Brandvlei Cellar
WINE magazine's Value Awards Best Value Cellar Overall, Brandvlei Cellar
Here it is, the Best Value Cellar Overall in WINE magazine's annual Value Awards competition for wines under R50. Fiona McDonald reports on Brandvlei Cellar. t's been around for 50 years and, prior to its latest success, both the 2006 and 2005 editions of WINE magazine's Best Value Wine Guide have featured a number of BC wines. Brandvlei is as low-key as they come. Only 2% of the 17-million-litre production is bottled at the cellar - the rest is sold in bulk, much of it overseas. Yet that 2% equates to a few thousand cases of wine, more than some boutique cellars' total production!
Prominently positioned on manager/winemaker Jean le Roux's desk are architectural drawings. Plans are afoot for a million rand revamp of the tasting facilities - there's a realisation that the public face of the winery needs to be improved, and with the growing success and consequent recognition of the wines and the good value they represent, visitors will increase.
This year saw three of the modest co-operative cellar's wines scoring a Bo Derek - 10 points - and top of their class on the value scale. Quality wise, the BC Hanepoot Jerepigo 2005 selling for R15 a bottle rated very good at 3½ Stars, with the BC Ruby Cabernet Merlot 2005 and BC Sauvignon Blanc 2006 scored well above average at 2½ Stars and selling for R14,50 and R15 respectively - prices ex-cellar.
There are higher-priced wines reviewed in the latest Best Value Wine Guide that rated higher on quality, but the ratio of quality to price set the BC wines apart. "It's tough to compete against producers who are making just a few hundred litres of top-end wine," says Le Roux. "It's not our aim to make one tank of stunning wine, but rather to make a million litres of good quality wine.
"I know that other producers curse me because of our prices. And some supermarkets too. But that's the way it is," says Le Roux. "People buy our wines by the case because of the price. We want to have recognition of our brand and that recognition must have a good value association."
And association is also the reason that the BC brand was established three years ago. Brandvlei is confusing, given that the dam outside Worcester and a notorious prison carry the same name. "I'm not wishing the name away," says Le Roux in defense. "We're still proudly Brandvlei Cellar, but the BC brand is just easier to grasp and understand."
When it was enlarged in years gone by, the Brandvlei dam created problems for the cellar. There's an urban myth that the winery disappeared beneath the waters of the dam, but it's a notion Le Roux is quick to dispel. "The winery had to move in 1976, yes, but not because it was going to be underwater. Today the original cellar building has a spectacular location on the bank of the dam, but the only way to get there is either by speedboat or canoe, over a hill or along the dam wall. The access roads were flooded, so there was no way to get grapes to the cellar."
Nowadays Brandvlei Cellar is located 20km from Worcester, along the Villiersdorp road. The move involved the winery being fully upgraded. "There's not an old cement tank in sight," states Le Roux proudly. "Everything is stainless steel."
With his assistants Jandré Human (white wine) and Tertius Jonck (red wine), Le Roux vinifies 21 500 tons of fruit a year as supplied by members of the co-op. "There are about 21 active members, and the good thing is that about 90% of them only farm with grapes. That means they are not worrying about sheep or other crops. They focus solely on the grapes."
The cellar is geared up in such a way that each farmer's grapes are vinified separately "because the quality does differ," Le Roux concedes. Production currently runs at 25% red and 75% white - a large proportion of the white wine production being Sauvignon Blanc.
Brandvlei's first wine from Sauvignon Blanc was made in 1989. Initially production was small, but growth in popularity of this bone-dry, lemon crisp wine has been tremendous. In 2002 a thousand cases were bottled. This year some 7 500 cases of the BC Sauvignon Blanc 2006 were produced. "It's one of the first [varieties] to come into the cellar… We crush around 100 tons a day - not like the reds, when we do about 600 to 700 tons a day."
Fruit from vineyards planted on mainly south-facing slopes is picked at around 21º Balling, meaning the acid is still lively and crisp. "We also try to limit the alcohols," Le Roux says. "There's no point in having highly alcoholic wines. We want people to drink a bottle of wine - and open a second one because it's lekker!"
The Ruby Cabernet Merlot blend is made in the same volumes and the theory is again to make an easy-drinking, uncomplicated wine that offers great value. "We crushed 1 400 tons of Ruby Cabernet this year. There's an unbelievable demand for our Ruby Cab blend because it works so well with Merlot - the Merlot softens the blend and adds juiciness, while the Ruby has lovely fruit."
Le Roux feels that Ruby Cabernet is misunderstood. "A lot of people don't realize there's a difference between Ruby and straight Cabernet Sauvignon. More education is needed - but the customers just love the wine and always ask for the Cabernet." To add a bit of oak character, oak chips are added during the fermentation and staves are used when the wine's in stainless steel tanks - to keep the costs down.
"We're trying to keep our range as small as possible. We don't want to have 'bietjies-bietjies' of everything," he says. "We'd rather just focus on a few wines and have more available."
The BC Hanepoot Jerepigo is deliciously typical - grapey glucose and raisin flavours impressed, as did the balance of the wine. "We don't want to just be known for our 'soetes' but it is something we do well," says Le Roux.
Brandvlei has a lot of visitors. "And when people take the trouble to come here, we find that they tend to buy four or five cases of wine - not just one or two bottles. That's the guy's wine for the year! One-stop shopping…"
WINE PORTFOLIO:
FLAGSHIPS: Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc
DRY WHITE: Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc
SEMI-SWEET WHITE: Bacchanté (Chenin & Colombar)
RED WINE: Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Cabernet Merlot
FORTIFIED: Hanepoot Jerepigo
BRANDVLEI CELLAR
CO-OP: R43, between Worcester & Villiersdorp
PO Box 595, Worcester 6849
TEL: 023 340-4215
FAX: 023 340-4332
EMAIL: brandvlei@brede.co.za
MANAGER/WINEMAKER: Jean le Roux
VITICULTURIST: Danie Conradie
SALES: Mon-Thurs 07:30-17:30, Fri 07:30-16:30
TASTINGS: no fee
TOURS: by appointment
PICNICS: welcome to bring
ESTABLISHED: 1955
PRODUCTION: 17m litres pa. Under vine: 1 500ha (70% white)
VINOUS VALUE
It all comes down to numbers - more wines entered for consideration than ever before, more wines made it through to the final judging, more highly rated wines and more wines included in the book than in any of the previous five Best Value Wine Guides. Fiona McDonald reports.
A few years ago WINE magazine received a letter from a reader complaining about the escalating price of wine. What made this stand out was that this correspondent, a true wine enthusiast, had broken down his daily, weekly and monthly expenditure - and pointed out what his love of wine was costing him.
Between him and his wife they were good for a bottle a day. For the sake of the exercise he averaged this out at R30 a day for five days - Monday to Friday. Over the weekend there was an extra bottle with Saturday or Sunday lunch, at a slightly higher price point - say R50 - and then a really good bottle for Saturday and Sunday dinner, say R70 (This was a few years ago…) His weekly wine bill was running to just under R400. Extrapolate that over four weeks and he was paying in the region of R1600 a month on wine - and that was excluding any special bottles when eating out at restaurants which would have caused an appreciable rise in monthly expenditure.
This kind of anecdotal case study illustrates that wine drinkers - no matter how well-heeled - are always looking for good value. Frequently shock and horror are expressed about small-volume wines selling for hundreds of rands per bottle. But the good news is that there are finds to be made out there. WINE magazine has taken on the task of seeking out these wines for readers recently released the sixth annual edition of the Best Value Wine Guide.
The Best Value Wine Guide is firmly entrenched as essential reading for anyone looking for easy-drinking everyday wines under a certain price point - and this year that price point has been upped from R40 to R50.
When the first edition was published in 2002 the price ceiling was set at R30, fortifieds and dessert wines were excluded and we had just under 500 entries with 210 wines making it into the guide.
In 2003 the limit was R35, fortified and dessert wines were included, and in 2004 it rose to R40 where it stayed for two years.
Last year's guide saw 769 wines entered with 288 making it through to the final round of judging and, of that, 185 wines being featured in the pages of the guide.
Of the record 974 wines submitted for this year's judging, 507 wines made it through the preliminary round to the final taste-off. Of those, 330 wines made it into the guide on their quality and price.
And the quality has improved appreciably with the first ever 4½ Star rating awarded in the competition and no fewer than eight 4 Star wines. Those are good wines, no matter how you look at it! By way of comparison, in 2006 the highest quality rating was 3½ Stars and in both 2004 and 2005 there was just one 4 Star wine reviewed in the book.
AT A GLANCE
1 wine rated 4½ Stars
8 wines rated 4 Stars
13 wines rated 3½ Stars
45 wines rated 3 Stars
100 wines rated 2½ Stars
163 wines rated 2 Stars
Total number of wines entered: 974
- Red: 450 (46,2%)
- White: 362 (37,2%)
- Pink: 59 (6%)
- Sparkling: 25 (2,6%)
- Dessert: 78 (8%)
Total number of wines in the 2007 Best Value Wine Guide: 330
- Red: 154 (46,6%)
- White: 97 (29,4%)
- Pink: 11 (3,3%)
- Sparkling: 8 (2,4%)
- Dessert: 40 (12,1%)
Average price of wines overall R29,92
- Reds - R33,77 n White - R26,88
- Pink - R23,65 n Unfortified dessert - R23,03
- Sparkling - R25,81 n Fortified - R29,41
Best value under R50
For the 2007 Best Value Wine Guide, Value Awards were presen-ted for wines scoring 9 and above on a 10-point Value scale. The Value Award winners stand out as Best Value, taking into account both quality and price - there are other wines reviewed in the book that rate as well or better on quality but cost more, and all represent good value below the R50 ceiling…
THE MAGIC FORMULA
A x (C ÷ B)
A: The quality of the wine - its Star rating
B: Retail selling price per bottle/750ml
C: The average price of the wines in a given category according to grape variety and/or the type of wine.
This is then factored so that the top-scoring red, white, pink, sparkling, fortified and dessert wines are given a Value rating of 10, after which other scores are similarly factored to give a Value rating out of 10 for each wine.
BEST VALUE CELLARS
1. Brandvlei Cellar (Worcester)
2. Slanghoek Cellar (Worcester)
3. De Krans (Calitzdorp)
4. Simonsvlei International (Paarl)
5. Koelenhof Winery (Stellenbosch)
SEEING RED...
Chairman of the judging panel Dave Hughes looked at one of the broad trends emerging from an analysis of the 2007 Best Value Wine Guide results.
Tony Mossop, who co-founded WINE magazine's Best Value Wine Guide back in 2001 said: "This is a competition, not just a book". Producers know that a good mention in the Guide will translate into sales.
The bulk of the wines entered into the competition were red (46,2%)- and that dominance was reflected in the number of red wines which were selected for publication in the book - 46,6% or 154 of the total 330. This goes to show the change in the South African wine scene over the past decade or so. The white dominance of years past is gone.
Breaking that down even further, red blends was the single biggest category with 75 wines in the book. The top performer on quality was little heralded Stellenbosch cellar, Stellenrust with their Simplicity 2005 blend scoring 3½ Stars and selling for R38. On the value side it was the Ruby Cabernet Merlot 2005 from Best Cellar overall, Brandvlei, which took top marks with its R14,50 price tag and 2½ Star rating.
Cabernet Sauvignon was well represented with 21 wines in the guide. Top wine was the Brampton Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 from Stellenbosch farm, Rustenberg, which rated 3½ Stars and sells for R48.
Not far behind was Shiraz with 20 wines selected. Brampton appears once again, scoring 3 Stars for the 2004 Shiraz, also at R48 a bottle, while Jantara 2005 (R22), Du Toitskloof 2003 (R34,50), Koelenbosch 2004 from Koelenhof Winery (R35) and Bradgate 2004 from Jordan (R37) also rated 3 Stars.
Showing nice consistency having been recognized as one of the two top Pinotages in the WINE magazine Tops at Spar Best Value Pinotage awards earlier this year was the Landskroon 2004. It received the highest star rating out of the 19 Pinotages in the guide. It sells for R31,50 and was judged 3½ Stars.
Merlot contributes 12 wines to the guide with the top examples scoring 3 Stars - Lourensford Five Heirs 2004, Kleine Zalze 2005, Niel Joubert 2004 and Guardian Peak 2005 all priced between R37 and R47 a bottle.
