Leaf-roll virus

One-hit wonders

Leaf-roll virus makes it difficult for red producers to achieve repeat success.

The thought of tasting wine all day fills many people with envy. Wine judges are generally less upbeat. If they know that the tasting burden will be limited - no more than forty or fifty samples - they retain their sense of humour. Substantial increases in these numbers - say 80 to 120 wines - and the day's work becomes a job, with its moments of discomfort, tedium and even unpleasantness.

 

However, mention that the line-up is only young reds and there isn't a taster I know who would be seen straining at the starting gates. Tannin build-up, the assault of oak, acid, and astringent fruit are a guaranteed part of the experience. No one - not even a card-carrying member of the Masochist's Party - can approach the task with unbridled enthusiasm.

Given the burdens of judging reds, it's not surprising that there's a view that tasters generally do a better job assessing whites. Indeed, at first glance, there appears to be greater consistency in the results of white wine classes. Vergelegen's Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc blend has been a gold medallist every year since the launch of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show in 2002 (and all but one vintage has been a trophy winner). The Chenin Challenge Top Ten usually contains half a dozen of the usual suspects.

But does the greater regularity in some of the white wine classes - or put another way, the apparent lack of consistency in the red wine classes - reflect a better judging performance, or merely a more reliably produced wine?

At this year's Trophy Wine Show the winning Cabernet was the top selection from Kleine Zalze, the next highest scoring wine the same property's next best cuvée - both from the same vintage. Pretty much the same result emerged in the Shiraz class where a different panel worked its way through 164 wines and awarded gold medals to Kleine Zalze's best two Shiraz selections. (Incidentally the trophy panel sorted them into the "correct" order giving its highest score to the winery's reserve label).

Of course - for all these examples of panels doing a pretty creditable job there are a host of examples of them missing the point entirely - but this would be as true of white wines as it would be of reds. There's no art to a bad performance, however authoritative it may appear to be.

So if there's a sense that there are fewer surprises in the white wine classes, the explanation might lie somewhere else. I suspect that the answer resides in what can and does go wrong in the production process, a particular factor being South Africa's endemic vineyard virus. The fine balance between phenolic ripeness, freshness on the palate, well-managed tannins, integrated oak, flavour intricacy and true complexity can more easily be subverted than the component parts of even a barrel-fermented white wine.

If the grapes are a touch too green, the mouthfeel is astringent and the grape tannins don't harmonise as well with those of the oak. Look at what leafroll does to the ripening cycle, to the purity of the fruit, to the texture on the palate and you will see why it is so difficult for even the top winemakers to repeat their triumphs.

When tasting panels live up to our expectations, we say they are doing a good job. Since the concept of seeded players makes more sense in the world of white wine, we commend the judging - rather than the fruit - for the consistency of the white wine classes.