Worth the wait
There seems to be increasing doubt about the ability of present-day South African red wines to age with benefit. Angela Lloyd discusses the issue.
Open any major international wine magazine and the contents are sure to feature a section on auctions. Whether through age or rarity, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Sauternes and Vintage Port are the styles most often traded via this type of sale and can fetch stratospheric prices: not many years ago, a single bottle of the legendary 1947 Château Cheval Blanc sold for US $33 900 (over R270 000). While provenance and authenticity are pre-requisites, underpinning any label that performs well on auction is the ability to mature, in the best vintages, for many decades.
If such a secondary market is not a general feature on the South African scene (the Nederburg Auction differs from those international sales in that the wines are preselected by a panel), a lack of track record among our wines, reds in particular, is just one – though important – reason why. Such a sweeping generalisation naturally has exceptions: Kanonkop Paul Sauer, Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon and Meerlust Rubicon are three of a small number which have established reputations and proved their ability to age over the years.
If there are doubts about the ageing ability of today’s reds, a well-reported recent tasting of 26 South African red wines dating from 1982 back to 1940 revealed that things were different in the past. Many of the wines were not only alive but had developed enticing layers of complex tertiary flavours.
Such desirable development demands particular characteristics of the wine at the start of its life. Fruit, harvested at a degree of ripeness that will allow for those secondary and tertiary flavours to develop; tannin, extracted from the skins during fermentation, for backbone; acid for freshness and increasing savoury character; and body, not just from alcohol, but the concentration of fruit cropped at the correct yield – together with tannin and acid, this provides texture and mouthfeel.
Barrel maturation, for wines with all the above attributes, helps to stabilise and clarify the wines, soften the tannins and develop secondary flavours through slow and controlled oxidation rather than detrimental rampant oxidation. Sufficient S02 prior to bottling and, hopefully, a sound meeting between cork and bottle will help preclude this fatal interference to beneficial ageing.
(The issue of ageing wines under screwcap is not within the ambit of this article. Suffice to say the majority of wines designed for ageing are still closed with cork, since the effects of screwcaps on long-term ageing have yet to be fully evaluated.)
All that remains is for the bottle to be laid on its side in a cool, dark spot with a constant temperature and sufficient humidity until it is ready for opening. What happens to the wine during that period is not fully understood but basically the tannins, which provide both colour and texture, polymerise and precipitate as sediment, leaving the wine progressively less astringent. At the same time, the primary aroma and flavour components interact “with each other and with other phenolics, so that gradually the smell of the wine is said to be transformed into a bouquet, of tertiary aromas”, as Jancis Robinson explains in the Oxford Companion to Wine. She also points out that many factors influence the rate at which the ageing process happens – storage conditions, for instance, particularly temperature and the state of the cork or other stopper.
Naturally, not all red wines are meant to age. With most wines consumed within 24 hours of purchase, many are styled to be agreeable for this purpose. Also, and sadly, it’s possible that only a minority of those who read this article will have experienced the pleasures of a quality, mature red wine, since few individuals have either the inclination, or the cellars with the correct conditions, to age wines, and restaurants are notorious for offering only current vintages on their winelists.
As for those wines made with longevity in mind, I asked Jordan’s Gary Jordan and Thelema’s Gyles Webb if they believe any varieties or styles benefit from ageing more than others. Both winemakers opt for Cabernet Sauvignon, citing the bigger tannin structure as an important factor. Jordan also mentions Cabernet-based blends and wonders, too, whether Pinotage shouldn’t be placed in the same category. He was one of the local and international tasters present at the old wine tasting mentioned above who were amazed by the positive development in the Pinotages from the 1960s and early 1970s.
If these wines had seen oak at all, it would have been large and older barrels. Treatment in the cellar, too, would have been gentle rather than aiming to extract every last tannin. These factors, as well as low yields, helped them mature so well.
Many modern South African red wines without the inherent qualities for ageing flatter to deceive when young through the sweetness imparted by maturation in new oak, regularly too much. It doesn’t take long for what fruit there is to fly, leaving only the unpleasant taste of dry oak tannins. This can also be a feature in “show wines”, a phenomenon that has sprung up with the advent of both many more competitions and hugely increased competition in the market place. These are wines made to stand out in a line-up and seduce the taster into awarding high marks, but their ageability is questionable. Apart from a generosity of oak, notes Jordan, “Show wines often lack balance and acidity; they also may have higher residual sugar as well as alcohol.”
He reckons that despite possessing some ageworthy elements, essentially they lack balance and show too much too early. “It seems part of the secret [of wines capable of ageing] is to delay the initial ageing process to gain those secondary and tertiary characters,” he reasons.
If lack of ageing ability can stem from cellar practices, nature herself can also thwart the process. Webb has never subscribed to the commonly held notion that in sunny South Africa there is little difference between vintages. “There aren’t going to be many great 1996 reds around,” he reckons.
While well-informed UK wine writer Robert Joseph might be inclined to argue that the effect of vintage is of declining importance, Webb, Jordan and I believe conditions in the lead-up to harvest are still very relevant, as much in themselves as the health of the vines they affect.
Consider 2002 – a year beset by mildew in the wet spring and when winter started unusually early. Lateripening, virused Cabernet Sauvignon was the worst hit; frankly there are few worth drinking, let alone keeping. But Cabernet shouldn’t be viewed as the yardstick for all varieties. Shiraz, which avoided the worst of the mildew, produced some more than decent wines, but even these are unlikely to get any better after six years.
At the other end of the scale, 2005 was extraordinarily hot and dry: even in vines without virus, sugars went sky high without the rest of the grape ripening at the same pace, especially where crop loads were too heavy. Add to this misjudged cellar practices, and many ’05 reds are clumsy and alcoholic; there’s no future for them either. The best vintage so far in the 21st century, for both reds and whites, is generally reckoned to be 2003; these wines will reward careful keeping. More recently, ’07 and ’08 look promising, though it is early days for a definitive opinion.
If it seems unlikely that many of today’s wines will last the course as well as those from the 1960s and 1970s, at what sort of age do Jordan and Webb think South African wines usually reach their best? “Generally between five and 10 years, though it depends on vintage and the specific wine,” says Jordan, while a cautious Webb thinks his wines “seem to peak about seven years after the vintage”.
If the ageing potential of South African red wines depends on many ifs and buts, there is one rule that all wine lovers should take to heart: for best enjoyment of any red wine, rather drink it on its way up the maturation curve than on its way down.
Angela Lloyd has been a wine writer and judge for 25 years. She has also lectured, broadcast, made wine and travelled to many of the world’s winelands.
