Koelenhof Winery Best Value Cellar

Koelenhof Winery Best Value Cellar

The title is always hotly contested, with last year’s champion Bon Courage Estate a very close second to this year’s winner. Christine Rudman CWM reports on the first Stellenbosch producer to take the title. Situated in Koelenhof to the north of Stellenbosch, off the N1 and across the R304 from Villiera, Koelenhof Winery was established in 1941 as a family concern producing bulk-wine for the industry. That strategy has remained essentially unchanged; although they started bottling their own wine in 1974, it was a minuscule part of their business, supplying the shareholders and selling from the cellar door. The management has always been visionary, with Koelenhof the first winery to produce a white wine from red grapes, called Cinsaut Blanc, and the first to install a fully automatic pressing cellar that can be run by one man.

Today it has 75 farmer-shareholders from as far afield as Durbanville, Wellington, Constantia and, of course, Stellenbosch. Astonishingly, it is still run by the De Vries family who founded the business: Andrew is the general manager, while Wilhelm, the third generation to work there, is the red winemaker, having joined in 2001 after completing his studies at Stellenbosch University. White, sparkling and dessert wine is overseen by Martin Stevens, ex-Darling Cellars.

Production has grown substantially, with the annual press now 15 000 tons, and while bottled wine sales remain small, their distribution has increased into the general trade, including exports. There are two ranges: Koelenhof for everyday-drinking, and Koelenbosch which is more up-market and where the classic varieties are found. Although a small percentage of total sales, Koelenhof’s bottled wines get a lot of attention and are often entered in competitions. Besides their performance in the Value Awards, they have also had success at Veritas, where Koelenbosch Merlot regularly wins gold or double gold medals and where Koelenhof Pinotage Rosé became the first rosé in 11 years to garner a gold.

In recent years, Koelenhof achieved a listing in the 2006 Best Value Wine Guide with their Merlot, Pinotage and Koelnektar, a semi-sweet from Gewürztraminer. A different vintage of the Koelnektar won a Value Award in the 2007 edition, with other listings including another white, two reds and a Port. In 2007 they had a red, a white and two fortified dessert wines selected for the 2008 guide – a rehearsal of sorts for their latest achievement.
The Value Awards competition is not just a numbers game where the winery with the most entries wins. If that were the case, no small cellar would ever have a chance of winning. Price is one side of the coin but quality is the other, and it is how these two factors interact that is the critical factor. The competition this year was particularly fierce, and Koelenhof was selected as the Best Value Cellar Overall ahead of three previous winners of the title – Brandvlei in 2006 (2007 guide), Van Loveren in 2004 (2005 guide), and last year’s champion, Bon Courage, who for the 2009 guide came second by a whisper.

Looking at Koelenhof’s entries, their top scorer was the 2007 Koelenbosch Wooded Chenin Blanc, one of the highest-scoring Value Award winners with a 3 Star quality rating and a price tag of R25 – wooded Chenin one of the new trendy styles in the industry. Then there is a sweet sparkling rosé, the Pinotage Rosé and Merlot, a Shiraz and the Koelenberg red blend, plus two fortified desserts, a Hanepoot and a white Jerepigo. The ace up Koelenhof’s sleeve was their pricing: six of their wines cost R26 or less and the highest price is only R35. Coupled with the Star ratings, this earned them Value ratings of 10 for the Chenin, 8 out of 10 for the Hanepoot, Rosé and red blend, 6 for their bubbly and Jerepigo, and 5 for the Merlot and Shiraz. A remarkable achievement.

Plans for the future? They already have a state-of-the-art laboratory which is available to the wine industry for wine analysis, a boon for small producers, as well as a warehouse where other producers’ bulk and bottled stock can be stored. And a bottling plant, also available for industry use, is in the pipeline. In its own quiet way, this cellar is making its mark.