As international wines become collector’s items never to be drunk, Melvyn Minnaar wonders what’s happening in the local industry
They’re tasted well enough, most likely from little tulip-shaped tasting glasses. But then they’re deftly ejected from the taster’s mouth into what has been known as a spittoon since Queen Victoria. The examiner moves on to the next wine on show. He doesn’t drink.
It is this theatrical setting – with the added intrigue of tasting the wines blind – which establishes the winners of South Africa’s top vino accolades, such as the double-gold Veritas Award. It is also the way Wine magazine star-ratings, the Ten Top Pinotages, the annual Diner’s Club Winemaker of the Year Award and a host of other quality evaluations are made.
No one expects the experts actually to drink the wine. That is left to the eventual buyer of the product – on the recommendations of the judges. But does the cork on such masterpieces really get drawn? And who does it?
Judging from the hoopla surrounding international wine auctions, prime wine often simply remain, well, in the bottle – to be sold to the next collector for another “record-breaking price”. When Andrew Lloyd-Webber flogged his cellar for millions a couple of months ago, observers seriously questioned whether he ever had any intention of genuinely drinking his wine.
While South Africa isn’t in the big auction leagues yet (other than the romantically ancient Groot Constantia sweet wines), local auctions such as Nederburg and the Cape Independent Winemakers’ Guild have crowned some indigenous gems with selling prices which only well-heeled devotees would or could pay. This has established a new breed of South African “up-market” collector yuppies and company grandees.
With the increasing pressure on our wine stocks owing to export (as bulk South African supply), local auction prices are clearly to rise substantially.
The lingering question, however, remains: are these wines drunk? Cynics will wonder by whom, and whether these are knowledgeable drinkers.
There’s an anomaly here. A basic premise of collecting wine is that it will improve with keeping, or, at least, that it will not deteriorate.
In the romantic old world of, for example, premium French wines, such collector’s items only come into their own after years of maturation – with the added value of financial worth. These days, spurred on by quick-buck capitalism, wines are made to be drunk sooner rather than later.
A close reading and monitoring of local evaluations – such as the best from John Platter’s famous annual guide, David Hughes’s new and highly readable Hughes on Booze or Wine’s top rankings – more often than not reveal quick-faders and has-beens among the erstwhile champions.
However, accolades from the experts and the fancy awards remain instantly successful marketing tags.
The friendly Robertson Co-op Rooiberg’s Pinotage has always been an enjoyable big, earthy wine with a specific following. Then last month, the 1995 vintage got into the big time as one of the “Top Ten” of the recent Pinotage Producers’ Association competition. The R13 bottle disappeared off the shelves overnight!
Few would doubt that Gyles Webb is the country’s top winemaker. Just about all his wines get the highest rating by Platter and he has walked off with every top local award. His reputation – added to by a particularly brilliant 1997 vintage – saw his Thelema Sauvignon Blanc sold out within days after release in July.
Webb also holds the record for the highest price paid for wine at the Cape Independent Winemakers’ Guild auction. Last year his Thelema Cabernet Reserve 1993 fetched R2 100 for a case of 12 bottles.
At R175, this is not a bottle of wine one would gulp from styrofoam cups while watching rugby. The good news is that it will last in that collector’s cellar – according to Platter, for probably up to 15 years.
Like all Thelema cabernets, it has a specific identity of rich fruitiness, a complexity of elegance with touches of blackcurrant, plum, chocolate and new clone mint, and fine-tuned ripe tannins.
While the 1993 was the delight of a Hong Kong buyer last year, the 1997 auction released some of the 1994 Thelema Cabernet Reserve on the local market through purchases by Makro. Watch out for it, check the selling price – and savour it!