JC le Roux

Desiderius Pongrácz

Méthode Cap Classique is South Africa's take on Champagne. The winner of the 2006 WINE magazine Amorim Cork Cap Classique Challenge is Desiderius Pongrácz 2001. Fiona McDonald reports.

 

The late Desiderius Pongrácz was a member of the Hungarian aristocracy with a family lineage that can be traced back 800 years. One chapter of his remarkable life involved seven years' as a prisoner of war. In another he wrote a book that is still considered essential reading for modern day viticulture students. Today, say the name Pongrácz and any South African wine lover's response will probably be simply "bubbly!"

Pongrácz brand manager Saramien Dekker says that the man's contribution to the SA wine industry was so remarkable that Distell decided to honour his memory, immortalizing him with a premium bottle-fermented sparkling wine. "Desiderius was launched in 2002 and the intention from the word go was that it be a premium or superior Cap Classique."

A special tribute, and a special wine.
The judges at this year's Cap Classique Challenge had little hesitation in awarding top honours - and a R20 000 prize - to the producers of this wine, which stood out from the rest in terms of quality and complexity. According to Heidi Duminy, DGB brand manager for Veuve Clicquot in South Africa and a member of the WINE tasting panel: "I could have been fooled into believing that a French Champagne had been slipped into the line-up." Fellow Cape Wine Master, Challenge judge and Champagne lover Allan Mullins concurred.

So who was Desiderius Pongrácz really?
A Hungarian nobleman, Pongrácz studied agriculture before the Second World War. Upon completion of his studies in 1944, however, he took to his horse and joined the Hungarian cavalry to fight rather than return to the family landholdings as expected. Captured by the Russians in 1945, he endured the grinding hardship of a Siberian labour camp and copper mines in the centre of the country before being returned to Hungary in the '50s, only to spend another 11 months as a prisoner. In November 1956, during the Hungarian uprising, he escaped and fled to Austria and then Germany as one of 200 000 seeking refuge in the West.

Later, using his aristocratic connections, Pongrácz relocated, securing a job on a farm in Namibia and eventually moving further south to Stellenbosch in 1958.

After working as a wine farm manager he joined the Nietvoorbij research institute in 1963, and during the following 10 years earned his Master of Science degree in agriculture while writing a number of books and scientific publications with viticulture as his specialty.

Pongrácz was appointed the chief viticultural adviser at Distillers Corporation (now Distell) in 1973 and was influential in shaping the South African wine industry. He promoted the planting of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, amongst other varietals, and the older generation of winemakers who knew and worked with "Pongy" (as he was affectionately known) credit him with a fierce intellect and tenacious will to pursue what he believed to be right. He felt strongly about South Africa's need for better plant material and lobbied hard for a change in policy that favoured more careful selection of the best varietals from the best vines in order to strengthen the national vineyard.

Pongrácz died at the age of 61, killed in a car accident while en route to Uitkyk in Stellenbosch in 1984. While highly regarded for his scientific knowledge of viticulture and practical application thereof, he is also remembered for his love of anthropology, classical music and Daschund dogs. Former colleagues also speak of his gift for languages, as he conversed and corresponded easily in Hungarian, Russian, Italian, French, German, English and Afrikaans.

And the wine?
Current Pongrácz winemaker Wilhelm Pienaar speaks with passion about the Desiderius, particularly the 2001 vintage. "This was initially made by Melanie van der Merwe (former cellarmaster at the house of JC le Roux) and is, for all intents and purposes, almost a single vineyard wine," he says of the classic blend of varieties. "It's made from our best Pinot Noir and best Chardonnay blocks."

Fruit destined for bubbly is picked earlier than for still wines in an attempt to retain as much acidity as possible, and grapes for the Desiderius 2001 were harvested in January of that year. "We manage the vineyard so that we achieve yields of between eight and 10 tons per hectare," says Pienaar, "and it's essential that we keep things as cool as possible. We whole-bunch press from the word go and then do a primary fermentation in stainless steel tank with a Prix de Mousse yeast from Champagne."

There are some producers who abhor malolactic fermentation and don't practice it at all. Others allow partial malo' only. Desiderius undergoes the full process, which occurs after alcoholic fermentation - a second fermentation whereby malic acid is converted into softer lactic acid, adding complexity to the wine.

After malolactic, the wine undergoes a basic stabilization and then it's off to bottle, usually in July, and it's in this specially created packaging - a distinctive designer bottle - that the wine undergoes its bottle fermentation and then spends four to four-and-a-half years on the lees.

Throughout the maturation process the winemaking team regularly taste the wine. "Based on those tastings," says Pienaar, "we make decisions on when to degorge. Market demand also plays a role but we won't force the wine. If, for example, the 2002 is maturing faster than the 2001, then we'll release it earlier and hold the 2001 back." And after disgorgement, the winemaker likes to keep the Desiderius under cork for at least three to six months prior to release onto the market.

Pienaar took over from Van der Merwe earlier this year after working as her assistant for two years. He did his Masters in Viticulture with an eye to spending more of his life in the vineyards than in the cellar and credits Van der Merwe with his conversion to bubbly. "It's impossible to work with someone as passionate about sparkling wine as Melanie and not be affected by it! She's amazing - and I found myself becoming equally passionate. It's about the lifestyle…"

Desiderius, in Pienaar's words, should have a characteristic freshness and elegance. "Almost a greenish tint, if you were to think of taste as a colour…You won't find heavy-maturation flavours," he says, and the Pinot Noir component doesn't dominate the blend, although it's in the majority at 60%.

"It's also not too creamy, although the nuttiness is apparent. We often find that consumers pick up on the almond or nut flavours in the wine." But the buzzword for Desiderius is "elegance" - a nobility that carries through from fresh entry to a refined mid-palate and an aristocratic, lingering finish.

Good news is that although it's a premium product, it's not made in niche volumes. There are around 15 000 bottles available, just released. The price tag is R169, but on the evidence of its 4½ Star performance in the 2006 Cap Classique Challenge, it's worth it.

Class glass
The process of conceptualizing Desiderius was underway long before the wine was launched in 2002. Obviously the wine was the main focus, but equally important was to have fabulous packaging. Yet brand manager Saramien Dekker is surprised to hear that there are some people who find the Desiderius bottle "kitsch".

"I have a range of Champagne bottles lined up in my office and the thing that sets Desiderius apart is that it's unique. It really stands out against the lineup of green bottles - be it Veuve Clicquot, Mumm, Moët, Dom P, Taittinger or whatever. It has that 'Wow!' factor."

Few people realize that the Desiderius bottle truly is unique. It was custom designed, specially made, and will never be used anywhere else for any product other than Desiderius MCC.

It was in the early '90s that Kevin Farr of Farr Van der Vlist Design was tasked with coming up with "a world beater" along the lines of Roederer Cristal, the Champagne created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II and much talked about these days as a favourite of rapper, fashion designer and recording mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs aka P Diddy aka Puff Daddy. (Hotel staff at the Cape Grace still chuckle about how the rap star handed out the $300 Champagne as tips on a visit a few years back!)

In coming up with the design of the bottle, a few concepts were rubbished before one succeeded in meeting the brief of innovation, freshness and functionality. It's made of clear glass and shaped with rounded fluting that incorporates the signature of Desiderius Pongrácz on the front. In addition there's the Pongrácz family crest on both the capsule and the neck label - a crest that had to be sourced from historical documents, which took some serious research. The metal neck label was also a South African first, made specifically for this bottle.

All in all, development of the packaging - bottle, neck label, family crest and capsule - took more than three years to complete, before the team was satisfied that it fitted the super-premium profile required of Desiderius.

Desiderius track record
Four of the last five vintages of Desiderius Pongrácz have rated well in WINE magazine panel tastings: