Episode 7 - Unwinding by Peter May

PETER HAPPILY UNWINDS
I've just bought my first quality wine with a screwcap. This is no big deal to New Zealanders whose wineries have been championing this closure for years, but for over thirty years screw top wines have, for me, been synonymous with cheap plonk. When I was living in Sweden the state monopoly preferred to ship in wine by bulk and bottle it in standard screw topped bottles. When emptied bottles could be returned and put in a machine that would check they were standard bottles and return a couple of kroner per bottle. All wine was expensive, and you had to pay a considerable sum to get a wine bottled by the producer in a real cork.

One time I met a couple of students who'd had a holiday job pumping out the tankers when they arrived at the harbour. After they told me what they found among the dregs at the bottom I started paying that considerable sum for my wine.

Having a screwcap didn't prevent off wine. I returned one bottle of sour wine whose neck was chipped and hadn't made an air tight seal with the cap.

But when I saw Villa Maria Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2002 in Oddbins at £10.99 I immediately bought it despite its screw cap. I look forward to tasting it and seeing if I can detect any difference. Of one thing I am confident - it won't be corked.

MURRAY IN SA WINE
Which reminds me that the long delayed October issue of South Africa's wine magazine arrived last week. The letters page featured one from wineoftheweek.com columnist Murray Almond. It will be no surprise that his subject was screw caps. In brief, he's for them.

DEUTZ SPARKLES
UK's Consumer Association announced the result of their tasting of Champagnes and sparkling wines on 5 December 2002. Newspaper headlines made much of Tesco supermarket's own label Champagne coming top, while grandes marques including Bollinger, Moët & Chandon, and Veuve Clicquot didn't make the top 10.

The only non Champagne in the Top 10 was Deutz Marlborough Cuvee New Zealand, Oddbins £10.99

Twenty-four Champagnes and 11 sparkling wines were tasted by a panel including wine writers, buyers and two masters of wine. Click here for the full winners list.

BABICH WIN IN OZ
Babich Winemakers Reserve Pinotage 2002 won a Blue/Gold at the Sydney International Wine Competition 2003 in Australia. Over 1900 wines from 15 countries were entered. Blue/Gold is awarded to the top 10% of winning wines. Unusually they are judged with food.

LETTERS
One delight of writing for the web is the emails one receives. Among the hundred that daily promise me larger genitals, bigger breasts, cheap drugs, and millions of dollars from deceased African dictators are gems like this, from Geoff Pollock in London, Ontario, Canada

Geoff says he'd be interested in swapping stories with other readers. Email him at gpollock.mba2002@ivey.ca.

And said in response to last months column Craig Thomson from the Kiwi Wine Fan Club at http://www.kiwiwinefanclub.co.nz writes:-

INTERNATIONAL PINOTAGE TASTING LEAVES SA WITH A SOUR TASTE
I hosted a Pinotage Club tasting in London in November. We tasted nine wines in three flights. Each flight comprised one Pinotage each from California, New Zealand and South Africa.

In order to make the tasting objective the wines were served blind. I wrapped the bottles in paper, labelled the three flights with letters A, B & C, shuffled the bottles, then left the room while my partner then entered the room, shuffled the bottles again and numbered the wines in each flight from 1 -3. When I opened them at the venue, I turned my head and threw the cork away without looking at it. Thus no-one at the tasting, including me, knew which wine we were tasting. And only I knew which wines were being tasted beforehand.

We gathered under the chandeliers of The Civil Service Club conference room. One attendee was Nicos Neocleous who kindly agreed to share his notes of this tasting.

We used Central London Wine Society marking, which uses a scale of ranging from 1=faulty to 7=fantastic and each person discussed their thoughts on the wine before giving their marks and the wine being unveiled.

Flight A

A1
Dark bright cherry red, sweet clean nose, very easy and pleasing to drink, soft and velvety and redolent of plums and pepper. Spicy, bright tones. Easily a 5

Nicos writes - A deep cherry red with quite slow running 'legs'. A pepper and plum nose leads to a short acidic taste with little fruit and an alcoholic finish. My overall impression is that the colour and nose promises more than the wine delivers. A generous 4.

A2
Good bright colour, but - oh dear - what an earthy nose - is it corked? It is dumb and closed, sour and slightly dusty in the mouth. One effect of corkyness is masking of fruit and flavour. No-one else thinks it's corked and I don't get that damp cardboard taste. I'll give it the benefit of doubt, and give it a very generous 4

Nicos writes - A similar cherry red as above. The nose was a wow, both good and bad. After a while, I likened it to a hypothetical mix of pine and lavatory cleaner. Others mentioned drains, obviously not a positive attribute. It had soft tannins, some acidity decent length with a bitter finish. Another generous 4.

A3
Bright clear colour, lovely spicy warm mouth feel. Black pepper, peppermint and soft black fruits. Some warmth - maybe high in alcohol? Who cares - its delicious. An easy 6

Nicos writes - Clearly the deepest red of the first flight of three wines. I detected liquorice, spice, new oak vanilla (American barrels?), and bananas. A couple of people mentioned peppermint as well. It tasted very ripe, weighty in the mouth with good acidity running through it. Clearly a 5.

The groups combined marks averaged

A3 = 5, A1 = 4 , A2 = 3.2

So what were they

I unveiled them in reverse order. To our surprise A2 was Beyerskloof, Stellenbosch 2002 13% (SA) - winemaker - Beyers Truter

A1 was Te Awa Farm Winery Longlands 2000 13.5% (NZ) - winemaker - Jenny Dobson

And the winner of the first flight was A3 - Phoenix Vineyards, Napa Valley 1998 13.8% (CA) - winemaker - Aaron D Bader

Flight B

B1
Lovely cherry colour, strange taste - bubblegum, peardrops, some licquorice and a hint of acetone. Reminds me of when I tasted a fermenting Pinotage direct from the tank . I've had Pinotages like this in the past, but it's a type that is not often seen today. Fine as a teenage party wine, but I think I can only give it a 3

Nicos writes - Light purple with a pink rim. I detected black pepper, bananas, cherries, some tasters even said pear drops (boiled sweets). Although seemingly ripe, the taste was short with decent acidity and tannins that were not harsh. My score 3.

B2
Umm, there's that earth smell again, albeit muted, but it makes me wonder if this is a SA wine? Bitter plums, some banana and a rather burned feel. I'll give it 4

Nicos writes - A deep cherry red led to an earthy mix of bananas and cocktail cherries. On the palate this wine was barely noticeable and I noted it was only "…good for glugging". Not bad if that's what you want with a pizza. My score 4.

B3
Very very dark colour, almost black. Sweet cherry berry nose. Cinnamon, good balance of acid and fruits, with a fruity uplift at the end. Oh yes, this is the best of the three, a definite 5

Nicos writes - A very dark, nearly opaque red that seemed to have some bottle age. My nose detected bananas, nail varnish, and new American oak. It tasted lush and plummy with a good finish. My score 5.

After the surprise result of the first flight the result of the second there was intense interest as the covers came off

With an average 3 was B1 - Lincoln Vineyards Winemakers Series, Gisborne 2002 14.5% (NZ) - winemaker - Justin Papesch

With an average 3.9 was B2 - Fairview Coastal Region 2000 13.5% (SA) - winemakers - Anthony de Jager & Charles Back

Which meant B3 was the winner with 4.5 and was Steltzner Vineyards, Stags Leap, Napa Valley 1999 14.4% (CA) - winemaker - Dick Steltzner

Flight C

C1
Sweet nose with a whiff of alcohol which leads me to think it might be heavy, but its pleasantly light with redcurrant fruit and a refreshing acidity. This'll be great with food. Oh yes, there's that earthy taste again. On tonights performance, it must be from the Cape. A good 5

Nicos writes - The colour was back to a medium cherry red. It smelt very strongly of nail varnish, green bananas, while others commented on earthy qualities. It tasted of fresh cherries and acidity with a decent finish. My score 4.

C2
Bright red colour, muted nose. Pleasant, but seems closed and lacking a little in mid-palate. Some tobacco leaf. I'll give it 4

Nicos writes - Surprisingly it was the lightest colour of the third flight. The nose was closed, although with some effort I detected earth and a dash of banana. It tasted limp, short, closed with no obvious fruit, and was certainly not my favourite of the night. Maybe an off bottle? My score 4.

C3
Dark black red. Fills the mouth with a serious complex meld of tobacco, plum, redcurrants and black cherry with a pleasingly minty uplift at the end. There's a lingering aftertaste. This is delicious, an easy 6

Nicos writes - A very deep cherry red, thick legs, with a hint of brown ageing through the body. Was this the oldest wine? On the nose was a strong whiff of bananas, pear drops, cocktail cherries. It tasted like liquid morello cherries, with bright acidity. I personally thought that this wine was slightly over the hill in terms of drinking, but I know some people prefer this maturity in their wines. My score 4.

By this round almost everyone thought C1 was from South Africa and C3 was from California, and so it proved to be

With 3.5 marks was C1 - Neethlingshof Estate Lord Neethling 1998 14% (SA) - winemaker - Philip Constandius

With an average 4.3 marks was C2 - Sutter Ridge Winery, Amador County 1999 13% (CA) - winemaker - John Bree

And winning this flight with and average 4.5 was C3 -

Babich Winemakers Reserve, Gimblett Road Vineyard, Hawke's Bay 2000 13.5% (NZ) - winemaker - Adam Hazeldine

Overall, the results were

The results of evening surprised me, but does it mean anything? One swallow doesn't make a summer but on these results South Africa faces serious competition on its home turf.

I put what I thought of as the 'big hitters' in the last flight. Neethlingshof was a Pinotage Top 10 Winner, Veritas Double Gold and IWSC Gold & Pinotage Trophy winner. Babich was IWSC Silver and the 1999 vintage won at the last International tasting in the Cape. I'd been impressed with the Sutter Ridge when I'd previously tasted it. The other flights were what I had as far as NZ and CA and I'd chosen two SA wines from winery's with a fine record and which I personally enjoyed many times in the past.

Another surprise is, that while the first flight our guesses of origin were evenly spread out, on the second flight over half of us identified all three and for the third flight everyone correctly guessed the origin of the wines.

I am aware that I have tasted very few New Zealand Pinotages, but those few show New Zealand can take on South Africa any time they want to.

Thanks are due to Aaron Baader, Peter Fredatovitch, Tracey Keys, Martin Tutty & Doug Wregg for supplying wines.

Wines were sourced as follows

Babich Winemakers Reserve - wine courtesy Martin Tutty, Babich Wines Ltd. UK importers are Percy Fox & Co.
Beyerskloof - Oddbins
Fairview - Sainsbury
Lincoln Vineyards - wine courtesy Peter Fredatovitch of Lincoln Vineyards. Not currently available in UK.
Neethlingshof Estate Lord Neethling 1998 - wine courtesy of Tracey Keys, Wine Insider Limited, Tel: 020 8810 8300 www.wineinsider.net tracey@wineinsider.net. Buy wine at SA prices and let Wine Insider take care of its importation to the UK or buy their choices.
Phoenix Vineyards - wine courtesy Aaron Baader, Phoenix Vineyards. Not exported.
Steltzner Vineyards - winery. Not exported.
Sutter Ridge Winery - winery. Not exported.
Te Awa Farm Longlands 2000 - wine courtesy of UK importer Doug Wregg at Les Caves de Pyrene Dwregg@aol.com & Te Awa Farm Winery

If you have been, thanks for reading

© Peter May
7 December 2002

Any feedback? Send it to Peter.