The Cape Vineyards – Boekenhoutskloof and Antonij Rubert

This area has changed a bit since we were here in 1988.  Then there were a handful of wineries and you just turned up, knocked on the door if necessary and then stood behind the counter while the winemaker or his manager offered you various wines and you  discussed them with him.  If you liked one, then you bought it.  One or two wineries offered bread and cheese.  And that was it.  Friendly, informal and fun.  I think it was that day in the vineyards of the Southern Cape that awoke our love of wine. 

And we also realized what a good wine is made in South Africa, and at what a good price.  It’s still the case now – South African wines are amazing value for money.  Sometimes  I wonder whether their value gives the impression that they are not so good.  In which case, they are a very well kept secret.

Wine tasting here is different now.  Flashy flagged entrances, long paved driveways, stunning buildings and specially built decks to enjoy the spectacular views.  Instead of leaning over a counter, you are invited to take a seat outside and someone will be along shortly.  Someone arrives with a menu and explains the cost of the tasting, if any.  This varies from vineyard to vineyard, but is normally about £2-4.  Sometimes the menu is divided into ranges, with cheaper and more expensive options.  This means that you can’t choose one of each, which can be annoying.  But if you buy a bottle, then the cost of the tasting is deducted.

Boekenhoutskloof

You sit outside as if you were in a restaurant, while a server brings your wines out, normally one by one (this can be quite a leisurely process!)  You can have one tasting between two, which is advisable if you are driving – and you can pour the extra into the bucket provided.

Now to business.   Here are some of the wines from two of the vineyards we’ve visited:

BOEKENHOUTSKLOOF

Platters* winery of the year 2012.  Beautiful surroundings, complimentary tastings of their own range plus PORCUPINE RIDGE and THE WOLFTRAP.  We were offered six, but could have had more if we wanted.  This is what we had:

PORCUPINE RIDGE SAUVIGNON BLANC.  A good grassy, fresh nose.  Fresh on the palette with a hint of pair.  Very good drinkable summer wine.  Costs under £3 from the winery.  We bought a bottle.

PORCUPINE RIDGE VOIGNER/GRENACHE BLANC oaked, unfortunately, which makes it sweet and sickly, but I know people do like this in a wine.  But not us. Under £4.

PORCUPINE RIDGE CABERNET SAUVIGNON Spicey and rubbery nose with a lingering taste. Slightly smokey, which we don’t mind in a red wine.  Under £4

BOEKENHOUSTSKLOOF CHOCOLATE BLOCK one of their well known reds, a blend with a complex smokey rubbery nose, with hints of blackberry.  Nice on the palette.  Have completely forgotten why it is called ‘chocolate block’, but it’s not because there is a hint of chocolate in it!   About £12 per bottle.

ANTONIJ RUPERT WINES

This used to be one winery, but he’s bought two next door as well.  And a few up the road.  ‘He’s going to end up owning the whole of Franschhoek,’ I heard someone say.  On arrival you have to pass a security barrier and announce yourself to the guard.  It’s incredibly plush with green lawns and sprinklers.  More guards point you to the parking area.  You then have to walk back over the road and into an imposing building flanked by two large bronze lions.  It’s all a bit intimidating.

The rather imposing Antonij Rupert  tasting room

The tasting menu has been divided up into sections, ranging from under £1 to about £4.  Each group is called a flight, and you may have as many flights as you like.  We went for the cheapest red flight, plus a mid-range white flight between the two of us.

I have to say, that despite the imposing grandeur, you do get to sit at the counter and can discuss the wine.  This is what we thought:

VAN LILL AND VISSER CHENIN BLANC Smokey and not to our taste, which is unusual, as we normally like chenin blanc.  £8

LAING SEMILLON Herby and lemony on the nose, fresh and woody on the palette.  Not bad, but we preferred the Semillon from La Chataigne.  £10

SERRURIA CHARDONNAY full nose, buttery and creamy, with a fresh pallet fresh with a hint of lemon.  Unoaked and we liked this one.  £10

MERLOT Pickled onion on the nose (another thing I often get!) but also fruity and the vanilla came out on the palette.  £4

CABERNET SAUVIGNON Definite blackcurrant in there, plus rubber and a hint of instant coffee, quite tanniny on the palette and a little sharp.  £4

RESERVE BLEND Rose petals, rubber, straw.  Fairly light bodied.  Under £6

*Platters is the wine bible for South African wines.  Very useful to have, but many vineyards have one on the counter.  To get a four star rating in Platters is something to be proud of and is often mentioned on the wine tasting ‘menu’.

    

Wines don’t smell, they have noses – our guide to wine tasting

It’s time to start blogging about the wine.  After all that is what this trip is about.  According to Eddie, that is. Mine’s the get-away-from-the-winter bit.  Which has been a massive success.  A sort of blue skied, azured sea sort of success.

Chapman's Peak - Cape Town

But back to the wine.  I should start by saying that we are NOT wine connoisseurs.  But we like drinking it.  Quite a lot.  We buy most of our wine half-price from supermarkets, six at a time to get the extra 5% off.  We buy a lot of wine from Costco, six at a time, when it’s on special.  We drink about four or five bottles a week, Fridays and Saturdays, many Sundays and once or twice during the week.  We seldom have more than a bottle between the two of us.  We very rarely leave wine in the bottle overnight.

We belong to the Wine Society (well, Eddie does, it was my birthday present to him a couple of years ago).  We’ve been going to the Tesco Wine Fair for the past ten years, firstly on our own, but we’ve gradually picked up friends and relatives who like to come with us, so now I always buy 8 tickets as soon as they go on sale, because I know I’ll have no problem gathering together a group of 8 for it. 

We drink a lot of wine with friends.  This normally means pottering up the road to our neighbour’s with a bottle of wine, or inviting them to join us.  This is when we will have more than a bottle between two, but all in the name of comparison.  Wine is good to share and discuss. 

Our favourite white is sauvignon blanc, our favourite red is probably malbec, but we enjoy a good merlot, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon as well.  We enjoy Bordeaux reds, detest Australian chardonnays, and most ‘new world’ chardonnays, but we do like Chablis (same grape, completely different taste.  Sorry, palette.)  We have ‘mid-week’ wines which go with chilli or spag bog and we have smoother wines for drinking on their own.  We drink a lot of Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and have enjoyed many other NZ Sauvignon blancs.  But, when we want something a bit more special, we’ll go for a Sancerre.  We believe that you can’t get better than a good French wine, but that doesn't stop us from drinking ‘new world’ wines and it certainly didn’t stop us from touring the new world for wines.

That’s about it.  We are just two ordinary people who like wine. 

But – I do know how to taste it.  And that’s because, when I was expecting child No 2 some time ago, I wanted to go to an evening class.  Anyone with young children will understand why it’s important to get out of the house without them and do something adult once in a while and evening classes are perfect.  As I was expecting in February and Eddie was a way often , but seldom on a Monday night, I had to choose a course that lasted one term only and was on Monday evenings.  I had two options – wine appreciation or knitting. 

I know that knitting is getting quite popular, but it wasn’t a hard decision to go for the wine.

We tasted six wines each week, spoke about them, decided whether we liked them or not and, if we did, we went out and bought them – they were all easily available.  We learned about grape varieties and why two of the same grape will make different tasting wines.  It’s all to do with the soil, micro-climate of where they are grown etc.  And it’s why you can make any sparkling wine you like using chardonnay grapes and the ‘methode champagnoise , but it will NEVER taste as good as the ones that come from a small region in France called Champagne.  Nothing else compares, even if it is cheaper.  Sorry.

So, how do you taste wine?  Here’s my simple guide:

Use a class that’s wider at the bottom than the top – this keeps the nose in (not yours, the wine’s)

Use a clear glass, no fancy patterns and no colour – and definitely not a red one, makes the wine look terrible.

Fill the glass no further than the top of the ‘bulge’.  NEVER fill a glass to the top, the point of all that extra space isn’t so you can drink more than anyone else, but to allow the wine’s nose to be held in there for your nose only.  If you use proper large wine glasses, you will find it very uncomfortable to drink out of it if it’s full.  And, it just looks – well, bad.  And for tasting you really don’t need much in there.

Swirl.  Give it a good swirl to get all the different flavours out.

Breath out, stick your nose right in, shut your eyes, and take a great big inward breath – or long, large sniff.

Imagine what you can sense in there.  It could be absolutely anything, from old rubber tyres, cat’s pee to blackcurrents and freshly cut grass.  A lot of people don’t understand this, but those aromas don’t mean that is what the wine should taste like.  And it doesn’t mean you should be able to pick up ‘grape’ or ‘red wine’ in there.  Go on, give it a try and see what you can smell in there.

Now for the fun bit.  Put some in your mouth, but don’t swallow it.  Open your mouth a tiny bit and breathe in, through the wine.  It will make a bubbly sound, but don’t worry about it, it makes you sound professional.  And the effect will be an explosion of all those flavours you’d never think to find in a glass of wine.  This is called the palette – did I mention that wines have palettes as well as noses?

Now you can swallow it.  Now take another sip and decide whether or not you like it. 

It’s as simple as that and anyone can do it.  And, when you go wine tasting and are told that your wine will have hints of this that and the other, it doesn’t matter if you find something completely different in there.  

That’s the whole point – and the fun of wine tasting. 

The most important thing is whether or not you like it.  Cheers!