New World Winemaker Blog

While browsing through the brochures of an alternative oak supplier, I couldn’t help but realise the similarity between buying alternative oak products and buying a milkshake – the flavour profiles for both are “vanilla, coffee and butterscotch”, while if you make Pinotage, I’m pretty certain that you’ll be able to tweak a banana flavour as well! If manipulating the character of wine has become so predictable, one cannot help but wonder how far we are from a stage where winemakers are simply allowed to add the real thing (vanilla, coffee of butterscotch), legally. The surge in the use of wood alternatives could be ascribed to economical restraints as well as relaxed regulatory legislation in Old World producing countries. Barrels are expensive, a hassle to maintain and lose most of their value in the first year or even month of use, while alternatives like staves, chips and all kinds of inserts are cheap and easy – and usually come with a three-step protocol.

To add to this, alternative oaking methods can be viewed as a ‘greener’ practice, since these products are often produced from the off cuts of the staves made for the traditional vessel. While there is a significant drop in global barrel sales, the prominence of wood in wine is increasing, suggesting an obvious increase in the use of alternatives. Ironically the influence of wood in top products is decreasing – with bigger barrels particularly gaining favour – while entry level stuff and conceptual wine brands are often basically oak-driven. Oenological problems or simply bad grapes could easily be masked by an oak overdose, eliminating the need for lower yielding, properly managed vineyards or any significance of terroir.

The question is, where should the line be drawn – How toasted is too toasted? And if stricter measures are employed to regulate when and how oak is utilised, could this be enforced or tested? Perhaps an indication of the type and form of oak used, could become another requirement on labels – along with alcohol, sulphur, animal products and whatever else. The law that naturally regulates wine sales, styles and basically the entire global industry is, however, that of economical supply and demand.

Yes, winemakers play a deciding role in determining stylistic trends and fashions, but eventually the deciding factor is the consumer that buys that bottle of oaky Cabernet, unwooded Chardonnay or banana milkshake.

Edo Heyns is a winemaker, turned wine journalist working for WineLand magazine.

Two iconic South African wines are this year celebrating their first decade of existence. Both were ahead of their time and have over these ten years produced the goods, without exception.  And both are still some of the most sought after and pricy wines available.

The Sadie Family Vineyards Columella and Forrester Meinert Chenin, better known as FMC, also have another significant common denominator: neither of these wines are ever analysed before being bottled.

Winemaking talent and skill triumphed over modern technology, producing wines that eventually weren’t always analytically similar, but retained the intended style and more importantly, quality.

Eben Sadie is first to admit that his career started in an environment that was hyper analytic and technology-based, after which he gradually refrained from relying on figures to trusting his senses and pure gut feel. And as one of the most admired and respected winemakers, it obviously worked for him.

In the case of FMC, as the vintages varied, the picking dates, ripeness and amount of Botrytis – a very significant component of this wine – also varied accordingly. Since 2000 the alcohol levels in this wine ranged from 13.5% (in 2002) to 14.5%. Similarly the highest residual sugar was a whopping 14g/l in 2002, while the most recent vintage (2009) has a RS of 6.1g/l – the lowest of all 10 wines.

Yet, despite substantial differences in analyses and the expected vintage variation on taste and smell, the defying character of all the wines in essence remains similar: full, rich and complex.

Many top winemakers have suggested that red grapes in particular ripened at a lower sugar level in 2011 than most South Africans are accustomed to. It’s surely going to be interesting to see who picked on the optimal sweet spot, and who succumbed to forcing their standard recipe – resulting in jammy, overripe wines.

I’m not suggesting that chemical analysis should be omitted completely. Not at all! Many cooperative cellars even pay their producers according to these analyses and possibly rightly so. Chemical analysis is, however, just a tool and should be seen as such.

Pioneers like Sadie, Meinert and Forrester have shown that it pays to show some balls and rely on your skill, palate and memory, leaving the sugar hydrometer in the lab.

Edo Heyns is a winemaker, turned wine journalist working for WineLand magazine.

An experimental batch of Petit Verdot turned out to be a pioneering piece of art for Stellenzicht Winemaker, Guy Webber, who has recently introduced Stellenzicht’s first ‘no added sulphur’ wines – a Petit Verdot 2008 and Chardonnay 2009.

To classify as a low sulphite wine, the free SO₂ count should not exceed ten parts per million – which can prove to be quite a challenge, since wine yeasts naturally produce sulphur during fermentation. Guy has been experimenting with low sulphur wines for several vintages and explains that these wines are kept in the bottle for six to nine months before they are released – “just to make sure that they’ve made it.”

The Petit Verdot boasts with a particularly interesting story. The wine spent a year on the skins, which is unheard of in conventional winemaking. “Petit Verdot is known for its intense colour and impressive tannin structure, but this wine has turned out to be surprisingly soft and velvety, “ explains Guy.

Sulphur acts as an anti-oxidant in wine, a role that is also fulfilled by tannins. The Petit Verdot was fermented in old 500L barrels that have been transformed into mini rototanks at Stellenzicht. “These barrels are ideal vessels to ferment and mature small batches of wine. We have more than 20 at the moment and also use them for Shiraz.”

The Chardonnay literally went from tank to bottle to avoid exposure to oxygen and was not cold stabilised. Guy adds that the bottling process was done with particular caution, to avoid oxygen exposure or microbial contamination.

This has indeed been worthwhile, with the Chardonnay developing a remarkably complex flavour spectrum of melons, pineapples and citrus, while the palate is surprisingly rich and buttery.

The newest addition to the low sulphur range is most likely to be a Pinotage, which has already been bottled and is now spending time in the bottle to monitor its development. This would be the first commercial low sulphur Pinotage in the world.

Edo Heyns is a winemaker, turned wine journalist working for WineLand magazine.

The SurePure system is a brilliant South African invention that sterilizes liquid by means of UV-lights. By exposing the liquid (albeit wine, milk or fruit juice) to the UV-lights, harmful bacteria and other micro-organisms are destroyed without heating the product, as would be the case with pasteurization and similar processes.

The revolutionary technology has proven a great success in the dairy and fruit juice industries, while large beer producers are doing trials with great expectations.

Theoretically this technology could be extremely useful for wine sterilization as well. However, when the company approached the wine industry, its marketing strategy focused on producing “sulphur-free” wines, with catchy phrases claiming that this is the end of hangovers.

Prominent wineries did trials with varying success, with one of the first winemakers that used the machine (and prefers to remain anonymous), stating that lower sulphur levels could be achieved through SurePure, especially in reds.

“Red wine contains a multitude of natural preservatives like tannins, which can protect it against oxidation. We did fairly successful trials with Merlot, but Sauvignon Blanc was a completely different story.”

Because Sauvignon Blanc doesn’t have the same buffering systems than in the case of red wines, it is a lot more vulnerable. Reductive winemaking has become a norm for Sauvignon Blanc and this is impossible without the use of sulphur. Consequently the South African Wine and Spirits Board has rejected certification for Sauvignon blancs produced using the SurePure technology; claiming that the flavour of the wine is not true to the variety.

And what about claims about the end of hangovers? Didn’t the presence of alcohol occur to them? Although this would obviously have escalated SurePure sales if there was conclusive truth to these claims, but I find this pretty silly.

The SurePure system does however have a role to play in the wine industry, as an option for wine sterilisation and stabilisation – just like cross-flow filters and sulphur have roles to play.

Edo Heyns is a winemaker, turned wine journalist working for WineLand magazine.