Evaluating South African Shiraz with the Cape Winemakers Guild

Monday, 26 January, 2015
Dave March
Where are we with SA Shiraz/Syrah relative to the World’ was the topic of this meeting of the members of the Cape Winemakers Guild. After a blind tasting of the very best from the Rhone and SA this ‘who’s who’ of the SA winemaking world concluded that we are doing very nicely, thank you.

The topic was proposed by Jacques Borman and hosted at his Boschkloof vineyard and presented by Chair of the judges of the SA Shiraz Wine Challenge Dr Andy Roediger CWM, who has a wide knowledge of Shiraz and Syrah around the world.

An initial look at how SA Shiraz fares in international competition showed a healthy return. A compilation of scores from the US (Stephen Tanzer and Robert Parker – via Neal Martin) and the UK (Tim Atkin MW and Jancis Robinson MW) shows SA well represented at the top. Jancis placed Mullineux’s ‘Schist’ above Chave’s Hermitage and all the Côte Rôties, Decanter showers Trophies and Gold Medals liberally on SA Shiraz and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate scored 24 SA Shiraz’s at more than 91 points, including two at 95 points. Wine Spectator has 13 SA Shiraz above 90 points, Stephen Tanzer 16 and Tim Atkin MW 12, including 5 wines at 96 points. In terms of competition, then, we are an established world player.

The discussion turned to SA Shiraz styles. There is a traditional versus modern debate amongst styles around the world, SA moves between the leathery, oaked, meaty style to the aromatic, softer, fruitier style. The key is ripeness, and Andy showed how important extracting anthocyanins is whilst maintaining relatively low tannin extract in achieving balanced phenolics in a wine. He suggests keeping the harsher seed tannins (around 10-15mg/L) to almost a third of skin tannins (35-37mg/L) as a ratio in any Shiraz. Recent vintages reflect an extraction rate of around 60% of anthocyanins in riper wines. This, coupled with longer hang times – especially in cooler areas – promotes more anthocyanins, and may contribute to the peppery notes of Shiraz.

The use or not of stems in the ferment was discussed, some do, some don’t it seems and many are experimenting with partial whole-bunch ferments, a degree of carbonic maceration and varying ferment temperatures. Some felt adding stems lowers alcohol and increases herbaceous notes.

Cooler climates and/or altitude in the New World have enabled producers to achieve longer hang times, but interestingly, Andrea Mullineux of the 96 point (Atkin) ‘Schist’ Syrah said that her wine didn’t get much hang time, ‘just very gentle handling and minimal, once a day, punching down’.

But what is SA’s Shiraz style? Andy was asked. Andy felt there was a trend to more aromatic profiles, still fruit driven but looking to cooler sites for elegance and balance. Overall though, our style was hard to pin down.

Christine Rudman CWM feels, “we don’t have one style any more” and many agreed that we should embrace the variety of styles we can achieve.

In fact, the blind tasting that followed showed it possible still to identify SA Shiraz amongst an international line-up, but there was absolutely no consensus on favourites. Every wine in the line-up was preferred by someone and even the icon wines didn’t receive a clear winning vote. The St Joseph and Cornas wines faired well and Jamet’s Côte Rôtie was liked by many for its perfumed elegance and layered flavours. Winemakers commented on the use of oak, Frans Smit from Spier emphasising that the key to great wines is balance. The Mullineux ‘Schist’ was worth its points many felt and Vincent Paris’ La Geynale Cornas was well liked. The Platter’s ‘Red Wine of the Year’, David Trafford’s ‘Blueprint’ Syrah was one of the evening’s stars. It more than stood over the Australian Wynn’s ‘Michael’ version and together with the CWG Cederberg ‘Teen Die Hoog’ Shiraz brought comments of ‘structure, persistence, violets and herbs’. Many loved the Chave Hermitage (Wine Advocate 96-98 points), though Niels Verburg from Luddite Wines felt it might have been even better served two degrees cooler, but there was no missing its class.

‘France may still pip us by a short head’, Andy summed up. ‘but we are getting there’ and the conclusion I got from the group was that we are not trying to emulate the Old World styles. The basis of SA’s success was made clear by David Trafford, “It’s not about style, it’s about knowing your vineyard”.

This august body of winemakers was in total agreement on this. They are not following a style recipe.

Nor are they trying to compete with the Rhone or Australia or anywhere else. We will continue to see a variety of Shiraz and Syrah styles in SA, maybe more elegant, maybe better balanced, but still varied and remarkable.

As I enjoyed Jacques and Reenen’s velvety and profound Boschkloof ‘Epilogue’ Shiraz I was excited by the fact that rather than converging on a point scoring winning formula or trying to emulate classic Rhone, these winemakers were focussing their efforts on reflecting and expressing their terroir, searching for balance and letting the wine speak rather than imposing themselves on the wine. SA Shiraz is indeed doing very nicely.