A Generous
Celebration of Chardonnay
Every two years, De Wetshof in Robertson holds this very prestigious tasting. It is, to quote Danie de Wet: “to pay homage to South African Wine producers whose passion for Chardonnay is displayed in the quality of their wines currently in the market ... we believe that as a wine nation South Africa can now be recognized as a global force in the production of site-specific wines expressing their place of origin to the degree of excellence this variety deserves”. Visiting wine journalist Andrew Jefford was the guest speaker and he made an impassioned plea for growers to look more closely at growing site specific wines. See his speech here
Two marquees were erected, one for the tasting of 3
Method Cap Classique wines and 16 Chardonnays , two each from different region
of the Cape winelands selected by a panel lead by David Hughes, British Wine
Master Richard Kershaw and winemaker Hannes Storm. The wines were tasted blind.
And they were magnificent.
The other was for lunch prepared by Chef Garth Stroebel and his team. They have catered for this even since its inception in 2004. Lunch was five courses and we were served the wines that did not quite make it into the top 16 plus two Chardonnays from France and the Laborie Alambic Brandy. All of them were superb, as was lunch.
What impressed us most was the unstinting generosity
of spirit shown by the De Wet family in promoting all South African Chardonnays in this way.
We caught the
bus in town at 7 am. A very early start to a long but sensational day. We made
a stop at Joostenberg to collect the media who live in the winelands
And our
journey was improved by a glass or two of bubbly
On arrival we
were served an innovative mini-breakfast-in-a-glass canapé: sausage, tomato and
scrambled egg!
Anne Huchon of Morgenhof, WOSA CEO Siobhan Thompson, Arco Laarman of Glen Carlou and Gary Jordan
The Who’s Who
of the South African wine industry gather outside De Wetshof
Host Danie de Wet at the badge table
Wine for the tasting chilling on ice.
Impressively, It was all served at the perfect temperature, throughout the day
The Twelve Apostles Director Horst Frehse and his wife, Barbara
Our brigade of pouring waiters who did
their job with aplomb and efficiency
The full tasting marquee as the morning
commences
Invited Guest speaker for the day was
Andrew Jefford who is a contributing editor for Decanter and the World of Fine
Wines. Since becoming a wine writer in 1988, he has written for many British
newspapers, including the Evening Standard, The Financial Times, The Guardian
and The Times. He writes a weekly blog called Jefford on Monday for www.decanter.com and has also broadcast
extensively on wine and other subjects for BBC . Like Lynne, his original
background was in book publishing in the UK.
Table setting for the tasting
Listening with rapt attention to
Andrew Jefford
The gears between the wheels: De Wetshof Marketing
Manager Bennie Stipp and PRO Emile Joubert, who worked tirelessly
with others to put this awesome event together
Johann de Wet introduces Dave Hughes
Johann de Wet tells us why the De Wet
family hosts this event
Dave Hughes tells us how the judges
reached the order of the top 16 wines
Bolla Gerber, Cellarmaster at Groot
Constantia, introduces his 2013 Chardonnay, the first we tasted, which had a
lovely rich lime marmalade nose and a long lean elegant Constantia citrus
palate. Each winemaker presented his wine and gave us information about the site,
the soil, the production and the climate
Nice pale colour on the first two
chardonnays
Andre van Rensburg of Vergelegen
introduces his wine, Chardonnay Reserve 2012, full of peachy smoke, ending with
lemon and grapefruit
Jan Boland Coetzee’s Vriesenhof 2012
Chardonnay had whiffs of cooked loquats and apples with a clean lime and lemon
minerality with some grains of paradise on the end. Long, long flavours. He
told us his plant material was stolen 33 years ago from Beaune in Burgundy in
the era when Chardonnay was not allowed to be planted in South Africa!
Newald Marais of Kranskop produced the
best value chardonnay in the tasting which retails for R55. This 2012 wine has
orange citrus deeply layered flavours with some stony minerality and a lovely
spicy naartjie ending
Danie de Wet presented De Wetshof
Bateleur 2012. It smells of golden delicious apples and is a huge wine that
packs a punch. Citrus, spice and warmth with red apples and mineral lime ending
Johann Fourie of KWV presented the 2012 The
Mentors chardonnay. Full of golden grapes, it has a rounded palate which is
very satisfying with a dry finish of lemons, limes and Granny Smith apples
Randolph Christians of Rustenberg
introduced the 2011 Five Soldiers. Smokey with grace notes of green melon and
bacon, it is a lean complex and layered citrus panoply. The wood in in the
background supporting the wine, but not interfering. He told us it is grown on
the highest vineyards in the Cape
Gerry Wagner of Tokara presented their
Reserve Collection Stellenbosch Chardonnay as Miles Mossop is away. It's a fruit
forward wine with notes of yellow melon and butter. On the palate, yellow fruit,
lemon, peaches, some chalk, with no wood visible and warm alcohol
Gottfried Mocke presented his award
winning 2013 Reserve Chardonnay. He said there is “No terroir by truck” at
Chamonix and raised a laugh from the audience. Floral and fruit, peaches and
apricots on a very aromatic nose. Clean lean and mean crisp limes and green
apples on the palate with minerality and elegance. A wine to last? Many of
these are
Gary Baumgarten of Anthonij Rupert
Wines presented the 2012 Cape of Good Hope Serruria Chardonnay. Brioche and
butter with a whiff of smoke on nose. Lime juice, some sweetness and a little
chalk, it has nice elegance and is a balanced food wine. It comes from a clone
CY559 no one else has planted. And is from a very cool vineyard in Franschhoek,
never warmer than 30°C and has had snow in the vineyard these last two winters
David Brice of The Wine Cellar asks a
question
Carl Schultz of Hartenberg presenting The Eleanor 2013. This was one of our favourite wines of the day, but only by a
small margin as the quality of the wines was extremely high overall, including
the wines we had with lunch. It is bready with golden fruit on the nose, shy
with some slight smoke. On the mouth vanilla wood and toast with crisp limes.
Very complex and layered with chalky minerality and a lot of character and
attitude. Food wine deluxe
Gary Jordan with 2013 Nine Yards which
is full of apples and spice and warm linen on the rose, full of apples and
white peaches with a lime finish, and terroir minerality. They have white
quartz in the vineyards. Another wine to keep and mature
Kevin Grant presented our highest
scoring wine of the day, his 2013 Ataraxia. Smells of spicy apples and pears
and tastes of crisp limes lemons and chalky minerality. So French, so elegant. He
grows on 7 different soils. He didn’t pull up his vines and grow vegetables,
thankfully. He stuck to making good wine
Hannes Storm, who is moving from Hamilton Russell to make his own Storm wines
Bernhard and Fida Hess of Mimosa Lodge
in Montagu
Taking a selfie is Ultra director Mark Norrish with Kevin Grant
Johan Malan of Simonsig chatting to
Carl Schultz of Hartenberg
Johann de Wet telling us about the
wines we will be served with lunch. All the wine was served at 17°C, it was
20.5°C in the tent, thankfully on a very temperate cloudy day.
Richard Rowe of KWV with Johann Fourie
The lunch menu
The starter was a pillow of oak smoked
river salmon trout filled with avocado and fromage blanc topped with a very
fine red caviar and micro green salad. We could have Moreson, La Motte or
Puligny Montrachet Chateau de Puligny Montrachet. The Puligny sadly run out as
everyone wanted to taste it, but Peter de Wet generously went to get some more, so we did taste some. A very different style indeed from SA ‘s big Chardonnays,
mostly.
And the award of the Golden Vine went
to Luke Dale Roberts of the Test Kitchen and The Pot Luck Club. It was
presented by Lesca de Wet and Johann de Wet. It is awarded to a chef for his
contribution to the food and wine culture
Every farm involved has produced a
sample of their soil
Jeanette Bruwer of Springfield
Lourens Jonker of Weltevrede
Johann Fourie, Michael Olivier and Morné Vrey, chatting
Mr & Mrs Carel Nel of Boplaas
Carel congratulating Luke Dale Roberts
The main course was half a small
crayfish with black mussels serve with cured sweet beets, chardonnay jelly, sea
grass and the first samphire we have had in South Africa. The crayfish was not
familiar and we wondered where it came from. It had rather a tough red skin
which peeled off but was inedible.
The two French wines available for
tasting with lunch
Kevin Grant enjoying the day
Time to get back on the bus! Bennie
Stipp making sure we have lots of supplies for the trip home. Some madman
trying to get some NOW. Some of us had to leave without having had the cheese
or dessert courses as other members of the media wanted to get back to town
early. A pity. It was a very, very good event, one of the best this year
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
The starter was a pillow of oak smoked
river salmon trout filled with avocado and fromage blanc topped with a very
fine red caviar and micro green salad. We could have Moreson, La Motte or
Puligny Montrachet Chateau de Puligny Montrachet. The Puligny sadly run out as
everyone wanted to taste it, but Peter de Wet generously went to get some more, so we did taste some. A very different style indeed from SA ‘s big Chardonnays,
mostly.
