Interesting news last week was a lot of writing about natural wines and cases in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa where wines have had problems getting through export panels (here in South Africa called the Wine and Spirits Board). Read Jamie Goode’s perspective on his blog here.
These wine were usually made in new innovative ways, and or more traditional ways resulting in wines that were “different”.
At Bosman Family Vineyards we have had the same experience with one of our wines. Called Liquid Gold by our Wine Club members, it went through a round of rejection before we could start selling it. The wine was ready for bottling when our Swiss importers came for their yearly visit. They demanded a shipment on the spot, and we were happy to comply. The following week the wine was rejected.
Said wine (a mere 2600 x 750ml) is made from one of the most awesome wine regions in South Africa – the Upper-Hemel-en-Aarde ward, near Hermanus. It is a 2010 blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. With a lovely golden hue and secondary flavours from being fermented and matured in oak – it definitely looked different than a Rose. It was obviously also not a Blanc de Noir.
After a kind letter of explaining what the thinking was behind the wine and with good, clean analysis the wine was passed in the end.
Another wine which also has a ranging track record in regards to approval is the “Coffee Pinotage” style. As a student getting involved with this wine style in 2003 at Diemersfontein and then subsequently in other cellars it has happened time and again that this style is not always looked upon favourably by the individual tasters in these panels. This while, as a wine style, it has clearly been accepted by a greater group of consumers.
Interesting how these “different” wines usually are the ones with a following. As a winemaker I have however always felt that the Wine and Spirits Board has given the wine the benefit of the doubt, in the end. Long live progressive thinking in regards to wine and wine styles.
Cheers!
*Disclamer: Writer is married to winemaker Bertus “Starbucks” Fourie to whom the “Coffee Style Pinotage” is attributed.
Writing takes up way too much time, so here is this morning in some pictures, and a clip.
Early morning pressing is just the most vibrant process of the day. I get to taste the juice, get my head around what I want to do with it. You really do get a feel for it! Here pictured our press and sorting conveyor.
Press ready to roll
Conveyor cleaned and ready
Buckle up – here is the action
The little YouTube clip shows how the grapes (from the cold storage room) in offloaded onto the conveyor. All things other than lovely bunches are removed here. Then it goes through the de-stemmer. This is collected in the bin. So the product you are seeing is just the clean stalks which will be taken away. The grapes are then off to the press.
Will keep you updated, but in the meanwhile raise a glass on Harvest 2012!
We have had one awesome week in harvesting grapes. As mentioned in the previous post, we started off with a cooler, overcast, week. I think this was what the vineyards were waiting for to show its true colours and flavours. The Chenin blanc came in extremely pretty. See Jan Bosman sampling these grapes on his morning walk with George, the rescue Basset hound. News from the Bosman kitchen says that Jan enjoyed the grapes so much that he skipped breakfast.
Getting to the subject of this post, see the pictures below to see the pressed juice and then the settled juice. One of the most visual processes in the cellar. Love it.
When the grapes are pressed it results in the lovely green, cloudy juice. After settling over 48hours we are left with the beautiful clear juice. I will be adding yeast later today – and then we are singing.
This brings me to the video clip you can see on YouTube. It shows our MCC Steen 2012 in the making, fermenting away. This in turn is one of the most audible signs that harvest is in full swing.
Looking back in my notes for 2011, by today – last year, we had taken in our Chardonnay vineyards and the first bit of Chenin blanc for our Adama White blend. This year I have only taken in one barrel worth of old bushvine Chenin without irrigation, which in the heat wave two weeks ago, wouldn’t have made it. And then also the Chenin blanc for our base wine.
This is the view from my office this morning: Cloudy and overcast, but a bit humid.
So we’ve been to the vineyards and what an exciting morning! The Chenin Blanc looks lovely (sun kissed, freckled, sweet but with a lovely level of tartness). See the picture below. I can only imagine what it’s going to look like in the press.
And then for the highlight of the morning – Pinotage testing! The vineyard in question is the same one used by Wellington Wines for their La Cave Pinotage – a wine that has earned them a spot in the inaugural Top 20 Pinotage Classification. It is also the vineyard from where the grapes came for our Top100SAWines lauded Pinotage 2009 and the Cape blend “Erfenis” 2010.
I learnt something new about our viticulturist today. Except for his acute fine eye for detail – he does not like snakes. He spotted the skin of an enormous snake between the rows in our Pinotage vineyard. Luckily at that point we had made up our minds about the grapes. Here is a picture of a part of its tail that fell off when I picked it up. Nice to know our vineyards are bustling with the sounds and the signs of nature.
According to Wikipedia, in human context, a family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. Here at Bosman Family Vineyards it’s all about family. Eight generations worth!
Hermanus Bosman arrived in South Africa in 1707 as a sieketrooster (consoler of the sick). Fast forward a few decades and grandson, Pieter Bosman came to Wellington to buy cart horses from famous breeder, ‘Lang Kootjie’ Malan of Lelienfontein.
The Bosman’s story is a love-story – Pieter followed the advice of ‘Lang Kootjie’ and bought the farm next to Lelienfontein. Pieter also fell in love and married ‘Lang Kootjie’s’ daughter, Isabella, and on her father’s retirement, Pieter bought Lelienfontein.
Today we are awaiting the birth of Petrus Bosman, second son to Petrus and Carla Bosman, who with his brother Jan – in effect, are the ninth generation on Lelienfontein.
I`m grateful for the little team of winemakers an viticulturists that will most surely be put to good use in school holidays in the near future. In 2010 when Jan was born, we got our new press. Petrus`s arrival on the farm will coincide with the grapes for our MCC Steen coming in to the cellar. Enough reason for celebration…
Three generations. The late Petrus Bosman Senior with his son Jan Bosman and the young guns: Pieter-Daniel, Jannie and Petrus Bosman
Today was a great breather from the warmer weather we have been experiencing the last few days. We were very interested to see what the heat`s influence was on our grape`s analysis so this morning we started sampling and testing!
In the photo below, we are testing our Chenin Blanc from a vineyard called Driehoek (or Triangle vineyard). Some of the plantings in this vineyard date back to 1963 and 1979, which makes it quite humbling (note the winemaker and viticulturist not even being a twinkle in our parent’s eyes in those years).
As said in the previous post we had experienced some cloudy weather during flowering, so to make sure that we get samples that paints the best possible clear picture – we are using bunch samples this year.
Results on this vineyard show that we did not have a significantly higher rise in sugar in the last few days, but we did lose a small bit of valuable acidity. Still have a few days before these grapes do come in. In the meanwhile, we will be dreaming of the lovely granny smith and honeysuckle notes released from these little berries. Bliss…
A harvest is made not only in the weeks before picking but starts in the preceding winter. We had a very good winter season, except for the below average rain precipitation. Good, even bud break followed and flowering this year was in cool, sometimes cloudy conditions. We were fortunate that there were no storms and wind damage in flowering which sometimes can be quite severe. The cool weather we experienced in November and December was ideal. January onwards has brought some interesting conditions with temperatures rising above 35oC. This will definitely speed up the ripening process that we have thought, before the heat, will put harvest back some two weeks.
All in all we are still very impressed by good growth and bunches with small berries. The adaptability of the noble vine gives us hope that this harvest will still be of good quality. Its success will depend, in part also, on the decisions we make in regards to water management and the timing of harvesting.
Viticulturist Heinie Nel, Assistant Charlene Ferreira, Hospitality Manager Tina Steenkamp and Operations boffin Martin November raise a glass on Harvest 2012
Bosman Family Vineyards, walked away with the top honours at this year’s inaugural Perold ABSA Cape Blend competition.
Absa and the Pinotage Association announced the Absa Perold Cape Blend Competition, aimed at creating a signature style for the composition of true Cape Blends.
Key to the competition is the requirement that the blended wine should contain a minimum of 30% and maximum of 70% Pinotage. Pinotage, as a uniquely South Africa cultivar represents the African spirit in the depth of flavour and range of aromas and is the ideal basis on which the competition is built.
Says Beyers Truter, chairperson of the Pinotage Association: “The Cape Blend competition is long overdue. There has been much debate about what really constitutes a Cape Blend. Today we set the benchmark by specifying that Pinotage has to form part of the blend, but we also include minimum and maximum percentages.”
KWV, where Prof Abraham Perold was the chief oenologist when he created Pinotage, and who is the owner of the Abraham Perold brand, granted the Pinotage Association permission to use the name, solely for use for the Cape Blend Competition.
Blended wines generally appeal to a wider consumer group as the highest rated blends use the best qualities of the different cultivars to create wines for connoisseurs and wine lovers alike.
“Absa first started sponsoring the Absa Top 10 Pinotage competition to raise the profile of Pinotage and to assist winemakers in improving the quality of their wines year-on-year. With the Absa Perold Cape Blend Competition, our aim is to assist the wine industry to set a standard in what constitutes a Cape Blend,” says Ernst Janovsky, General Manager of Absa AgriBusiness.
Bosman ‘Erfenis’ 2010 was the only Fairtrade wine on the coveted Perold ABSA Top Cape Blend List. Bosman Family Wines ‘Sur Lie’ Chenin Blanc was also nominated as the best Fairtrade White Wine earlier this year at the Michelangelo International Wine Awards.
We know that Corleas Bosman ‘Erfenis’ 2010 will be a Cape blend that will leave a proud legacy in years to come.
Bosman Family Vineyards have been successful in achieving Top 100 status during the recent Top 100 South African Wines Challenge.
What makes this achievement special for us is that both the wines that we entered and judged by the international panel lead by Tim Atkin (MW), were placed on the coveted Top 100 South African wines list.
These wines are:
• Bosman Family Vineyards Pinotage 2009
• Bosman Family Vineyards Optenhorst Chenin Blanc 2009 (bush vines planted in 1952)
The entries were judged rigorously by the panel and the top scoring wines were then selected as the Top 100 South African wines.
Petrus Bosman, is thrilled with the result: “We are very grateful and believe that the vineyards used to produce these wines are very special. For years, they have proven themselves and have always produced superior quality wines. It is fantastic that this quality is being acknowledged.”
He went on to commend his wine making team: “Our winemaker, Corlea Fourie, and her winemaking team have been fantastic in their approach, dedication and focus, working hard with our viticulturist, Heinie Nel, to achieve the very best quality possible. My sincere thanks go out to them for their commitment and enthusiasm.”
Stephen D. Tanzer is editor and publisher of the critically acclaimed bimonthly International Wine Cellar, an independent journal read by wine professionals and other wine lovers in all 50 states and 34 countries, and the first American wine periodical to be translated into French and Japanese.
Tanzer is the author of The WineAccess Buyer’s Guide (Sterling Publishing), a concise yet comprehensive guide to the best bottles and producers from virtually every important wine region of the world. Tanzer has also served as Senior Editor and wine columnist for Food & Wine magazine and wrote Food & Wine’s Official Wine Guide in 1998 and 1999. Previously, he was the wine columnist for Forbes FYI.
Tanzer samples well over 10,000 wines annually, spending several months each year tasting and discussing wines with their makers, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Stephen rated our Adama White blend 2010 (Chenin Blanc (60%), Chardonnay (20%), Pinot Gris (10%), Viognier (6%) and Semillon (4%)) and it scored 91 points of which we are very proud. Especially if one takes into account that this wine is still in its youth and will gain even more complexity with bottle maturation.
Our own Wine Magazine`s panel Chairman, Christian Eedes, gave it a huge thumbs up at the end of last year. To see his comments see our November 1, 2010 blog entry.
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