To have the opportunity to go back to 1996 and taste
all the eight L’Avenir Pinotages which have reached the top 10 in the ABSA Top
10 Pinotage competition over the last few years was a very special opportunity.
We were very fortunate to have Mauritian-born former owner Marc Wiehe with us.
He bought the farm in 1992. It had been growing grapes for Nederburg in Paarl.
Pharmacist Francois Naude, who had more passion for making wine than for
pushing pills, was hired as winemaker and a legacy was born. By 2004, no
Pinotage had been named in the top ten in the annual Top Ten Pinotage
Competition as frequently as L'Avenir, with seven out of eight vintages in the
Top Ten.
Marc Wiehe sold the farm in 2005 to French winemaker,
Chablisien Michel Laroche. In 2010 Laroche merged with the Jeanjean family and
L'Avenir fell under the umbrella of the AdVini group, one of the largest wine
producers in France.
We started with the 1996, which still shows soft
fruit, soft tannins and has the Pinot parent peeping through, more than the
Cinsaut. It still has some time to offer! It’s an old style, but has lovely
fruit. We then tasted through 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2011.
All these Pinotages were made by Francois Naude, who guided us through the
tasting, with the exception of the 2011, which was made by the current
winemaker Dirk Coetzee. You can see the progression of these wines as the vines
aged and matured and the change in style as the years went by and more was
learned about how to treat this difficult grape, in the vineyard, in the cellar
and in the bottle. L’Avenir produces great Pinotage.
The tasting was held in their tasting room and it was
followed by supper on the terrace – thankfully with lots of space heaters. The
food had been catered by Bertus Basson’s staff and was delicious.
Pieter Louw welcomed us with a glass of the new L’Avenir Blanc de Blanc Methode Cap Classique or the better-known pinotage-based Rosé
The wines we tasted
Tables all set up in the Tasting Room
Current winemaker Dirk Coetzee introduces
Francois Naude, who joined Marc Wiehe
when he bought the farm in 1992. It was
Francois' first wine job; he was trained and had practised as a pharmacist, but wine was his
passion. He inherited a 50 year old block of bush vine Pinotage on the farm and
had to learn how to work with it. They also
planted new pinotage vines. The old
vineyard has now gone. Francois was also able to plan the farm as he wanted and
has played a huge part in the style of L’Avenir’s wines. He made the first pinotage in 1994.
Mark Wiehe
who sold the Farm to La Roche in 2005. It is now owned by Advini
Francois tells us about his time as
winemaker at L’Avenir. He is now a consultant to the farm. He says he looks for
good balance, good fruit and consistency in wine
We began with the 1996
The tasting proceeds. We could see the progression through the
years as the vines matured and the new pinotage took centre stage from the
older one. The description of warm sweet
fruit kept recurring. 2000, 2001 and
2002 are showing really well. The 2000 is almost Cabernet-like on the nose, but
big, intense, spicy and plummy on the palate. Lynne scored the 2002 18.5 and her description is: Violets, macaroons, raspberry and cherry on
the nose. Very elegant, pretty and quite
French in character. It shows some forest floor, warm sweet fruit with lovely
spice and pine nuts. Elegance and depth. Very close to a good Pinot Noir with
some cassis on the end. (And this from a
cautious Pinotage drinker)
Sales and Marketing Manager Barend Barnard
The line up
Christian Eedes, Co-owner and editor at Winemag.co.za with
Francois
Time for dinner. The menu
Another L’Avenir wine for tasting with
dinner, their excellent 1992 Cabernet
Chef lines up the food to go out
First course: a well flavoured steak tartare topped with
radishes beetroot , pickles and spicy nasturtium leaves
Dinner was set up on the terrace
Barend brings us more L’Avenir wines
to drink with dinner. Thank heavens we were staying the night in the Lodge
Francois with photo-journalist Samarie
Smith
We all get to know each other
Dessert was a vanilla pannacotta
topped with zesty lemon and orange ice cream
Winemakers discussing the wines at the end of a great evening
M. Wiehe in fine fettle
and comparing stories of the old and new
