed it fast.
So I started with the page of double gold winners, but that didn’t help much as there were 36 of them! In the end I settled for five whites and four reds, choosing a combination of what I like, a good mix of varietals to cater for all tastes, and a couple of names that I keep hear being mentioned.
Cape Point Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2007 – Unashamedly my favourite favourite – I love a zesty, green peppery cool climate Sauvignon Blanc, and 2007 produced some amazing examples. The lemon and lime coming through almost made me abandon the rest of the tasting to find some garlic prawns to enjoy with the wine.
Cederberg Sauvignon Blanc 2008 – Probably a lot more approachable for many people than the Cape Point. Lovely gooseberry and fig tempers the grassy green pepperiness. It also seems that 2008 Sauvignon Blancs on the whole are a lot less overwhelming than their 2007 counterparts.
David Nieuwoudt Ghost Corner Sauvignon Blanc 2008 – I’ve heard a lot about this wine and it’s a great crisp mix of lime, grass and green pepper. Slightly sour aftertaste though in my opinion.
Spier Private Collection Chenin Blanc 2007 – This Chenin is aged in big old oak barrels that delicately wood the wine. The fruit coming through on the palate lightens the vanilla, butter and toastiness of the oak. Lovely mouthfeel and ideal to be paired with food.
Groot Constantia Gouverneurs Chardonnay 2007 – I’ve made no secret of the fact that I am not the greatest Chardonnay fan, but this is a particularly approachable version. It’s the vintage following the Chardonnay that won winemaker Boela Gerber the covetted Chardonnay du Monde in 2007. It’s gently oaked with lovely floral and tropical fruit flavours coming through. The mouthfeel is divine, not chewy, just heavy enough to remind you that this is not your everyday, sitting in the sun, quaffing wine, drink.
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2004 – This is the vintage following the super award-winning 2003 so I was quite looking forward to tasting the wine. Initially I was a bit disappointed with the Bordeaux blend comprising 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc. But given a chance it opened up beautifully with flavours of marzipan and cherries.
La Petite Ferme Merlot 2006 - I was pleased to see this old favourite here, as I haven’t come across their wines for a while – which makes sense as 65% is consumed by the restaurant. The wine is deliberately fruity and ready to drink to go with the food. Despite no heavy tannins, there is still plenty of structure to the wine, with none of that over ripe fruit coming through. The Merlot had delicious cherry on the nose with black current following through on the palate – put me immediately in the mood for a delicious lamb shank.
Windmeul Pinotage Reserve 2007 – Produced from 10-year-old bush wine in Paarl, this wine spent 18 months in new oak and is a delicious example of a Pinotage. Very drinkable with banana, prune and cherry coming through – ideal with a venison potjie.
Rust en Vrede Syrah 2006 – displaying Rust en Vrede’s signature mocha on the nose, this is a serious wine not to be taken lightly. In my opinion it outshone the Rust en Vrede 1694 2006 – which was my random recommendation tasting and also a double gold winner.
And finally for my unusual choice for the evening I went with the gold-winning Du Toitskloof Nebbiolo 2007. I picked up lovely cherry, liquorice, nougat, fruitcake and spices – as well as a deliciously comforting element to the wine. And fortunately when I got home and checked my tasting guide – I wasn’t too far off the mark.
The venue was the delightfully opulent Cape Sun – which I haven’t set foot in for years. Interestingly the wine glasses we were using for tasting were enormous, and not your usual tulip shaped tasting glasses. I am noticing this more often at events – what do people think? Stick with the tried and tested model, or do you enjoy tasting out of a larger glass?
For readers based outside of Cape Town, click here for details of public tastings in other cities.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been lucky enough to taste a selection of fabulous white wines – all of which you should look out for this summer.
