South African nose upfront, lingering French aftertaste

Tuesday, 25 November, 2014
Julian Richfield
Goeie More, Good Morning, Bonjour! Last week I had the pleasure of attending a half day Shiraz SA Workshop at Kronenburg just outside, Paarl. Attended by a full house of over 100 shiraz producers, the event included the Shiraz SA AGM.

If you think that that sounds quite dull, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The morning started off with the brief formalities of the AGM, followed by Tom Blok CWM and PWC Partner taking delegates through an informative and interesting financial analysis of Wine Costing.

Tom was followed with a look into the future of the South African wine industry from the dynamic VINPRO Managing Director, Rico Basson and then WESGRO’s International Trade Manager for Africa, Michael Gamwo led us through the intriguing mixture of the normal and informal ways of doing effective wine business in Africa.

Observing the attendees scribbling notes throughout the proceedings, it was plain to see that much of what was said gave food for thought.

The heady smell of Shiraz began to enter my sensory system, tasting time had arrived. I was ready, so ready.

We started off with Marco Ventrella, KWV’s Chief Viticulturist leading us through a discussion and blind tasting of a selection of shirazes whose style and character gave evidence of the uniqueness of their terroir.

De Grendel cellarmaster Charles Hopkins and judging panel chair Dr Andy Roediger led a blind tasting of the twelve wines that had been successful at the 2014 Shiraz SA Wine Challenge. Individual tastes and preferences led to healthy discussion as to the merits of each and a show of hands highlighted three or four favourites.

The workshop ended with a comparative tasting of top cuvees and second labels from three great Northern Rhone producers, Auguste Clape, Domaine Janet and Rene Rostaing.

Kindly offered to us by Roland Peens of Wine Cellar, for me it was an insightful journey into unfamiliar styles of Shiraz. Having had relatively little experience of French wines, the tasting and Roland’s descriptions and anecdotes certainly have started me off on a new “bucket list” wine journey. My personal favourites were the Domaine Jamet Côte Rôtie 2011 (Parker rating 95, Wine Cellar price R995) and the Rene Rostaing Côte Rôtie La Landonne 2010 (Parker rating 96, Wine Cellar price R1 300).

After that it was lunchtime for the attendees and the air was filled with Shirazic conversation, and yes, some more wine was consumed. We would want it no other way, would we?

The wine journey for me is a passionate adventure and the Shiraz SA Workshop provided much food for thought and a long and pleasant aftertaste.