Surfing the next big wave

Thursday, 6 May, 2010
Graham Howe
Small is beautiful at this year's V&A Waterfront Wine Affair, currently on at the Waterfront Lookout from 4-7 May. The baby boom in boutique wine labels is the big feature of the showcase - the winds of change on a stormy night as refreshing as the passions of the people behind the next wine wave.
Small is beautiful in the anonymous world of global brands. The notion of limited edition wines of origin appeals to wine consumers, retailers and restaurants looking for a point of difference - whether in numbered bottles, exclusive single vineyard releases or unique blends and bottlings of select barrels. An unknown wine label on the table is a talking point - surfing a new wave of individualistic wines out there.

I was on a learning curve tasting a dozen new boutique wines at the V&A Waterfront Wine Affair. The event lives up to its billing as an intimate "affair" where the little guys don't get lost among all the big brands at the usual wine shows. There may be a niche for a dedicated festival of boutique and garagiste wines. Watch this space. Tasting events by the Durbanville Boutique Wine Association (DBWA) - and trade shows by Cape Boutique Wines are the precursor to a big tsunami of small wines.

The passion of micro-producers is contagious. What's the point of going to a wine festival if you can't talk about the wines with the actual winemaker? I enjoyed chatting to a few of the thirteen members of Durbanville Boutique Wine at the V&A Waterfront - Nomada, Galleon, Klein Roosboom and Hermit on the Hill. I found out that boutique producers are great networkers - they lease space at neighbouring cellars, consult with well-known winemakers from bigger cellars, source grapes or unusual cultivars to express unique terroir - or grow their own grapes with attitude.

Take Riaan Oosthuizen, the qualified winemaker of Capaia Wines in Philadelphia who makes his own wine under the boutique Nomada label. His stunning Nomada Sauvignon Blanc 2009 (the 2008 vintage won a four star rating in Platter's 2010 Guide) shows the classic pyrazine character and dusty grassiness of Durbanville's signature grape. At the next stall I tasted two versions of Klein Roosboom's Sauvignon Blanc 2009 - the elegant flinty flagship and tropical Bandana Blanc under a colourful art label. Karen de Villiers, chairperson of the DBWA can tell you exactly how many barrels of wine she makes from each variety grown on the family farm.

Pieter de Waal, secretary of the Sauvignon Blanc Special Interest Group, showed two of the wines of his charming Hermit on the Hill label. I enjoyed his innovative White Knight 2009 - a Bordeaux blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon with a splash of Muscat Blanc - as well as one of three regional Syrahs which showcase the different terroir of Durbanville, Stellenbosch and Paarl (sourced from old vines at Coleraine). Production ranges from 468 bottles of Grenache to 200 cases per wine. The delightful label was inspired by Peter the Hermit, a crusader with a cause like Pieter, Saint of Savvy.

I also enjoyed the Galleon wines of cardiac specialist Andries Brink (so wine must be good for you) - whose winemakers include Thys Louw and Marie van der Merwe of Diemersdal. Founded in mid-2008, DBWA (www.durbanvilleboutiquewine.co.za) pools their winemaking, marketing expertise, restaurant listings and distribution networks. They focus on "special wines that showcase originality, love and attention to detail. While our total production is far less than the smallest of the established Durbanville producers, we believe our access to some of the best grapes allows us to make authentic wines, which represent the unique 'terroir' of Durbanville".

Wine is a part-time hobby but a full-time passion for many micro-producers. In their spare time, doctors, professors, accountants, bankers and lawyers have made wine in a doctor's surgery, stables, subterranean dam, an old meat locker and even wine cellars. Pieter de Waal comments, "Some of our DBWA members have really great (though
small) cellars with wonderful equipment (cooling, stainless steel tanks, pneumatic presses, etc.) so it would be wrong to create the idea that they are garagistes. Size is unimportant when it comes to matters of passion." It's not size that counts - its about quality not quantity.

The members of Durbanville Boutique Wine Association say in a mission statement, "We do not see ourselves as 'garagistes' - we are serious winemakers with the necessary infrastructure and technology to make top-quality, premium wines." The seventy or so members of the SA Garagiste Movement define garagiste production as less than 2000 cases of wine - whereas I'm not aware of any set ceiling for boutique producers (somewhere in the region of 3000 cases perhaps?). Any thoughts?

Other highlights of the V&A Waterfront Wine Affair included a tasting of the maiden Mapoggo wines (www.dmnwines.co.za) by a boutique producer in Daljosofat. These wines of origin under the Paarl appellation from "Druk my Niet" wine estate are inspired by a famous horse story depicted on the classy label. Mostly exported, the Mapoggo 2009 blend (Sauvignon, Chenin and Viognier) and Mapoggo 2008 blend (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) are sublime, complex wines which showcase the potential of little cellars to get their voice heard with big, serious wines.

I also enjoyed the wines of Bartinney (www.bartinney.co.za) from Banghoek by winemaker Therese de Beer - especially her Noble Savage Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 under an Icarus-inspired label which shows a man taking flight from the Simonsberg. I even tried a boutique bubbly made by "slow winemaker" Carla Pauw under her 600-case Saltare label (meaning 'to dance' in Latin) in Stellenbosch. The V&A boutique wine trail led from Eagles' Nest in Constantia to Spookfontein's sublime vintage reds in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and Tierhoek away in the Piekenierskloof.

On my boutique circuit elsewhere, I've enjoyed the wines of family-owned cellars marketed by Cape Boutique Wines (liezel@businessbeyond.co.za, (083) 456-9525).

I've sampled sublime Shiraz - Dean David 2 Mile Square Swartland Syrah 2008 (named after the size of the father-and-son farm in Riebeek Kasteel); Phizante Kraal Shiraz 2007 from a family farm in Durbanville and Welgeleƫ Reserve Petlou Shiraz NV in Paarl (winner of a tasting of 50 "garagiste" wines). I'm drawn to the the individuality of boutique blends which are big expressions of small pockets of terroir - inter alia the Russo Bordeaux Blend 2007 from Durbanville; Rusticus Tilled Earth 2008 from Robertson; Rebus from Romond Vineyards in Stellenbosch - and Jacques Smit, the nurseryman of Wellington who makes stunning limited edition blends like Full Circle from different vintages of Cabernet (I just drank bottle no 380 of 780).

* The V&A Waterfront Wine Affair takes place at the Waterfront Lookout from 17h00 to 21h00 from 4-7 May. Tickets at R90 and R110 (Friday) from Computicket.

Graham Howe

Graham Howe is a well-known gourmet travel writer based in Cape Town. One of South Africa's most experienced lifestyle journalists, he has contributed hundreds of food, wine and travel features to South African and British publications over the last 25 years.

He is a wine and food contributor for wine.co.za, which is likely the longest continuous wine column in the world, having published over 500 articles on this extensive South African wine portal. Graham also writes a popular monthly print column for WineLand called Howe-zat.

When not exploring the Cape Winelands, this adventurous globetrotter reports on exotic destinations around the world as a travel correspondent for a wide variety of print media, online, and radio.

Over the last decade, he has visited over seventy countries on travel assignments from the Aran Islands and the Arctic to Borneo and Tristan da Cunha - and entertained readers with his adventures through the winelands of the world from the Mosel to the Yarra.

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