As South Africa sniffs and swirls its way around the international wine market, pertinent questions are being raised about the weight of the country’s big producer cellars. Firstly, how innovative can a large scale producer be in an age where independent winemakers approach the art of making wine with a renewed spirit of fearlessness? Secondly, what incentive do producers have to innovate, when large volumes of fruit are threatened by a volatile currency in a burgeoning international market?
In May 2016, Prescient, in partnership with Christian Eedes, presented the fifth annual Cabernet Sauvignon Report. The unique report, invites a select list of producers to present their wines to be judged on a 100 point scale. This year, the report revealed that some of South Africa’s most market dominant wine producers vinify what is arguably the best Cabernet Sauvignon in the country.
Delaire Graff Reserve 2013 and Spier Woolworths Private Collection 2013 both achieved 94 points. As was previously published on wine.co.za, Fleur du Cap Unfiltered 2013 hit a high note with the competition’s judges, with a respectable 90 points. While, Nederburg II Centuries 2012, achieved 92 points.
Innovation and Curiosity
The Nederburg cellar continues to actively experiment with new varieties and styles and has introduced Grenache Blanc, Roussane, Albarino, Verdelho and Viura to its cellar team’s working wines. The winemakers have also recently begun to work with Grasa de Cotnari, a Romanian varietal very successfully used to make noble late harvest wines.
Nederburg’s new cellar-master, Andrea Freeborough suggests that the brand’s omnipresent market presence increases the pressure to maintain their position as a producer of award-winning wines.
With so many wines of excellence produced locally the team has been inspired to innovate and discover. Andrea says that you can never stop learning or finding ways of doing things better.
Over a flight of their newly explored grape varietals, Andrea impressed the sentiment that: “we are a South African wine producer making South African interpretations of what these grapes have to offer.”
Nederburg’s economies of scale and large scale production offer exciting gifts of opportunity to both oenophiles as well as viticulturists.
As Nederburg’s new viticulturist Bennie Liebenberg shares: “I am exposed to lesser-known varietals and new clones of established cultivars that we use in some of our trailblazing wines.”
Bennie says that it is inspiring to work with vineyards all over the Cape, including its new winegrowing areas, to understand the unique potential of each and to explore what each vineyard can specifically produce.
It isn’t only millennials or hipsters who are sceptical about the flexibility of market-dominant producers.
Critics question the role of co-ops and large scale producers in chasing trendy varietals in order to please the fluid tastes of an ever-changing market. The integrity of the soil and the quality of the resultant wine has been put under a white-hot spotlight.
However, international connoisseurs, like Stephen Tanzer, the Editor in Chief of Vinous, taste and see the potential that our fair Cape has to offer. Tanzer encourages: “The Cape wine scene is remarkably dynamic and constantly evolving.”
Although other New World regions field star players - Malbec in Argentina, or Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand – Tanzer proposes that the Cape wine industry does not benefit from a transcendent superstar grape. Rather, that South Africa fields a deep team of varieties, from Cabernet Sauvignon to Roussane, with a talented bench waiting to come into play.
The Incentive to Collaborate
Nederburg’s winemaking team’s ethos is that: “Curiosity is key to forever discovering new ways of doing things better.”
While Nederburg produces many superstar wines, including a Cabernet Sauvignon that successfully competed with the very best of them, it also dances with the unknown.
Under dominant market pressure, not many small producers have the luxury of experimenting and exploring with the same enthusiasm that their larger counterparts do.
However, the seed has been planted, and several small, family owned farms and independent winemakers have made the best use of the grapes and land available to them, despite the steep barriers to entry for independent producers. Winemakers, such as Marelise Nieman, the proprietor and winemaker of Momento Wines have heeded the call to explore the ancient vineyards of the Old World with enthusiasm. Marelise has blended a distinctive 85% Chenin Blanc and 15% Verdelho libation in Bot Rivier, using fruits grown in Bot Rivier and Darling. Her gentle, low-intervention approach to winemaking inspired her to introduce the Verdelho in order to “add some spice and vibrancy to the final wine.”
There is enough room under the sun for both heritage, producer cellars and talented, family owned and independent producers to excel.
Môreson Magia 2013 achieved 91 points and Stony Brook Ghost Gum 2012 achieved a competitively respectable 90 Points in the Cabernet Sauvignon Report mentioned earlier, alongside their more market-dominant peers. The wines we tasted were elegant with a cigar-box aroma on the nose. The Cabernets followed with a memorable, rich, smoky oak aroma.
There are few things that are more South African than a lekgotla, a common meeting point to collaborate and to find creative new ways that work for the greater good. The balance, for South Africa as it establishes itself amongst emerging markets is to find the sweet spot of collaboration.
Becca Yeamans-Irwin explains: “Collaboration and cooperation are key to maintaining a higher quality perception of an entire region, thus elevating all of the individual wineries within that region.”
Nederburg is part of our heritage, but so is the idea of opening a bottle of wine, breaking bread, or breaking new ground and working together for the greater good.