such as Mallaga, Vintint, Moselle, Vin de Grave, Rheinwein, Rota, and even Boene—that is, Beaune.
While varietalism is a strong force in South Africa, monovarietalism is a little less so, as there is also a tendency toward producing blended wines. The tendency is notable, for example, in the use and image of the red Bordeaux varieties. A rough estimate, based on the summary of wine ratings in the 2013 edition of Platter’s Guide, suggests that there are approximately equal numbers of varietal Cabernet Sauvignons and blends using a significant proportion of Cabernet. This seems to be very different from the situation in, say, California and Australia. In the Cape, the authority of the Bordeaux example would appear to be simply greater. In California varietal consciousness appears to imply that if varietalism is good, then monovarietalism is better. In South Africa there can be observed an evident pride in including all five of the main Bordeaux black grapes—more than a few wines even allude to this in their names (De Toren Fusion V, Constantia Glen Five, Raka Quinary, and Gabriëlskloof Five Arches among them), in something of a triumph of tradition over terroir.
This tendency to blend is nothing more than that: there are probably more varietal Syrahs than Cabernet Sauvignons, for example, but fewer blends based on Syrah than on Cabernet. But where an estate produces both a varietal Cabernet (or Merlot or Cabernet Franc, for that matter) and a Bordeaux blend, the latter is likely to be the flagship wine and to take first choice of grapes when it comes to assembling the cuvées. The general rule in the Cape seems to be that wines labeled simply with the name of the property (like Morgenster and Vergelegen) or with an invented name (Buitenverwachting Christine, Mvemve Raats de Compostella) are blends, while the varietal Cabernets are usually named as such.
A factor that must have played some role in all this is that generic naming based on European models was dealt a heavy blow in 1935. In that year the so-called Crayfish Agreement between the South African and French governments involved the dropping here of names and words associated with French appellations in exchange for a commitment to buy South African crayfish. (It’s pleasant, incidentally, to note than an exemption was given to Chateau Libertas as it had been on the market since 1932; it is now one of the most venerable of local wine labels—and still spelled without a circumflex on the first a of Chateau.) The names of German vineyards remained to be plundered, however, and increasingly were—hardly surprisingly, since the German influence on winemaking here has been strong. Even now many popular wines are marketed (only locally, of course) under such long-established names as Kupferberger Auslese and Grünberger Stein. Stein even became a generic description for off-dry or semisweet white wine, inevitably causing some confusion because the more general name for Chenin Blanc remained Steen until comparatively recent years. But in Fairest Vineyards by Kenneth Maxwell, the first near-complete list and description of all Cape wines, published in 1966, the only French that creeps in is the occasional Vin Rouge, Vin Blanc, and Rosé, alongside a few Chiantis and the Germans. Apart from the many “Sherries,” the remainder mostly go simply by the name of the producer either alone or with a varietal appendage or with a more-or-less fanciful name.
Before the Wine of Origin legislation of 1973 there were no controls over varietal naming. Such had been the misuse of variety names that restrictions were introduced gradually; for instance, a requirement that a wine had to include at least 75 percent of a variety in order to be given that variety’s name was phased in over a period of years. Today, however, the international standard of 85 percent is observed. When a South African producer wishes to indicate on a label the different varieties that have gone into a blend, this is a matter of bureaucracy and paperwork—meaning that in practice, details of blends are not always given. Where they are, there is no requirement to indicate percentages, but the varieties must be given in descending order according to their proportions: it is not unusual for a producer to have a wine called Shiraz-Merlot one year and be obliged to change the name to Merlot-Shiraz the next, if the majority component has changed. If the varieties are listed, then usually all must be listed (though there are provisions for the smallest contributors to be omitted).
RED WINE VARIETIES
THE BORDEAUX BLACK GRAPES
Cabernet Sauvignon
In a brief discussion of Cabernet Sauvignon in the first (1980) edition of the annual Platter Guide, it is unquestioningly remarked that it “produces wines hard and astringent in youth. . . . A minimum of seven years ageing should be given a full-bodied cabernet to do it justice.” How times have changed! There certainly are some local wines that will benefit from seven years or longer in bottle, but comparatively few that are not made with the hope of giving at least some pleasure when they are released a few years after bottling. In the 1980s and into the 1990s (but seldom nowadays), serious red wines tended to be offered for sale only three or four years from their vintage date, and the advantages of further maturation were obvious to equally serious wine-lovers. Even at a modest level, Cabernets were expected to improve.
It is uncertain when Cabernet was introduced to the Cape vineyard. When it was being grown with some seriousness at Groot Constantia in the last decades of the nineteenth century, the claim was made that it had been growing there for about fifty years. During the first half of the twentieth century it gained a good deal of prestige, even though most of the wines associated with Cabernet were blended—above all with Cinsaut, ostensibly to “soften” the wine, but also to eke out the small quantities available. One of the most famous wines of the mid twentieth century was the GS Cabernet Sauvignon made experimentally in 1966 and 1968 by or for (details remain uncertain) George Spies, production director at Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery. This bore a significant “100%” beneath the name of the variety on the minimalist label, testifying to the unusualness of the percentage, and also probably alluding to what was probably part of Spies’s experiment: to show that Cape Cabernet could make a valid wine by itself. The wine is still splendidly alive now—as are some older so-called Cabernets.
Plantings started to increase through the 1970s, but even by 1990 it remained under 4 percent of the national vineyard. Paarl and Stellenbosch had and continue to have the largest Cabernet plantings, but it is to be found virtually everywhere to some extent, such is its comparatively forgiving nature and its reputation for quality. There is a great deal of high-cropping Cabernet churned out, for example, by the cooperatives of the warmest regions (from the Swartland to Robertson); these wines are usually just about acceptable, adequately fruity and ripe, often with the expected pseudo-serious gloss supplied by oak chips but with tannins reined in by clever winemaking. Particularly at that level, no customers expect to have to wait a few years for tannins to soften before drinking their Cabernets.
The same truth applies at more ambitious levels too, in most instances, although some of the most classic, such as Vergelegen’s, can be austere in their youth. But the majority of the best, while they should improve with at least five years in bottle, are made to provide satisfaction at release: with forward fruit, ripely smooth, and soft tannin and acid structures. If the expensive new oak is still very obvious, as it often is—well, many of the customers expect that and, sadly, welcome it as a sign of quality, or at least of price. These are, in any case, truths common to all red wines and also hardly unique to the Cape. Tannic or early-charming, Cabernet Sauvignon remains undoubtedly the grandest of the Cape’s red wine grapes, its prestige enhanced by its association with some of the finest red blends—though challenged these days by some Syrahs and a few Pinot Noirs.
Cabernet remains comfortably ahead of Syrah as the most planted red variety in the Cape, although at the end of 2011 it was down a little from its peak in 2004, but still more than double the hectarage of fifteen years previously. In 2000, well over 40 percent of the vines were under four years of age; now, as the vineyards mature, that figure is less than 3 percent. There are now more than 12,000 hectares planted, nearly half of them in the Stellenbosch-Paarl heartland.
Merlot
Merlot’s critical reputation in the Cape is even more uneasy than it is in, say, California
