Most winemakers would agree that we don’t practise extreme winemaking in the Cape. Our glorious sunshine and diverse soils offer bountiful opportunity to make good wine and it’s only in rare years when nature throws enough of a tantrum to rubbish most of our wines.
The onset of rain at the time when grapes are about to become fully ripe is a disaster, diluting flavour and encouraging rot to set in. Many French appellations wait in dread for this occurrence, since their harvest coincides with much cooler weather than ours. One French appellation in particular is so worried about the arrival of late rain that they have planted exclusively early-ripening varieties.
This appellation also happens to be in the sub-tropics, perched high on volcanic cliffs, and vying with rum as the locals’ favourite tipple, so as you can imagine, the weather is only one of their challenges. The island of Reunion has a number of small growers around the mountain village of Cilaos, and a number of them have formed the “chai du Cilaos” where you will find the better quality wine.
You will also find boxes of dried lentils, another local speciality that’s planted between the rows of vines in winter. Another interesting plant to take up a few of their rows is our very own pinotage. As an early-ripener, the growers have stuck pinotage into this volcanic soil along with a Catholic mix of other vines – a shotgun approach against the vagaries of any given vintage year.
The onset of rain here isn’t a case of few showers, but the arrival of tropical cyclones, and as you can imagine, it’s hard to pick a bunch of grapes in sideways rain, assuming you are able to stand. The vineyards here are all planted between 600 and 1200 metres, tiny pockets of terraced vines hewn out of the searing valleys and ridges. As a relatively recently created landmass, the island is being eroded at a geologically fast rate and the result is some of the most picturesque landscapes you can imagine.
In France, the size of all appellations is controlled by law. The winemakers of Reunion, France, sitting on a modest 11 hectares, may only plant 20 hectares in total, so it would seem it is not only the weather against them. The chai du Cilaos has recently released its first vintage of Chenin Blanc which is a rather decent wine in any line-up. I also tasted a playful rosé from pinot noir and malbec and a few other simple table wines from mongrel varieties. Their red, made from the same varieties as the rosé, was sold out at 9 euros a bottle.
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