South Africa: Pinot Noir

These eight reds scrutinized and tasting-noted below perhaps give a reasonable snapshot of what's happening with Pinot Noir in the Cape, all sampled in London a couple of months ago. As for wine regions I've breezed through here, the producers are based in: Stellenbosch not far east of Cape Town, the Elgin Valley found about an hour southeast of the 'capital' up in the mountains; and heading further south, you come across arguably the best-known name in South African Pinot, or certainly something of a pioneer for the variety, Hamilton Russell nestling in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near the town of Hermanus on the coast; then keep going south along the coast and you'll eventually reach Cape Agulhas, the Western Cape's and South Africa's most southerly vineyard area. Getting a pattern here location and climate wise... Some of the Pinots I tasted with 14% or more alcohol seemed less balanced and accomplished, implying it doesn't suit hotter areas like the Paarl Valley as well, which is a little further inland from Cape Town than Stellenbosch (although is still mountainous). Or being picked too late.
As for quality and/or value for money, the price ranges I've indicated below are a bit vague but show these producers are generally neither expensive nor cheap in the context of good Pinot - and these ones mostly are - with a couple of quite dear bottles (that's famous names for you) and 'best value' probably coming from Strandveld winery.

The Winery of Good Hope team
from  www.thewineryofgoodhope.com

The Winery of Good Hope 2010 Radford Dale Freedom Pinot Noir, Elgin (13% alcohol) - quite delicate and has that tasty 'sweet/savoury' Pinot thing going on, with refreshing bite / light bitter twist; less concentrated than some of this batch of Pinots but is still an attractive obviously PN style. Price: UK £10-£20 (importer Les Caves de Pyrene), Eurozone €15-€30 (e.g. Cassidy Wines Ireland), USA $30-$50 (Martignetti and World Premiere Wines) and just about everywhere else by the looks of it (click on link above in photo caption then "where to buy").

Kleine Zalze 2010 Vineyard Selection Pinot Noir, Stellenbosch - a tad juicy fruity to start on the nose, moves on to nicer savoury tinged palate showing a bit of grip vs silky fruit texture. Not bad in the end.

Paul Cluver 2009 Pinot Noir, Elgin (13.3%) - maturing 'sweet/savoury' fruit aromas, elegant and tasty palate showing attractive freshness vs ageing character lingering on the finish. Good stuff. £10-£20, €15-€30 or $30-$50. Widely distributed in Europe, North America etc: see www.cluver.com.
Meerlust 2010 Pinot Noir, Stellenbosch (14%) - lovely savoury vs fruity profile, nice rounded tannins with pretty intense and powerful length; weightier wine yet stylish. £20+, €30+ or $50+ (UK/US: Maison Marques et Domaines) - more info @ www.meerlust.co.za.
Hamilton Russell Vineyards 2010 Pinot Noir, Hemel-en-Aarde Valley (13.7%) - elegant ripe berry notes with savoury / 'forest floor' edges, has nice bite combined with a little weight and subtle concentration and length; a touch of class. UK importer Hallgarten Druitt: more @ hamiltonrussellvineyards.com.
Creation Pinot Noir 2011, Hemel-en-Aarde (14.4%) - enticing 'sweet/savoury' Pinot nose, quite big and structured palate showing a hint of oak, delicious fruit though despite that alcohol lingering a bit too much on the finish. £10-£20, €15-€30 or $30-$50: widely exported, see www.creationwines.com.
Strandveld 2009 First Sighting Pinot Noir, Cape Agulhas (13.7%) - browning maturing colour with intriguing 'cheesy' mushroom tones on the nose, has quite lush 'sweet/savoury' fruit on its silky maturing palate; finishing with a bit of power vs still quite fresh actually despite those attractive ageing flavours. £7-£10, €9-€15 or $15-$30: find importers on their site.
Glen Carlou 2011 Pinot Noir, Paarl (14%) - fragrant ripe red berry notes turning to liquorice even, tinged with savoury edges; fairly punchy palate vs more delicate fruit underneath and a hint of fresh bite too. Nice but a little 'clunky' perhaps. £10-£20, €15-€30 or $30-$50. Part of the Hess Family group so widely distributed I'd imagine: www.glencarlou.co.za.


South Africa part 2: "unusual" reds (well, some of them...)
South Africa part 3: Chenin blanc, Viognier, Grenache blanc... 
South Africa archive page.

Roussillon: Domaine Rouaud update, Pézilla

Rivesaltes ageing in demijohns
From www.domaine-rouaud.com 

Previous words and wines from Domaine Rouaud can be viewed HERE (scribbled 2006 to 2008, so I've been following them for six years now). I've updated and tweaked their profile below and added some of the latest releases sampled at this year's Millésime Bio organic wine show in Montpellier a few months ago, where I talked to Sophie Rouaud...

Jérôme Rouaud and his wife Sophie were drawn to the deep south by a hazy wine dream and initially worked nine hectares of vines and grapes, which were picked for the local co-op winery. They established their own estate in 2003 (that year of heatwave after heatwave), which has since expanded to 15 ha (37 acres) lying on the distinctive clay-stoney-schist slopes found to the north of the village of Pézilla (about 10km west of Perpignan). They'd already opted for organic farming since they started out - something they were determined to do - and got full-blown 'certified' status (visions of compulsory wearing of a straight jacket while among those precious mad vines...) from the 2004 vintage. These vineyards are home to a happy mix of senior-citizen Carignan (red, white and 'grey'), born in 1949, and the other usual suspects, some of them relative babies planted ten years ago.

Before this viticultural upheaval, Jérôme worked for years in the car industry in Paris (yawn) then dramatically switched career, having been bitten by the wine bug, first to a Nicolas wine shop followed by Bordeaux university to study winemaking and viticulture. The couple moved to the Roussillon, as a job came up as a winery assistant; and finally they bought, ripped out and rebuilt an old Catalan-brick house cum cellar in sedate Pézilla. Nothing too radical on the winemaking front (which is fine) e.g. what you'd expect from any conscientious organic grower, such as using indigenous yeasts or a low sulphite policy (there's a rational and not overly technical explanation on their site about what Jérôme does and why).

Some of their wines are exported to Germany, Denmark and Sweden: get in touch for details. Where it's all going down: 7 Rue du Portal d’Amont, 66370 Pézilla-la-Rivière. Tel: 04 68 92 46 59, mobile: 06 98 17 22 81; rouaud.vigneron.66@orange.fr, www.domaine-rouaud.com.

2011 Llosawhite Côtes Catalanes(100% Maccabeu) – perfumed honeysuckle with apple notes, quite rich and lees-y vs attractive nutty 'mineral' side, quite intense finish. Good stuff: €8.50 cellar door.

2011 Barbacane Grenache Côtes Catalanes (45 year-old vines) – spicy liquorice aromas / flavours, quite soft and easy-going palate, nice drink-young style. €8.50

2010 Rive Gauche Côtes du Roussillon (80% Syrah, 20% Grenache from 35-45 year-old vines) – new wine: rustic leather edges vs dark sweet berry/cherry fruit, dry vs rich and rounded mouth-feel. Very good. €9.50

2009Têt Pourpre Côtes du Roussillon Villages (50/50 Syrah & Carignan, 45-65 year-old vines) – has a touch more oak layered with ripe black fruits with earthy edges, quite firm still with punchy finish; maybe less charming this vintage (?) in common with other 09s. €13

A few earlier vintages of this wine are HERE.

2009 EssènciaCôtes du Roussillon Villages (85% Mourvèdre, 15% Grenache from 15-60 year-old vines) – oakier still but it's rich and intense with nice fruity berry palate and savoury black olive undertones, powerful structured finish; needs a bit of time to open up fully. Very good though: €18.

Australia: Semillon

From tyrrells.com.au

I'll kick-off these random thoughts on how Australian winemakers have been quietly busy creating palate-provoking nectar out of the not terribly well-known Semillon variety (apart from in a blend with Chardy or Sauvignon blanc perhaps), by pinching a quote from Wine Australia's catalogue blurb from their big Dublin tasting a few months ago. It serves very well as a spot-on introduction: "Riesling (link takes you to a post on Aus Riesling) has a bad reputation with wine drinkers, Semillon has no reputation!"

To address this lack of knowledge, awareness or interest, there was an enthusiastic tutored tasting of Aus Semillon, going back to the 2000 vintage, led by Raymond Blake, wine editor of Ireland's Food & Wine magazine. I've tasted a few in my time, but this was a great reminder of what remarkable white wines, dry and sweet, can be made from Semillon in Australia, especially in the Hunter and Barossa Valleys and by certain wineries who really have mastered a distinctive style. Perhaps the problem is, when dry, it often makes a rather uncompromisingly 'steely' and subtle verging on plain un-obvious wine, austere even, that doesn't always reveal much without a few years bottle ageing bringing out lots of complex quirky flavours. Or, as a lush sweet wine, well, from just being very sweet really, which isn't many people's cup of grapes. Its typical very crisp acidity comes from early picking to preserve this age-bestowing freshness, which helps the wine blossom in bottle and also gives lighter alcohol levels of around 11% to 12%.

Anyway, here are my impressions of the six wines we tasted, all produced by pretty famous and widely-stocked names: Peter Lehmann, McWilliams, Tyrrell and De Bortoli. My, as ever very personal (!) tasting notes reveal the kind of sometimes unique characters, aromas and flavours that Semillon wines typically have or develop over time: toasty or toasted (yet these wines have no or little oak I believe), nutty, honeyed, oily, steely, lean, tight... Retail prices (Euro) and stockists are for Ireland, although these wines should also be readily available in the UK, US etc. Which goes to show what a bargain some of them are too.

2005 Peter Lehmann Art Series Classic Semillon Barossa (11.5% alc) - surprisingly pale for a 2005, toasted yeasty nutty and honeyed on the nose; quite rich and oily on the palate with a steely 'chalky' side too, turning creamier on the finish vs still fresh, tight and lean. Nice mix of lively, elegant and mature. €10 imported by Comans Wholesale, Dublin.

2001 Peter Lehmann Reserve Semillon Barossa (12.5% alc) - now called 'Margaret' Semillon I'm told. Not much deeper in colour really, toastier and nuttier with oily and 'charred' lees edges; rounded toasty and rich vs again quite delicate, steely and dry finish; lovely toasted maturing notes vs still crisp and lean underneath, more concentrated and finer than the above.

2005 McWilliams Elizabeth Semillon Hunter (12%) - a tad more golden perhaps, toasty yeasty honeyed tones lead on to crisp vs rounded creamy oily mouth-feel; quite complex showing good balance of toasted oaty maturing flavours vs still has steely bite. Was on "half-price" offer at Tesco for €10.

2005 McWilliams Lovedale Semillon Hunter (11.5%) - more yellowy in colour, bready yeasty aromas with delicate biscuit flavours vs crisp green fruit; lean and tight palate vs lightly oily maturity, more closed up and youthful even, long steely finish. €20+ imported by PLB Group (England).

2000 Tyrrell VAT 1 Semillon Hunter (11%) - relatively pale for its age, not very revealing at first showing light honey and apple notes; juicy steely with delicate crisp mouth-feel, zesty sherbet edges vs toasty yeasty touches on its long finish. Can't believe it's 2000 vintage, still young in some ways. Barry & Fitzwilliam, Cork.
2007 Deen de Bortoli VAT 5 Botrytis Semillon Riverina (11%) - exotic spicy apricot, sultana, orange peel and jasmine tea (!) aromas; very enticing lush nose and palate vs underlying orange zest, dried fruits and pineapple vs subtle acidity and length, rich yet elegant too. Lovely sweet wine. €10-€12 half-bottle Febvre Wines, Dublin.

More on some of these producers and lots of other Aus wine HERE.