Jeff Grier
Villiera has a reputation for value for money. It has also tasted success in most of SA's top wine competions. Leonie Joubert spoke to Jeff Grier.
It's not easy tracking down a winemaker during harvest. It's even more difficult pinning one down for a full interview.
Jeff Grier was in that zone at his family's Paarl farm shortly before Easter. The last of the grapes had come in a week earlier but, for a cellar with such an extensive range, harvest fever was far from over.
"We've just bottled the Nouveau wine and some Gewürz. The reds are being racked and are going through malo. The whites are being blended; then we'll stabilise those, fine them and get them ready for bottling…" It was almost as though he were running through a mental checklist, ticking off things-to-do.
When there's a gap in the cellar, he says, he'll be off selling Villiera's wines.
Grier is a man who knows how to read the market and juggles its demands. Back in the early days he turned to Méthode Champenoise because there wasn't much of it about. When he saw a gap he released a Chenin Blanc. As the market required, he left a little residual sugar in the Sauvignon Blanc. And now there's the question of a Cape blend.
These days Grier has Anton Smal running things at "factory floor" level, although he is still involved as winemaker, especially in decision making. He admits, though, that Anton (now in his 10th year with the farm) is crucial to him and very good in the cellar.
There's no doubt Grier needs the help... a quick scan of the wine list reveals that there's the Merlot Reserve and standard Merlot, Merlot/Pinotage blend, Shiraz, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Blanc Fumé, Riesling, Brut, Port and more - it's all there: varietal whites, blended whites, some wooded, some not... varietal red and experimental blends, bubblies, a fortified wine...
"It's a big business now," says he in his usual deadpan way.
Since he and his viticulturist cousin Simon Grier bought the farm in 1983, they've established what does best - Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and bubbly. They've also sussed out what the market wants - for example, 80% of their customers want a tropical Sauvignon Blanc with a hint of residual sugar (about 3%), 20% want the figgy, vegetal Sauvignon Blanc provided by a small 28-year-old block of bush vines. So that's what their market gets. It was the 1997 Bush Vine Sauvignon that won him the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year award.
Grier is patriotic about Cape wine and committed to its improvement in general. He's a member of the Cape Winemaker's Guild, the Chenin Association, Cap Classique Producers Association, Paarl Vintners… and more. He does admit it's difficult juggling all this. "It's a bit of a nightmare, actually."
While his Sauvignon Blanc won him the Diners Club award in '97, Chenin thrust him into the limelight more recently when he won WINE Magazine's Chenin Blanc Challenge in 1999 (with a '96 vintage).
He's one of those vintners who believes in this humble wine's potential. "We started with Chenin here because we had it. When the export market opened up (in the early '90s) there was a demand for 'unusual' stuff - though Chenin was abundant in South Africa, overseas it was uncommon." His Chenin Blanc sold well abroad and won competitions at home. He realised he was sitting on a potential gold mine in his Chenin Blanc vineyards and decided to treat it as a more serious, lightly wooded food wine.
While he admits that they're consolidating the range now, there are occasional changes. His most recent venture is his interpretation of a Cape Blend, combining Merlot and Pinotage. "I experimented with a small amount of '97 for the Guild because we were looking into the concept … it was a very good wine!"
And what about the question of Pinotage being a required component?
"Oh, absolutely. A Cape Blend is a marketing exercise and it wouldn't be unique if it didn't have Pinotage. I chose to blend it with Merlot because that's our best red.
"But a Cape Blend must be New World in style and reflect sunshine and warmth. Both varieties do this. Merlot gives good tannin structure and backbone, Pinotage gives breadth, spice and berry fruit."
Merlot prevails at 73% with the Pinotage component at 27%, a formula he sticks to.
"More than 30% and the Pinotage dominates."
The Pinotage gets the American white oak treatment while the Merlot goes into French oak. "It's a top range blend so it all gets new wood."
The third vintage of its kind is due for release shortly.
Villiera is an anomaly. Officially it's on the Paarl wine route, though it's regarded by many as part of Stellenbosch. Its weather is cooler and better suited to Merlot than the Shiraz, which most Paarl Vintners punt when it comes to premium reds. The Griers have honed their own style... and in 2003 they'll be celebrating 20 years in the wine business, possibly with another Diners Club award to their credit - Chenin Blanc being the category for this year's competition.
