A VINE TIME | SA has fully arrived as a confident global wine player at wine show

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

Attributed to the playwright Oscar Wilde, this is a message that the SA wine industry seems to have taken to heart, given the feedback of the international judges at the recent Investec Trophy Wine Show.

The theme running through their comments was that South Africa has fully arrived as a confident global wine player with a distinctive identity, rather than an imitator of other regions.

Diemersdal winemaker Juandré Bruwer won the Investec Trophy Wine Show Champion Winemaker of the Year award, as the winemaker responsible for the greatest number of awarded wines on the competition, with two trophies, three gold medals and nine silver medals. (DANIE NEL)

The three international judges were wine journalist and author Oz Clarke of the UK, a world-leading wine expert awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by King Charles for his services to the industry. Heidi Mäkinen MW of Finland, ranked among the best sommeliers in the world, and Kenichi Ohashi MW, the first Japanese national to earn the Maser of Wine qualification, director of Japan’s biggest liquor retail group.

They were joined by eight local judges along with leading SA and international wine expert and commentator Michael Fridjhon [spelling correct], convenor of the show and chief judge.

Show convenor Michael Fridjhon, second from right, with the international judges on this year’s Investec Trophy Wine show, Oz Clarke (UK), Heidi Mäkinen (Finland), and Kenichi Ohashi (Japan). (DANIE NEL)

The international judges come with a global lens of experience tasting wines around the world and tracking the development of other countries’ wine industries, while they have also been exposed to SA wine at different stages of development of the industry.

Mäkinen, for example, returned to the Trophy Wine Show as a judge after an almost 10-year break; Clarke has been judging SA wine since the 1990s, and was a judge on the first edition of the Trophy Show 25 years ago and again in 2013; Ohashi has served on Nederburg Auction selection panels, but this was his first time as a Trophy Wine Show judge.

UK wine expert Oz Clarke shares his views on Stellenbosch’s world-class cabernet sauvignons at the judges’ feedback session after the Investec Trophy Wine Show. (DANIE NEL)

It seems fitting that the overwhelming finding that SA wine has found its feet comes in the 25^th year of the Trophy Wine Show, marking what Fridjhon says has been an “extraordinary 25 years for the Cape wine industry” since emerging from apartheid-era isolation in the late 1990s.

Clarke recalls that in the rainbow nation-optimism of the time, “although there was immense goodwill towards South Africa in the rest of the world, the SA wine world was largely complacent”, out of step with global developments and the expectations of international markets that weren’t accessible in the years before democracy.

Twenty-five years down the line, Clarke says SA winemaking has found its confidence, and he was particularly excited that SA is now putting its own stamp on wines such as syrah, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.

“Pinot Noir is not easy to get right. A lot of the work that you have done in places like Hemel-en-Aarde has created a new style of Pinot Noir. It is not like the French. It is not like the Californians. It is not like the New Zealanders. It is yours.

“You have managed to catch hold of the good parts of your history and you have created an entirely new narrative at the same time, which may have been based initially on what France does and what Australia did, but is now your own,” Clarke said.

He also singled out Stellenbosch for “making almost the most classical Cabernets Sauvignons in the whole world”.

“The rest of the world tries to overdo Cabernet, tries to over-extract it, tries to force it into activities that it does not want to be forced into, Napa Valley, for instance, modern Bordeaux, a lot of what is happening in Australia as well.”

Mäkinen echoed his view, saying: “I do think that this country has gone miles forward since the last time I was here.

“A lot of producers are realising what is really honest about SA wine, about the country and the places where the wines are made. We are seeing that they are proud of what they can do, a belief in what you do uniquely in this country and less of the comparisons to the Burgundies and Bordeaux in the wine world.

“That is something that really excites me in the world of wine, that you start to believe in what you have, instead of doing those comparisons.”

This year, she said, she was “seeing a lot more of the vineyard talking in the glass”, rather than winemaking techniques doing the talking.

Judge Kenichi Ohashi takes a moment to ponder during the Investec Trophy Wine Show judging process. (DANIE NEL)

Kenichi said this year’s entries had transformed his image of SA wine “from much more plumper, big wines … to very refined, beautiful, elegant, crystalline textures”.

He said he would have no hesitation recommending SA wines in the growing Japanese market, especially as they would go well with “delicate, refined” Japanese cuisine.

“Most of New World wine is very ripe, fruit-driven, but without savouriness, which is an essential component for our palate. South African Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chenin Blanc offer that savoury, saline sensation.

“Pinotage is one of the top appealing varieties for us. When producers manage to get the controlled rusticity in their Pinotage, it’s a unique selling point to your wines.”

As South African judge Cathy van Zyl MW, also a veteran of international judging, put it: “Our job has gotten harder and harder with every year as winemaking improves in this country.”