John Loubser - Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Award 2003, Constantia
Usually the winner of the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year competition is clearcut: the maker of the wine adjudged best by the tasting jury wins the award. This year a rather unusual situation developed. . . Fiona McDonald reports.
The judges deliberated long and hard, narrowing it down to five Semillon wines: Stellenzicht Reserve 2002, Steenberg 2003, Constantia Uitsig Reserve 2002, Bon Courage 2003 and Fleur du Cap Unfiltered 2003.
It was a straight shootout between the five - all rated 4 Stars - and the judges were asked to rank them in order of preference. Once the scores had been submitted and verified by auditors Deloitte and Touche, the outright winner was Constantia Uitsig's Reserve Semillon 2002.
The final tasting note revealed why the wine came out tops: "Clear green straw hue, aromas of crushed green herbs - coriander and lemon grass - with underlying waxy, almost oily whiffs. Full-bodied, elegant and dry with citrus and quince flavours, followed by an almost austere, poised finish, showing finely judged, rich vanilla notes."
A top Semillon from a wine farm and producer that doesn't have a cellar… So who was responsible for this winning wine?
Essentially two men: the primary winemaking responsibility fell on the shoulders of John Loubser of neighbouring Steenberg while André Rousseau of Constantia Uitsig took a more active role in its subsequent development.
Rousseau is philosophical about Loubser being awarded the kudos - after all, one of his forefathers was famous French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau! "We have an excellent working relationship with Steenberg, having used their facilities for years - and we've just concluded a contract to continue doing so for the next three. I work really well with John and respect him as a winemaker. He's been a huge help in the past year as I've got more involved in the winemaking."
While the overall development plan accommodates a cellar at Uitsig, there are no immediate plans to erect one.
A trained winemaker, Rousseau studied at Elsenburg before gaining four years' practical experience at Twee Jonge Gezellen.
"I've been with Constantia Uitsig since 1999 as the viticulturist and vineyard manager." After the departure of former wine director André Badenhorst prior to the 2002 harvest, Rousseau began to play a more active role in the winemaking and marketing, and in 2003 he took charge of winemaking at Constantia Uitsig.
But in 2002 winemaking still rested solely on the shoulders of Steenberg winemaker John Loubser.
What's intriguing is that Loubser made the Constantia Uitsig wine in a style he eschews for Steenberg.
The Uitsig philosophy is to make Semillon in a quasi-Chardonnay style - fermentation is begun in stainless steel tanks and once it's bubbling away nicely, it is racked off into second- and third-fill oak barrels.
"We leave the wine on its lees for nine to 12 months and do bâttonage from time to time," says Rousseau. "The lees are important because they've got all the flavours that we want for a Constantia Uitsig Semillon."
Also important is that the wine spends six to eight months in bottle prior to release - so this winning wine has only been on the market for a few months. "Semillon has this capacity to open up and develop nicely in the bottle, which is why we give it time - to do justice to its flavour and development."
Naturally Rousseau raves about the grapes and the fruit, admitting that he's fanatical about canopy control. The Semillon is from a very small 1.5 ha vineyard.
"Semillon's one of the best vines you can work with - it gives you no hassles, not like Sauvignon Blanc. The only disadvantage, I'd say, is that it's planted in sandy soils, but since we inserted three neutron probes in the vineyard we can monitor and manage the irrigation so much better. That impacts amazingly well on the fruit - and we've seen the difference between 2002 and 2003."
Rousseau is complimentary about the support he's received from Constantia Uitsig's owners, Dave and Marlene McCay, as well as the chefs and restaurants.
"We're quite small. We produce 12 000 cases of wine in total, but a wine like this Semillon just does so well in the restaurants - at Constantia Uitsig it's Frank Swainston's favourite wine, and diners at La Colombe also love it.
"People are prepared to try something different and new if they're encouraged by well-trained restaurant staff and convinced that the wine complements the food."
Nearly 40% of all sales are direct from the farm, something the Constantia Uitsig team is very happy about.
For Steenberg's own wines, Loubser's approach is very different. "My idea is to use the complexity of the grape to influence the ultimate wine, not wood."
This means allowing the grapes to ripen substantially and then fermenting them in new barrels, before transferring the wine to stainless steel tanks.
The wine spends only six weeks in wood, with just two lees stirrings during that period.
"My intention is to preserve the initial fruit and not allow it to become extremely buttery and oily. Semillon has enough of that lanolin flavour naturally. I also don't want it to undergo malolactic fermentation - again to preserve as much of the primary fruit.
"The idea is to let the complexity of the grape speak for itself. Yes, I'll grant that wood adds a different dimension but it shouldn't dominate."
But whatever style the wine is made in, Semillon is superb with food and ages incredibly well.
"In the 1700s 95% of all wine grape plantings in South Africa were Semillon," says Loubser. "It was simply known as wyndruif."
The first time he was ever exposed to Semillon was in 1996 while working a harvest in Bergerac in France.
"I used to have to do juice tastings of the Semillon with a colleague - at midnight! And I remember that the words that kept cropping up for me were dried apricot, sweet citrus and tangerine - especially tangerine.
"Little did I know I'd be working with the grape as much as I have just a few years later."
A Namibian by birth, Loubser grew up surrounded by food and wine, as his parents owned one of Windhoek's oldest and most historic hotels, the Gross Herzog.
As a youngster his drink of choice was wine, not the beer or spirits preferred by his peers. "Especially Tassies!" After his national service, he spent a few years studying architecture, but didn't complete his degree. He also spent two years as a diamond diver on the Namibian Skeleton Coast, before the wine bug really bit him.
It happened shortly after he met his wife, Karen. "Her folks owned a little wine farm in Bonnievale - a beautiful place, right on the Breede River, which produces about 80 tons of grapes. The plan was that eventually we'd take over the farm - so I decided to learn how to make wine."
First up was six months spent working in the vineyards in Germany, in the Stuttgart area, before he moved on to Chateau de la Colline in Bergerac for the harvest. Three years of studying at Elsenburg College followed.
"I decided to look for a mentor - and thought I'd learn the most from Mike Dobrovic at Mulderbosch. This was in 1995. I was about to start when out of the blue I was offered a full-time winemaking job at Môreson.
"It was a really tough decision to pass up the opportunity of learning from a superb winemaker like Mike - but he was very understanding and also encouraged me to consider that I was being given the opportunity to make wine in my own cellar."
For two years Loubser worked at Môreson - until tragedy struck. His father-in-law died and they needed to move to the family farm in Bonnievale.
"I was lucky enough to get a job at De Wetshof - under a hard taskmaster! I learned a lot from Danie de Wet."
That was another two year stint. "Then I heard about a job going at Graham Beck Robertson. It was ideal - close enough to where I was living and a great opportunity to work with Pieter Ferreira. I'd say that the time I spent there was my happiest - and it's where I really fine-tuned my skills.
"The Graham Beck crowd are a great bunch and Pieter Ferreira and I really clicked. He's an awesome guy to work with, passionate and constantly experimenting, trying new things and thinking deeply about wine."
When first approached about the Steenberg winemaking position, Loubser immediately rejected it out of hand.
"I said no. I didn't want to move. But I was pursuaded to come and have a look.
"I was hooked! It was a superb cellar with truly great terroir. I realised the time had come to carve my own niche. It's a decision I haven't regretted in any way."
Wife Karen, daughter Faine (6) and son Tivan (4) feature prominently in Loubser's life. "We spend almost every weekend at the Bonnievale farm. At the moment we're planting masses of lavender and olive trees. We love family time, walking or hiking, picnicking - doing simple things. Karen and I both love cooking and anything to do with food, so we share that love."
Both he and Rousseau attribute the success of this winning wine to the Constantia terroir, but Rousseau has the final word: "It's so exciting being in Constantia now because all the guys work well together and there's this rush of new blood - Boela [Gerber] at Groot Constantia, Adam [Mason] at Klein Constantia, John, myself - and then of course Hermann [Kirschbaum] at Buitenverwachting.
"We all share ideas and talk about things. There's a massive belief in the tremendous quality wines Constantia can produce."
The Diners Club judges obviously agree.
