The latest climate change predictions are dire news for the Western Cape. Suggesting drier and warmer conditions, the egg-heads reckon that any non-irrigated crop is doomed. The wheat industry is singled out to be hardest hit, but vines will also face a trial by solar fire, critically in those areas where unirrigated vineyards still exist.
Warmer conditions also mean that the current trend towards fuller and more alcoholic wines is not going to end anytime soon. But with more and more people blanching at wine with 15 to 16 degrees alcohol, the producers need to get creative. Revised root stocks for slower fruit growth, new grape varieties more suited to warm climates, yeasts that are less productive – all these partial solutions are being investigated.
Arguably the most invasive solution is the use of technology to remove alcohol from the finished wine. Continue reading ‘What wine is to be’
As a wine journalist, I am spoilt. Leisurely launches at beautiful estates, conversation with leading wine experts, lunches at fine restaurants.
Changes to the tried and tested – a tasting followed by lunch – are welcome after a while, so when I got an invitation to a fashion show linked to the launch of a wine (Long Neck) and a cellular phone, off I went to see how it can be done “otherwise”.
Refreshing as it was that the crowd was big, packed with beautiful people (only in the shallowest sense, my fellow local wine writers) and that the air tingled with excitement; I began to grow uneasy when nothing had happened 45 minutes after the advertised starting time. The Long Neck wines did flow, but with the exception of the chenin blanc the whites were better than the water at the bar only because the water cost R8. The reds were remarkable in that I would be hard pressed to tell the varieties apart in a blind tasting – they were all “light red” in colour and flavour.
The fashion show saved the day, for an hour, then it was back to the nebulous and non-directed meanderings of trays of vague wines… “Why am I here?” was not existential, for once.
So often, wine awards seem disconnected to the pleasures of actually drinking a bottle of the stuff. This is simply the result of the “monster-bias” that happens in line-up tastings, where the big wines overshadow and overpower the wines of supple charms and delicate flavours.
Over the weekend, I tried the Fairview Solitude Shiraz 2004, which is a John Platter five star wine. It deserves the accolade, one of many others for this wine. Bountiful fruit, a medium body (though packed with dense layers) and good length make this a shiraz that drinks in a most balanced and satisfying way.
A glass left standing just so even tasted great the next day at lunch time. If only more SA shiraz displayed this restraint and delicacy, instead of opting for the raging power/big alcohol model that’s preferred. The best shirazes are medium and soft, instead of heavy and jammy.
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