Wine estates — and by this I mean properties whose wines are produced solely from their own fruit — have a life of their own, one that reflects as much the ebb and flow of the vineyards as it does the personalities who direct them.
It is obvious why this should be so: plantings evolve in terms of composition, the age and health of the vines, and the part they play in blends and single-site wines. So do the viticulturists and the winemakers who make decisions about the vineyards and the winemaking process. After all, not many winemakers stay at the same cellar for more than 15 or 20 years.
There is no formula that resists the passage of time: when the vineyards are young the challenge is to build texture into the wines. As they age — and assuming they don’t succumb to a virus — it is to capture and retain the purity of the fruit.
Consumer fashion is also a factor; the demand for evidence of oak in the winemaking and maturation process peaked some years ago. Now concrete eggs and ceramic amphorae are all the rage, together with a resurgence in the use of large foudre, which impart a more subtle note of wood.
It is easy enough to identify those Stellenbosch estates that have experienced tumultuous changes. But there are also several who share in common control over their own vineyards, long-term and insightful ownership and cellar masters who have been in the job long enough not to have to respond to the demands of fashion.
This year, Kanonkop celebrates its half-century as a producer of bottled wine. In that time it has only had three winemakers. The Krige family has ensured that it is conservatively managed and adequately funded, freeing the winemaking team to get on with producing the best wine possible from the estate’s fruit. Its success speaks for itself.
The same is true of Thelema, which was developed by Gyles and Barbara Webb in the 1980s, and who still control it. Change — in the form of replantings and an acquisition in a different appellation — is managed under the guiding aesthetic upon which the enterprise was created.
At the preauction tasting ahead of a recent Strauss sale I tasted the fabulous 1994 cabernet (which won Webb the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year award) and the 2017 merlot, made by Rudi Schultz. The latter was probably the best merlot I have tasted from any Cape vineyard: complete and seamless, singular and still youthful.
But it was upon tasting the latest releases from Hartenberg that I realised how important it is for a winemaker to enjoy a settled tenure on an estate. Carl Schultz has now been on the property for 30 years. He has overseen at least one major replanting, and supervises a successful virus management programme. I’ve not always been a fan of Hartenberg’s wines, especially the ultrapremium range, as the fruit often battled to escape the influence of the oak.
His latest collection substantially reversed that impression. All his current and upcoming releases that I sampled shared in common greater fruit integration and less overt wood tannin. The estate chardonnay is simply delicious and a real bargain at R165 per bottle. The Eleanor 2020 Chardonnay, which is altogether bigger and more structured, is no less nuanced on that account. It is creamier, but with the intensity and purity to carry the fruit.
Of the high-end estate reds, I thought the Megan 2019 (which I sampled as a prerelease wine) has the potential to be one of the industry’s best Rhone blends. The Mackenzie 2017 (a cabernet-dominated Bordeaux-style blend) delivers massive concentration but still needs time before it’s ready to drink. The Gravel Hill Syrah 2017 is also very fine, with chocolate rather than pepper spice notes and ample savoury texture on the palate.
Overall, Carl Schultz’s latest wines reflect the quiet confidence of a man whose career has shaped — and been shaped — by the estate at which he has spent most of his career.
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