When the major wine producers of the Bordeaux region launch their latest vintage, they host a huge “Primeurs” party to which the international wine press and the leading brokers are all invited. Before you think that this means that the chateaux owners dip deep into their pockets, I should add that most invitees pick up their own travel costs.
For the pleasure of daily tastings of hundreds of samples of six-month-old unformed wines, they are treated to snacks and bitings on the move (though there are a few quite smart dinners to break the monotony). But then, it’s a bit of a bus driver’s holiday: they are there to work, not to play.
No-one seems to complain: very few of them even moan that the samples they are shown are merely an indication of what the final (as yet unassembled) wine will look like — a bit of an artist’s impression if you like. They issue their ratings on the strength of what is offered for sampling, and buyers from all around the world make their decisions accordingly. Clearly, everyone seems to think that these concoctions are the real deal. I’m not suggesting that producers consciously engage in underhand or nefarious practices: simply that the wines will remain unbottled for at least another 12 months and in that time much can (and often does) change.
In SA, when the big-name producers have a new vintage to bring to market, they present it in “market-ready” condition. They do not pitch up with a rough-and-ready blend assembled from a representative selection of the barrels. Over all the years I have been involved in wine and wine writing I don’t think I have attended more than a handful of events where prebottling samples were even shown to buyers.
Instead — as the past few weeks have made clear — they arrive with the wines that are about to go to market, or are already in the trade. Schalk-Willem Joubert from Taaibosch, for example, presented his second Crescendo vintage, with the latest Pink Valley Rosé and the first release of the Le Chant Blend from the Polkadraai property. There was nothing to be ashamed of in that line-up. The Taaibosch is a worthy successor to the maiden 2018, all the fruit harvested from the Helderberg site, which was the home of the original (Cordoba) Crescendo.
If the price of the Crescendo caused a sudden intake of breath, you will need your cardiologist on standby for the Laurence Graff: R4,200 — and that’s per bottle.
The 2019 Crescendo is more subtle, a function of a finer, longer ripening vintage, more flexibility around the use of new oak, and a healthier postdrought vineyard. The tannins are creamier, the wine more nuanced. At R420 it’s not everyone’s braai wine — nor should it be: it’s owed more time in the bottle, simply to become its best possible wine.
The 2021 Pink Valley is also a step up on the first release. It has fractionally more colour than the 2019, but is still comfortably in the spectrum of what would be permitted in Provence: and the palate delivers on the visual promise, with just a little extra savouriness achieved without any loss of finesse.
At much the same time Delaire-Graff’s Morne Vrey opened the cellar’s strong room and brought out the latest vintage of the Laurence Graff Reserve 2017, a five-barrel selection of the cellar’s best cabernets. If the price of the Crescendo caused a sudden intake of breath, you will need your cardiologist on standby for the Laurence Graff: R4,200 — and that is per bottle.
It has to be said that the newly released 2017 tastes as if the price is not simply a marketing department’s fantasy: it is at least as justifiable as any high-end Napa cabernet, perhaps more so since, despite its concentration and opulence, it still comes with a savoury freshness. This is a viticultural and winemaking achievement: perfectly ripened fruit, carefully barrel-matured and seamlessly assembled.
If you have the resources to dispense with the purchase price as a triviality, it would make a worthy — and impressive — addition to your cellar.
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