Youths everywhere! All around me they are pushing and
shouting! I have to get out of
here! As I struggle amongst the human
tide I spot a bit of fresh air. At last
I reach it. Free at last! Momentarily
free at last. The crush of bodies
happened at the Stellenbosch Wine Festival and I was there, doing
research.
The Stellenbosch Wine route is the oldest one in the
country. It is not an actual route, if
you insist on following it as a route you will muck around the University-and-Wine
town like the Flying Dutchman (1) tasting wine all over. Visitors from up country
(2) will often
express a desire “To do the wine route.”
146 wineries, say at least 5 wines per place and your liver is
undonatable. The wine route is an
association of wine producers that perpetrate some collective marketing. To be fair they also set standards. Not for the wine, but opening hours and the
like.
Back to festival day.
Arriving early helps as students are not morning persons. Neither am I and I had to drive 150km to get
there, but wine is a powerful motivator.
After 10 years of attending these shows I still have not settled on a
strategy. Do you taste the ones you
can’t afford? The old favourites, the
supermarket ones, some you never had before?
The Runner and her play group joined me for a bit and we started on bubbles. You should always start with bubbles. I would cope with Mondays a lot better if I
could start it with bubbles. I tried to
show her some of my favourites, including Thelema. The place was filling up by this time,
limiting the choices.
What differentiate this festival from the rest are the
master classes. I went to a vertical
tasting of Simonsig’s Red Hill Pinotage presented by winemaker Debbie
Thompson. She made all but the
1998. Pinotage grows like a weed, she
says. You have to control it to get the
best results. They use bush wines up to
35years old. The bush wines and
trellised wines are vinified separately then blended in the wood. They pick over a three month period to get
the different components of the wine right.
Pinotage skin can be very bitter, so you have to be careful not to
extract too much juice. As the years
progressed, they started picking them riper (25-26 balling). Whilst the ripeness leads to better flavours,
the higher sugar gets converted into higher alcohol. Thompson argues you should not be scared of
the alcohol as it can be balanced by the fruit, but supermarkets are reluctant
to stock much higher than 14% alcohol wines.
For export to Europe, the higher alcohol means more duty, so importers
don’t like it either. But we have all
this sunshine! What is a grape supposed
to do? Hold back?
All this from a very educational Thompson. She also commented that merlot is very
popular in Durban. Simonsig doesn’t make
a merlot, so the East Coast is not a big market for them.
 |
| The mentioned sunglasses style |
It was a good, unseasonably warm day, with lots of youthful
legs on show. A lot of them even female
legs. So at least some compensation from
the throng of humanity that impeded my perambulations. Students as humanity are maybe stretching the
concept. Lots of people. An overwhelming amount of people. And a lot of them wore the stupid, Maya the
Bee, sunglasses. If someone would just slap them silly and
step on those glasses. Save them
embarrassment in a few years time when they revisit the glut of cell phone
photos.
Such was my crowdophobia that I left at 14:00, leaving half
the university still trying to get in.
Inevitably I was drawn up Helshoogte to my vinous home of
excellence. They told me at the festival
that there are still merlot and merlot reserve left at Thelema. They didn’t lie. But then again it was at the Thelema stall
that I acquired the knowledge. Whilst
there I managed to taste all that they had left. I wrote about this farm’s wines on numerous
occasions and I will continue to do so for the grape juice they wrap around their
alcohol supplies me with moments of salubrious excellence. (3) Cabernet, Merlot, Shiraz and some white
blends made up the purchase du jour. One
half full boot, one quivering master card, one salivating gob.
With an eye on the return visit to snap up the new releases
of the Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays a modicum of restraint kept the
purchase down. Even so, I asked the
knowledgeable Marelise (4) not to tell me the amount. She obliged, even folding the credit card
slip so I won’t see. But what price delectation? (5)
Like an arsonist I returned to the scene of the crime early
in September. It turns out the folks at
Thelema has only one goal. My financial
ruin. Plus maybe that of my liver. This year see again additions to the
range. Two sweet wines, a deeply
delightful red blend and a few blends from Elgin. The Rabelais red blend (2007) just blew me away. At R300 odd rand a bottle it should. It should also be kept from the likes of
me. The problem is not so much
affordability, it is the area I have for keeping the stock. These wines from Mr Webb improve with a bit
of bottle age and thus take up almost 30% of my storage space inhibiting
purchases from other producers. OK,
sorry, I thought I could get away with it, but clearly that is rubbish. The other wines just stay in their
boxes. Although quite expensive, the
trip is always rewarding.
When I do share the Thelemas the usual result is
delight. The wine with the most
favourable result? The cheapest
one. The R45 Muscat de Frontignan. My dad and Mr Webb’s mother in law called it
“Swembadwyn”. Wine for drinking next to
the pool. It is technically off-dry, but
just this side of it, and as such a standout.
Balance is perfect. Scarily drinkable.
(1) And
if you tasted enough you will probably drive to earn that nickname
(2) Home
to places like the Holy Ground of Loftus Versfeld
(3) Super
pompous sentence!
(4) Also
has a sumptuous set of wheels on her.
(5) Quite
a lot as it turned out.
