Mediterranean wines are perfect reflections of Mediterranean people, passionate, hot blooded, eccentric. There is something untamed and unpredictable about varieties coming from this region and at the heart of it are Rhône varieties.
Imagine
lazing under the dappled sunlight at a sleepy café across from the Pope’s
Palace at Avignon, with smells of fresh bread mixing with local garrigue herbal
shrubbery sipping a glass of something sensual. Rhône varieties even sound
exotic, full of promise and intrigue; Roussanne, Marsanne, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Clairette.
And now you
can experience a vinous ‘50 Shades of Grey’ here in South Africa. South African
winemakers are revitalizing and replanting long forgotten or new ( to SA )
Mediterranean and Rhône varieties, and with better clones in better sites
coming of age and winemakers looking for something different to offer there are
more and more of these wonderful, edgy wines appearing on the shelves.
Moreover,
not only are we able to produce these wines, but we are producing excellent
quality.
It looks as
though SA could become just as well known for its Rhône and Mediterranean based
wines as it is for its Chenin and Cabernet. Successes with Sauvignon/Sémillon blends (Platter’s sees a
dozen or so rating 5 stars) is being added to by whites based on Roussanne
partnering Chenin or Grenache blanc and reds with increasing amounts of Mourvèdre, Grenache or Carignan. This
year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show awarded a Trophy to a Cinsault wine (Leeuwenkuil)
and Waverley Hills has won double gold at the 2015 Challenge International du
Vin in France with their Shiraz/Mourvèdre/Viognier blend. Answer enough, I think, to Sandile Mkhwanazi’s blog
(11 May 2015, Wineland); ‘Mediterranean blends? Does that even exist in the
South African context?’. These varieties
may only add up to some 4% of the total vine area in SA, but it is growing and
so is their impact. Cape Wine will hold a seminar on 17th September
at the CTICC on SA blends with the subheading, ‘Winemakers are redefining South
African blends, both red and white, making them among the country’s most
acclaimed, exciting and sought-after wines’.
Recently I
was listening to top winemaker Ian Naude tell all that SA's greatest wine style
will be white blends; and not necessarily those based on Sauvignon and Sémillon
either. Ian points to wines with four,
five or even six varieties in the blend; most of which originate around the
Med. Ian also believes that there may be remnants of old vines just waiting to
be reinvigorated, this is key for Grenache, Johan Malan at Simonsig believes,
which only shows its true potential from vines of old age, and, ‘by that’, he says, ‘the old guys tell me its 50 to 70 year old
vines!’.
Certainly
there are winemakers in Malmesbury and Swartland who support this belief,
consider US Wine Advocate’s 96 point Eben Sadie ‘Columella’ with Mourvèdre amongst its Shiraz or the sumptuous
‘Palladius’, with its variations on a theme of Chenin
blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne, Clairette, Grenache blanc and Viognier. Talking of
Parker (Wine Advocate), his colleague Neal Martin has made clear, 'South Africa's whites are on a
roll….the white Rhône blends are constantly delivering something more esoteric,
yet well-crafted and packed full of flavor, especially from Swartland’.
Johan Malan loves these varieties, ‘when I
first tasted a Mourvèdre…I was immediately impressed with the peppery fynbos flavours of
the wine. It tasted more like Shiraz than Shiraz itself!’ He is ‘very excited’
about Roussanne; ‘white Rhone varieties show the potential to make great wines.
Our very first Roussanne made for the CWG Auction was a 5 star Platter wine’. Johan
is looking to blend Roussanne with Grenache blanc and Marsanne which he thinks,
‘will be a great combination’. Perhaps the most exotic blend is AA Badenhorst’s
‘White Blend’ which can include Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache blanc, Verdelho,
Clairette and Viognier among its varietals – which sometimes sees as many as
ten in the blend. Or their ‘Red Blend’ if you are looking for Cinsault, Mourvèdre, or
Grenache Gris. Vondeling are adding good amounts of Carignan, Mourvèdre,
Viognier and Grenache to their Shiraz based blend.
An increasingly
popular blend everywhere is SMV, or mostly Shiraz, with less Mourvèdre and a
small amount of Viognier, if that doesn't get the juices going then try the
classic GSM: Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre as found in the utterly Gallic
Châteauneuf du
Pape. Adding some Viognier to Shiraz is not new in SA or elsewhere and many
times that gorgeous perfumed whiff from the glass is the result. Johan has
followed the classic Côte Rôtie practice of co-fermenting the two together, but he believes it
better to keep the amount of Viognier in any red/white blend to a minimum.
What could
be more satisfying than a warm, soft and spicy Grenache, more cerebral than a
Cinsault or more sensual and more feral than a Mourvèdre? And a combination of
these is often more than the sum of their parts. If you are a white wine
drinker, how about a blend of chewy marzipan and quince Marsanne with floral,
perfumed Roussanne, or voluptuous peachy Viognier teamed with buxom Grenache
blanc?
So don't hesitate to put a bit of Gallic charm on the table to warm your passions this
winter and the best news is, you can do it while still supporting SA.