One Year On- A year of the Grape Press

 

Hey Everyone,

So I have now come to the first year anniversary (well a bit past it) since I first posted. A lot changes in a year; graduation, and amazing summer in St. Andrews and the United States, time spent working in New York City and helping set up a new company in the Auld Grey Toon. Visa problems for myself - and it seems most of my friends and now I am at new heights in my wine experience. It has certainly been an interesting year for the Grape Press and myself.

I have been in South Africa now for 8 days and my experiences have been tremendous. I have seen the most beautiful landscapes I've ever laid eyes on, I've tasted some amazing food and meat some amazing people. My objective; to explore the wines of this country has been well under way for some time, with some exciting results. I have meat young, ambitious and energetic wine makers, old hands with tremendous experience and plenty of other characters in and around this great town of Stellenbosch.

The enthusiasm that these people breathe is infectious, and if you come to a wine farm ambivalent to the product, you will leave an hour later as devoted to the wines as the winemaker himself. It is easy to get caught up in things here in Stellenbosch; because everything about the place is emotive. Every night there is a carnival atmosphere in the town and you can't help but have fun. Beyond the streets of town there is the countryside where the most striking landscapes imaginable can stun you without fail every single day.

I for one am finding myself increasingly devoted to South Africa's wines and the people behind the bottles. There are stories here that ring true with everything I want wine to be. There is romance and there is love for the land as well as artistry and awareness. I know that wine, unlike any other product has a penchant for getting passion from it's devotees but there is an intensity in South Africa that vindicates my devotion to the subject. There are themes that are beyond my ability to vocalise so I will not attempt to do them justice, but suffice to say that they are as great as the Helderberg Mountains and as complex as the country's past.

I hope over the past year you have enjoyed my writing and I look forward to continuing in 2013 and into the future. To see the huge changes over the course of the year, I am filled with great hope to know that just as much can happen in the coming year. Tonight find a glass of something nice, be it wine, beer, juice (whatever!) and enjoy it. I'll be doing the same!

(As always) Much Love,

G

 

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Hermanuspietersfontein 2009 Die Martha

Hey Everyone,

Happily back in rainy St. Andrews, I am writing up a little review of an interesting bottle with a very difficult to pronounce name. Hermanuspietersfontein is one of my favourite producers for reasons other than the very classic Afrikaaner name. The last wine I had from their collection was the 2008 Swartskaap Cabernet Franc, a really pleasant and interesting, if slightly one-dimensional wine. It was a unique approach to a single varietal in South Africa which I have not seen elsewhere (though I do look forward with great anticipation to the Sijnn Touriga Nacional as soon as I do get a chance to try it).

Tonights wine however is a more classic example of a Rhone blend of 74% Shiraz, 23% Mourvédre and 3% Viognier. Initially the nose is pretty standard for a big South African red, with prominent cocoa, spice and black currant. It does develop a bit though and takes on a very old-world aroma of olive. Black rather than green olives, I would add, though with a few years of ageing ahead it is likely that green olive would become a dominant aroma on the nose. There is pleanty of leather and licorice with oak driven flavours of nutmeg, cinnamon and coconut as well as a touch of cigar box for added complexity.

While not a very challenging wine, it is overwhelmingly enjoyable and pleasing. While I think it might be a bit too confected for steak or lamb, I could see this going wonderfully with barbecues and slowroasted pork. I think some germanic food like sausages and boar would do nicely as well.

This is just the sort of wine I love on a cool evening in November, it's warming, pleasant and easily enjoyable. Hope you are enjoying something equally satisfying these days!

Much Love,

G

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Sijnn Rosé 2008

Hey Everyone,

Here's a recent bottle of interest that I came across on my recent visit down to London. It was a South African rosé made from barrel-fermented Mourvédre, Shiraz and Trincadeira, and was a striking example of just how cool a rose can be. I would rarely justify spending much more than £15 on a bottle of pink wine that isn't Champagne, but in this case I'll make an exception.

It was rich, with intense aromas of raspberries, strawberries and red currants and had a gorgeous complexity with a herbal, yeasty profile. The wine is darker than some kiwi Pinot Noirs I've come across showing a beautiful colour like red topaz. Despite the depth of colour, this is most certainly a rosé, with it's delicate, fruity flavours, complete absence of tannin and spritsy texture.

It may be a bit volatile, given it's slight sparkle, but in reality, this is a point in it's favour for me. It gives the wine a lift which many rosé wines lack and may contribute to it's intense fragrance. I also am a big fan of the use of Mourvédre as the base grape. This grape has given me the two best rosés I've ever had.

While this wine is quite difficult to get a hold of, being made on a very small farm in Swellendam South Africa, it may be found here and there in the more eclectic wine shops and online merchants around. Despite it's higher price tag of around £20, it is well worth it for perhaps the best non-sparkling rosé i've had in the past year.

Much Love,

G

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Classic Merlot! Thelema Mountain Vineyards Merlot 2009

Hey Everyone,

Today's wine to try is, in my opinion, an excellent bottle of one of my favourite grapes. Despite the bad press given to Merlot, I believe that it can produce some of the most delightful wines on the market. What is best about Merlot is that it does not have to be expensive to be good, but there are a few examples of world class Merlot that deserve a tip of the hat.

Just a bit of background, Merlot is the principal grape in some of the most important wines in the world, and when vinified to it's full potential, it produces the tannin and acidity needed for long ageing. Important wineries, including Le Pin, Cheval Blanc (where it is heavily blended with Cabernet Franc) and Petrus make the finest examples of Merlot and the best vintages can fetch astronomical prices.

Tonight's bottle is a Merlot from South Africa, in particular from the Stellenbosch region which produces a great proportion of South Africa's best wines. As one of my earlier posts on South Africa's wine industry makes clear, I firmly believe that this remote wine producing nation is very much an old soul in the new world. This Merlot, with its characteristics of the terroir and tannin, is very much an old world style of wine.

The wine is deep in colour with an opaque colouring. Three years on from vintage, you would expect a new world Merlot to fade a little bit, but this one is really quite inky in colour. The glass, as I swirl, is coated with thick, slow running legs, hinting at the high alcohol levels inherent in the wine.

The nose, after a bit of breathing is full of all kinds of wonderful things essential to a good Merlot. There is black berry, rasberry, hints of brambe and cassis, all proped up by rich roasted coffee and dark chocolate. There is a chalky element coming through which I believe hints at the soil of the vineyards, indicating that this wine was made with the intention that it reflect it's sense of place in the fashion of an old world wine maker.

The palate is rich and velvety with few flaws. The tannins are big and pleasing, with a chunkiness that I desire from a full-bodied wine. There are bitter elements reminiscent of the feeling left in the mouth after swallowing some 85% dark chocolate. If anything, the mineral could be more pronounced and the tannin a bit more forward. Basically, I feel that this wine has the markings of a very skilled winemaker who may be holding back for his more premium labels.

I would be very interested to try a more special Thelema bottling. I would be looking for a more bold style, with bigger tannins, more forward acidity, a greater emphasis on the terroir and overall a more Bordelais style. I feel that is what Thelema wants to produce.

All in all, I loved today's wine. I think that, as a daily drinking wine, it is a cracking bottle and for the price of just over fifteen pounds, it is a great value bottle. For those looking for a silky, chocolatey merlot executed with an esteem for class and the goal of producing an elegant Merlot, this is the bottle!

Much Love,

G

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