I remember reading this in the Onion once: “The quality of wine is inversely proportional to the ferocity of the animal on the label.”
Sadly for South Africa, we have many animal labels. Producers, it seems, think that they can bottle any crap and then throw on a cutesy label and all is forgiven. I am talking specifically about entry-level wines, at around the 50-60 buck mark. I think that there is such a low expectation in these wines that producers feel they can sell all most any drek. The worst are the red wines, and two that I have tasted recently back up my point.
Before I get to the wines I want to make sure my point is clear. Not only are there still too many cheaper red wines that are dull and uninspired, but too many trying to be masked as more expensive wines. This is generally done with the use of staves or oak substitutes.
You see, my hunch is that producers believe the South African public wants all their red wines to be wooded. We do have a history of enjoying big, chunky reds that have received some hefty oak treatment. New barrels, very ripe fruit and all that. This is fine. It’s a style, and there are some pretty decent wines made in it.
However, when they attempt to replicate this “style” in cheaper wines where the price of oak barrels is untenable, oak substitutes are used.
Oak substitutes can range from staves – planks of oak that are strapped to the inside of massive tanks – to oak chips that are poured into the tanks and then later filtered out. Just like knock-off electronic equipment (iPeds, Xbaxes, and the like), the results are rarely satisfying.
Why producers persist with these cheap imitation flavours is beyond me. Why not produce a cheaper red wine that is all about the fruit, which does not need oak chips? My bet is the un-wooded, pure fresh and fruity wine will be far more refreshing and enjoyable.
Take, for example, Vondeling wines (who, by the way, have reopened their tasting room in the Paardeberg and it is delightful and well worth a visit). Their entry level white wine, the Petit Blanc, a blend of Chenin, Chardonnay and Viognier is a bright, vibrant white wine that hugely over delivers on quality for its price. It’s pure and delicious.
Why then, wasn’t the same route followed with their Petit Rouge, the entry level red? Why couldn’t the same philosophy have been executed: fresh, pure, and fruity? Maybe the fruit is delicious, but underneath the gawky, stavey oak, it is really hard to tell.
I really like Vondeling wines, but the style of their entry red had me flummoxed. Another wine that had me frustrated was the Splattered Toad red wine, a blend of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon (a wine that backs up the notion that critter labeled wine should be avoided).
Why they couldn’t make something fresh and fun to drink is beyond me. Green cab, and astringent wood character made the finish of this wine really discourage you from taking another sip.
I don’t really like being negative about wines, and I feel a little bad for singling these two wines out because they are hardly the worst at this practice, but they were the last ones I tasted.
I have been asking for more fresh, fruity, un-wooded, and as a result, cheaper red wines since I started writing about wine. There has been some improvement, but I think there is room for far more.
The obsession with chocolate, coffee, and other oak derived flavours has us missing out on great grape derived flavours. We are missing out on freshness and drinkability.
So, winemakers out there, please consider letting your entry level red wines taste of fruit, let them be drinkable, make them with the belief that people will have two bottles. Think of picnics, sunshine, and high-fives when you make your R60 wines; think of tumblers not Riedels, think of ham and cheese sandwiches, not sirloin steaks; throw out the staves, throw out your chips.
We want fruit.
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