Oak Valley Blend 2005 released
Not So Bland - Oak Valley
Anthony Rawbone-Viljoen, owner of Oak Valley in Elgin concedes that the name of the property might well be perceived as a bit "bland" when first encountered but goes on to relate that there is a perfectly good reason why it's called what it's called: The farm was founded in 1898 by his grandfather Antonie, later to become Sir Antonie after being knighted in 1916 for his efforts to bring together Boer and Brit in the bitter aftermath of the Boer War. His love of trees led him to establish large forests of English oaks, and his will specifies that no future inheritor of the property be allowed to cut down any of these trees. Today there are some 4000 oak trees covering 30 hectares of the 1786 farm.
Oak Valley is well established as a high quality agricultural producer with other activities including apples, pears, cut flowers, cattle and pigs. Diversification into wine is a relatively recent development with the modern generation of vineyards dating from 1985 and the first wine under an Oak Valley label occurring in 2003.
Rawbone-Viljoen knew early on that the generic nature of the "Oak Valley" name might present trademark hassles and relates becoming concerned after watching Paul Dolan of Californian producer Fetzer talking about an "earth-friendly" range of wines under the Valley Oaks label on CNN some 20 years ago. Not wanting to engage in acrimonious legal battles, he resolved to call Dolan up to discuss a conflict avoidance agreement. Apparently Dolan's initial reaction was astonishment that "TV was available in Africa" but he subsequently proved accommodating and Oak Valley was not barred from trading in the USA. Rawbone-Viljoen chuckles, as he has only begun exporting to the States as of this year.
Sauvignon Blanc Success
Out of the 49ha of vineyard planted on Oak Valley, the variety that features most at 44% is Sauvignon Blanc, and this, typically in a delicate, understated style, is arguably the property's signature wine. "I'd like to think we're among South Africa's top 20 Sauvignon producers, if not top 10," comments winemaker Pieter Visser. The 2008 vintage sells for R75 a bottle from the farm.
This is not to say that the rest of the Oak Valley range should be overlooked. This includes a Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend know as The OV (the 2007 available ex-cellar at R120 a bottle), Chardonnay 2008 (R85) and Pinot Noir 2008 (to be released in December).
Particularly worthy of attention is the Bordeaux-style red blend known as The Oak Valley Blend, which is attracting much acclaim at precisely the same time as its well-established neighbour Paul Cluver has announced that it will be discontinuing its version known as The Elgin Blend on the basis that other areas such as Stellenbosch will always outperform Elgin when it comes to this category.
The 2004 vintage of The Oak Valley Blend won the international trophy for Bordeaux styled blends over £10 at the 2007 Decanter World Wine Awards to go with its rating of 4½ Stars in the September 2007 issue of WINE magazine, while the 2005 (consisting of 69% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Franc and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon) rated 4 Stars in the September 2008 issue.
Rawbone-Viljoen is only releasing the 2005 now as he felt that earlier it was nowhere near its best drinking and sadly observes that there are few consumers that are totally confident making that judgement call for themselves. As for the relatively modest price of R98 a bottle, he points out he has the not insignificant quantity of 32 000 bottles to move, the Oak Valley brand is not that yet well established and that he would prefer to move the price up incrementally over time as customers become convinced of the quality. "When I was younger, I always used to order Thelema in restaurants as I was confident about what I was going to get. I want consumers to regard Oak Valley in a similar light". No bad role model to follow.
