Rallying the troops
South Africa should take recent criticism on board but stick to its guns and soldier on, Anthony Rose tells Joanne Gibson
.Anthony Rose seems to have enjoyed the company of his fellow international judges at this year's Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, namely "jovial" Joel Payne and "my mate" Sam Harrop. “But who was that Irish judge Seamus?” asks the former UK welfare lawyer with a mischievous glint in his eye, before explaining that show chairman Michael Fridjhon was constantly popping into the tasting room to check on the medal contenders and asking, “Will it shame us?”
On the whole, Rose does not appear to think South Africa has much to be ashamed about – except its slow take-up of screwcaps for white wines. “The number of corked wines we saw was a disgrace,” says The Independent’s award-winning wine correspondent and a contributor to numerous other specialist wine titles. “There really is a need to move a lot faster.”
Having missed the controversial Platter’s 4½ and 5 Star tasting in London, where SA’s reds came under attack for their “typical” off -flavours, he is pleased not to have found any in the Bordeaux-style blends category. “There were certainly some green wines, some overripe ones, and some overdone in the confected oak department, but on the whole I was impressed. That said, it’s also pleasing to see how seriously the industry has taken the criticism, because the people who aren’t quite performing need to realise why they aren’t performing and sort it out rather than flying on the coat-tails of the good ones.”
He laughs: “One problem is that when we come across that unmistakeable ‘it-could-only-be-South-African’ pong at blind tastings in London, we always say that it’s Pinotage when it might not necessarily be. In our prejudiced minds, it’s yet another nail in Pinotage’s coffin…”
The category which impressed him least was Merlot. “Perhaps this was because many of the wines were from the hot 2005 vintage and suffered from overripe, jammy fruit. But when done right Merlot can be a perfectly attractive wine, and we managed to find a gold medal and a smattering of silvers.”
Rose was encouraged by “a couple of stylish reds with good varietal character” in the small Pinot Noir category. “It’s clearly a passionate winemaker variety rather than an industry variety, but it should develop with a bit of help from people who go out on a limb and international market. “The Australian and New Zealand dollars are very strong, as is the euro, which is putting a lot of price pressure on most of our so-called favourite wine countries. The relatively weak rand can be used as leverage – though not,” he cautions, “as a panacea. You cannot afford to get into the spiral of low-cost wines which will give you a low-cost image.”
At the same time, Rose believes it would be dangerous to go down the icon wine route. “Some winemakers seem to be throwing lots of extraction and wood at their wines to please Mr Parker and make more money at the same time, forgetting that wine should be about drinkability, about enjoying a whole bottle.”
On the whole, however, he is pleased with SA’s progress since he judged at the inaugural OMTWS in 2002. “We’ve been judging the top-end, obviously, but hopefully the leaders will inspire the foot soldiers.”
