Marglin on Taste

A good friend of mine recently graduated from college and is headed to South Africa for a job. A decade ago, this would have been unheard of — South Africa was still in the grip of apartheid and an international trade ban, and not many people headed there to work. And in the wine world, not many people knew much about South African wines — or would have bought them if they could. But times have changed significantly, and South Africa — now back in the international trade community — is also exporting plenty of excellent wines to this country. Their style is distinctive, and can be off-putting at first, but they can also be most enjoyable and, in many cases, a tremendous value. But you have to be picky.You can’t exactly call South African wines “New World” wines, although they’re certainly new to us. South Africans have been making wine since around 1652, when ship captains thought that wine would keep their men from getting scurvy. South Africa now produces roughly 3 percent of the world’s wines, making it the eighth-largest wine-producing region.

Today South Africa is known primarily for its whites. The most widely planted variety is chenin blanc, known there as steen. These are table wines, not particularly complex and not readily available here. (When they are, they’re affordable — under $10 a bottle — and not bad if you like your wines a bit sweet and fruity.) Like the steen, most South African wines don’t use a lot of heavy new oak, so you get a fruitier style of wine across the board, including some very refreshing chardonnays. There’s also a lot of sauvignon blanc that’s competitive with the best bottles coming out of New Zealand, with a similar fruit-forward style. I would steer clear, if you run into it, of a wine called Hanepoot, which is a muscat clone. Rieslings are well made, if you see ‘em.

The problem with South African reds hasn’t been the growing conditions, but rather that the country’s winemakers were stuck with a lot of bad, poorly suited grapes. Draconian importation laws have meant that, for more than a century, it was illegal for South Africans to import most vines. So there was almost no cabernet sauvignon or good pinot noir planted. Indeed, it was against the law to grow chardonnay, which is why the best-known South African wines were chenin blancs, muscats, and some sauvignon blancs, along with a notorious table wine made from colombard.

In the late ’80s, South Africa’s government finally eased importation controls, and you now have a lot of cabernet and decent pinot noir (and chardonnay) being planted. It takes time to figure out what grapes work best, and where they work best, but the learning curve has become a hairpin turn. In South Africa, as in the rest of the world, winemakers are quickly figuring out their terroir and what to grow where.

One red unique to South Africa is a cross between pinot and cinsaut known as pinotage, which is not to my taste at all; it’s musty, musky, and not pleasantly fruity. But there are, I’m told, a few good pinotages; Aime Amar, the sommelier at Upstairs at the Pudding, recommends Backsberg, which I haven’t found in any local stores.

There are also some red wines, including one pinot noir, that I think are exceptional: the Haute-Cabriere, reviewed below, I discovered in a tasting of pinot noirs from around the world, in which it held its own against some pretty stiff competition from Burgundy, Oregon, and California. South Africa also turns out some excellent shiraz, which has been growing there for centuries, and I’ve tasted a couple of Bordeaux-style blends that are competitive with their California and antipodean counterparts.

South African wines are particularly popular in England and the Netherlands, where they’re viewed the way Australian and New Zealand wines once were: affordable, completely drinkable, often surprisingly good wines. Find them and you will be well ahead of the coming trend. Here are some suggestions; when you’ve found what you like, tell us.

**1/2 1997 Mulderbosch Stellenbosch Sauvignon Blanc ($19.99, widely available). Stellenbosch is the university town with the country’s leading wine program (equivalent to UC Davis, in California), and this is the flagship wine from the region. I liked earlier versions better, but this model has high acid, with a sharp, almost tingly mouth feel. Add some mild citrusy flavors (some grapefruit and lemon zest) and you get a good wine to serve cold with shrimp cocktail or spicy foods.

**1/2 1992 Meerlust Rubicon Stellenbosch ($21.99, Marty’s Liquors). A fine Bordeaux blend, not particularly deep, but with a broad sweep of merlot and cab flavors and a lingering finish that is soft and warm. Drinking superbly right now. I would not hold this for long.

**1/2 1997 Hamilton-Russell Chardonnay ($14.99, widely available). A fine and fruity chard with less oak than many of its American counterparts. This comes from the southern region of South Africa, which tends to have bigger temperature swings from day to night and longer exposure to the sun. It has bright fruit, mainly pineapple and citrus, and a pleasantly sharp, almost white-peppery finish.

*** 1996 Bouchard Finlayson Sauvignon Blanc Oak Valley Elgin ($17.99, Marty’s Liquors). Tom Schmeisser and his crew are the leaders in South African wine in this area. This one has lots of grapefruit and citrus, but it is by no means overly tangy. A quixotically inviting wine, easily approachable, that will open your palate. Its tight structure allows it to pair well with food, but it could be a nice sipping wine for a warmish autumn night, too.

*** 1996 Haute-Cabriere Pinot Noir ($29.99, Marty’s Liquors). Imported by Cape Classics, this is way young, but it shows lots of vibrant fruit, with a hint of eucalyptus. You can enjoy this now — I did — but it will reward the patient, or those who open it a day before they want to imbibe it. Check out the sandalwood finish. A pleasant surprise after all those 1996 Burgundies.

“I started out on burgundy / But soon hit the harder stuff”

Sometimes wine is more than just a beverage: it’s personal, like a smell, or a memory, or a laugh. I first got serious about wine because of two ancient bottles dredged up from my grandma’s cellar. It was 1985, and they were Burgundies — a 1962 Chambolle-Musigny and a 1964 Gevrey-Chambertin. From the first sip, I was completely seduced. My mouth yielded to the exotic perfumes and subtle flavors; each sip offered new combinations of delight. “Wine” had a whole new meaning to me. I was in love.

Many dedicated wine drinkers share this ardor. Few wines are as nuanced and delicate as mature Burgundy. Young Burgundy is also good, especially if you open the bottle a day before you want to drink it, or pair it with sharp cheese to take the edge off the tannins. But affordable young Burgundies can be hard to find. The past few years have seen very limited harvests — indeed, part of the magic of red Burgundy is the fact that every year it is a struggle with the elements to get the crop in.

In a good year, when there’s plenty of mature fruit and little mold or rot, the demand for these wines is unbelievable. The entry point for a good bottle is around $40, and it goes up from there. (The issue price for the best Burgundies, like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti or those made by Domaine Leroy, can be $600 or more per bottle!) Needless to say, few of us can afford to drink much great Burgundy. Whether young or old, at every quality level these are usually exceptionally pricey wines.

The latest vintage may change that. The Wine Spectator, that oh-so-influential wine ‘zine, recently lauded the 1996 vintage as the best since 1990 (which, in my opinion, is the best vintage of recent years), and I completely agree. Although the yields were incredibly high, the wines have a lot of acid and structure, meaning it is likely they will keep drinking well right into their teens. (Often, when the yields are higher, the fruit will be proportionally less intense.) So wines are being released that are affordable and quite peppy now but have plenty of staying power.

At last there are values to be had in them there Burgundian hills, especially in the Côte d’Or — the Gold Coast — which is the heart of Burgundy. Burgundies have been informally ranked over time, but there are also official rankings for certain vineyards. The best wines, called “grands crus,” are grown on tiny plots of bare hillside where, as in much of the region, wine has been made for more than a thousand years. These wines range from $60 to $600 upon release. Then come the “premiers crus,” usually from slightly larger plots; the prices will be, in a good year such as 1996, upward of $30. Then come the “village” wines, made from grapes grown in a particular village where quality is often a function of the winemaker’s skill. (My beloved ‘62 and ‘64 Burgundies were such village wines.)

Finally there is the catchall designation “Bourgogne,” wine made from a mixture of pinot noir grapes grown in the Burgundy region. It is these last wines that, while merely inoffensive in most years, are actually exciting in 1996. While I still prefer American pinot noirs to these collage Burgundies, I have to admit that, for less than $20 a bottle, you can set yourself up pretty nicely. Any of the wines listed below will perk up your fall foliage experience.

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After my last column, about the state’s wine importing laws, I got a call from a company I mentioned, Vintage Imports, that felt unfairly singled out as a villain in the Massachusetts wine trade. My point in that column was not to criticize Vintage — in fact, I think Vintage is probably one of the best importing companies in the country, and has done a lot for wine drinkers in Massachusetts. I was using them as an example of how Massachusetts wine law, which I consider unfair, allows importers to restrict the availability of certain wines.My caller also pointed out one factual mistake: I reported that Sean Thackrey’s wine Pleiades VII was available at one venue — Biba. The representative for Vintage listed three stores where Pleiades VII is now available. We called the stores and found the wine at Marty’s Liquors, in Newton.

To be clear about it, my main complaint in that column was not with the importers, but with the law. The state’s “three-tiered” system, with its reliance on middlemen, does keep prices artificially high and cause a lot of mediocre wine to end up in stores and restaurants and wine bars. It also allows importers to limit availability for a variety of reasons, including limited allotments from the wineries and strategic business decisions. Vintage’s policies are sound business practices within the current system. But until the system changes, our wine market won’t be free — whether people want me to talk about it or not.

**1/2 Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley Bourgogne 1996 (Hi-Rise Bread Company, Cambridge, $14.99). Awesome fruit, almost New World in character. Light cherry and strawberry, with young Burgundian bite.

** Chambolle-Musigny Cuvée Unique Vielle Vignes Reserve Domaine Arlaud 1996 (Marty’s Liquors, $29.99). A keeper from the Côte d’Or. Big, perhaps too potent. Let it breathe for a day or hold it. Musky, funky, almost fizzy. Great potential.

**1/2 Domaine Robert Arnoux Bourgogne 1996 (Brookline Liquor Mart and Marty’s Liquors, $17.99). Sharp, snappy, almost rough at first blush, but it got round and warm after time. Plenty of silky tannins will come into their own, and after a day of air, this became a smooth and immediately enjoyable luscious wine. Or hold it, as you like. And you will.

*** Savigny-Lès-Beaune Les Lavières Claude Marechal 1996 (Wine and Cheese Cask, $24.99). Another from the Côte d’Or. Bright, ripe (perhaps too ripe), with lots of berries and some yellow fruit like gooseberries. Beginnings of mushrooms. This will be better in six months to a year. You gotta believe. It will blossom.

David Marglin can be reached at dave@taste.com.