Is specificity the key to wine quality?
Orthodoxy and heresy
Does the conventional wisdom that specificity is the key to wine quality hold true? By Christian Eedes.
There is an apocryphal tale of a university philosophy student who when presented with the essay question "Why?" simply wrote "Why not?" and passed with distinction.
This came to mind while tasting the Mont Rochelle Miko Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, the R300-a-bottle, ultra-premium red launched to commemorate the late Miko Rwayitare, a Congolese telecommunications tycoon and previous owner of the Franschhoek property.
Though labeled as a single-variety wine, it contains 7.5% Syrah and 7.5% Petit Verdot (the latter component from the 2008 vintage to add freshness) in addition to 85% Cabernet Sauvignon (Wine and Spirit Board regulations permit single variety wines to contain up to 15% of other varieties before they have to be declared as blends).
This is a wine that is unequivocally intended to make a statement and given the fairly unusual nature of its composition, you wonder why the Mont Rochelle brains trust insisted on giving it a varietal designation rather than simply calling it "Miko" and been done.
Dustin Osborne, New Zealand-trained winemaker and incumbent at Mont Rochelle since 2007, reveals that he is still feeling his way and doesn't want to be unnecessarily constrained in terms of what the property's top wine might be.
"I believe Shiraz has tremendous potential in Franschhoek," he comments, backed up to some degree by the Mont Rochelle Syrah 2004 having recently won a gold medal at the 2009 Monde Selection International Wine Contest in Brussels. The Syrah 2004 is indeed drinking beautifully right now, more elegant than the blockbuster Miko, but otherwise there is little to support Osborne's contention that Franschhoek can make a name for itself with Shiraz lacks much supporting evidence, at least to date.
One Franschhoek Shiraz that seems to be worthing keeping an eye on is that from Lynx Wines, winemaker Dieter Sellmeyer following up a rating of 3½ Stars for his 2006 vintage with 4 Stars for his 2007 in this issue (see p. 103) but other than that, quality Wine of Origin Franschhoek Shiraz is pretty thin on the ground. Grapes for Boekenhoutskloof Syrah, perhaps the valley's most noted wine, famously come from Wellington; the La Motte Pierneef Collection Shiraz-Viognier is also shaping up as a serious offering, but in the case of the current-release 2007, only a small portion of the grapes come from Franschhoek, the rest bought in from Bot River, Darling and Elim.
All this is not to say that Osborne is wrong but merely that establishing Franschhoek's strongest suit is work in progress, as is the case for the whole of the South African national vineyard. We have been urged by many that we should forsake the "fruit salad" approach where every property has every variety, but there are plenty of examples where a single producer is capable of quality wines in different idioms, It seems extreme, for instance, to insist that Meerlust do way with its Pinot Noir to concentrate solely on Rubicon.
The point has been made often enough that the South African winelands bear little resemblance to the cool, continental climates of Piedmont, Burgundy and Mosel but is rather more Mediterranean in nature. This means our climate is less extreme allowing us to be a lot less narrow in focus. Add to this the variation in soil types often across very small distances and and we have a further reason why our vineyards do not necessarily have to be mono-variety. Specificity is probably inevitable but only after a due process of experimentation.
