Rianie Strydom's exceptional South African wines

Oct 30 2009 by Helen Savage, The Journal

Helen Savage takes a closer look at what South African wineries have to offer.

THE unique selling point of South African Wines is that they “lead the world in producing wine with integrity”, says Su Birch, the CEO of Wines of South Africa.

But although South Africa can properly boast more fairtrade wines than any other nation and has a far greater natural diversity of plant life than any of its competitors, which its wine producers are keen to preserve and protect, it’s not committed to organic viticulture or even to carbon neutrality.

What it does offer, beyond any doubt, is a range of flavours that, at its best, is distinct and welcome: often a kind of halfway house between the up-front fruit that characterises some of its southern hemisphere competitors, and the elegance and restraint more usually associated with European wine.

Despite this, South African wine styles are changing. Putting aside the real appeal of its own black grape, Pinotage and the widely-planted Chenin Blanc, a number of the Cape’s top producers are now convinced that they can make better, even more distinctively South African wine by crafting blends from a number of different varieties. And in the way they’re going about this, they seem to be taking a determinedly Old World approach.

New dry white blends fall into two distinct groups: one, strongly reminiscent of white Bordeaux, features Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, the other is inspired by more Mediterranean flavours from grapes such as Viognier, Clairette and Grenache Blanc, but likes to mix them with the long-established Chenin.

The red wines also fall into two camps, one again influenced by Bordeaux, with the spotlight on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and the rest more often than not based on Syrah (Shiraz), with either French/Spanish flavours from Grenache and Mourvèdre or a more eclectic mix that makes use of the rich stock of Portuguese varieties that have long played a minor role in the Cape portfolio, or else Italian stars such as Sangiovese and Barbera.

Anthony Hamilton Russell, whose own estate came to fame with some superb, almost Burgundian Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, puts the case for blends by insisting that his new blends from his Ashbourne vineyards are “something new” and a “unique expression” of South Africa.

Speaking in London a couple of weeks ago he argued that, “the beauty of a blend is that you don’t expect it to be like any other wine”. The other advantage of a blend is that it allows the wine maker “to break the rules”, presumably by arriving at a recipe no-one else has thought of.

This sounds all well and good, but the blend put before us by Hamilton Russell himself, though quite delicious, was close to that of a typical dry white Bordeaux (but for a dollop of 15% Chardonnay). It therefore inevitably invited comparison not only with French classics, but also with similar blends from Australia and New Zealand.

Some of the other blends unveiled in London were exceptionally fine, especially, ‘The Jem’, Kevin Arnolds’s wacky, but stunning mix of five Bordeaux red varieties with Shiraz, Mourvèdre and Barbera, all grown on his Waterford Estate.

It’s an elegant wine with great perfume and a sensationally silky texture and should persuade anyone who still thinks that South African red wine is not up to scratch – as quite a few UK wine critics still do – to think again. Mind you, its estimated retail price is £47.

Yet truly great South African red wine need not cost an arm and leg, as I discovered when I met Rianie Strydom and tasted the wines she’s made for her Dombeya range at Haskell Vineyards in Stellenbosch.

Her whites are pretty exceptional too. Her Haskell Pillars Shiraz 2007, from vines planted in just 2002, won the coveted best in show prize at the hugely competitive wine Tri Nations Challenge, held in Sydney in September, against the best of Australia and New Zealand.

It also carried off a Five-Star award in the 2010 edition of John Platter’s respected South African Wine Guide. It is magnificent, rich, sumptuously textured and yet shows great finesse; but I think that the Dombeya Boulder Road Shiraz 2007 is almost as good: more open and perfumed, even slightly floral, it has Northern Rhône-like elegance and real complexity – the 2006 can be yours for just £11.50 online from Lea and Sandeman: www.londonfinewine.co.uk; and it’s even cheaper if you buy a case.

The same site offers Rianie’s elegant Chardonnay 2008 at £10.95 and her 08 Sauvignon Blanc at just £8.95. I loved her 09 effort; which is crisp but mineral with an underlying tropical fruit ripeness.

Rianie Strydom has richly earned her reputation as one of the most talented wine makers in the southern hemisphere, but she is remarkably modest about her success, and is clearly thrilled to bits by it. She says she was pleased just to have been invited to Sydney, “and voilà, I got a Five Star and a Tri Nations”.