MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Wine worth buying from the cellar door

If anyone a generation ago had suggested that the Cape wine industry was probably the most exciting and most dynamic in the world, polite listeners might have sniggered behind their hands. Others might have suggested that this was an insight dredged from the dregs of a few bottles.

The changes since 1994 have been significant, though it was only really in the past 15 years that we have powered ahead. Our producers fell behind long before the formal years of isolation took their toll on creativity.

Formulaic winemaking — much of it driven by the requirements of big winery logistics — blinkered the aesthetic vision of even the supposedly independent winemakers. By the time we were again able to export our wines to consumers whose tastes had been shaped by breadth of choice, much of what we could offer was about as exciting as Soviet-era saloon cars.

We quickly enough learnt that wines as dull as an iron curtain car pool were never going to cut it in the more sophisticated international markets. We needed to clean up our cellars (in some cases, literally) and we needed to think — about what people wanted to drink, how to capture their attention and what really constituted a point of difference.

Finding the balance between originality and familiarity

Originality alone can never be enough. Consumers demand difference, but not too much of the deeply unfamiliar.

—  Consumers demand difference, but not too much of the deeply unfamiliar.

Ask yourself why Greek retsina has never really taken off as an export product. You’ll probably reach the same conclusion as those who tried to sell it to the wider world. If your expectation of wine is that it should have the flavours and vinosity derived from grapes, a beverage that tastes of resin is unlikely to capture your heart.

Over the past few decades some producers have responded to the demands of the market by making wines recognisable as better examples of something familiar — a more textured chardonnay, a spicier shiraz, a purer pinot noir. Others sought out less mainstream cultivars, more original blends.

Experimentation at Kleine Zalze

Some, like Kleine Zalze, whose commercial success placed it at risk of becoming a little invisible amid the ever-increasing noise of the new, chose to encourage each member of the winemaking team to make a small quantity of a dream wine using any of the available options.

The most successful of these “experimental” wines are released (mainly for sale at the cellar door) under the range name of “Project Z” — replete with a label bearing a linocut designed and executed by the winemaker. (As an aside, there are some thoughtfully conceived and beautifully rendered examples, packaging as quirky and engaging as the wines themselves).

Tasting the 2025 releases

I recently visited the cellar to taste the 2025 releases. This gave me the opportunity to see the effect of this programme of experimentation on the broader range of Kleine Zalze wines. The evidence was strongest with chenin blanc — a variety for which the winery rightly enjoys a substantial reputation.

The 2023 Project Z chenin (made by Hanrie Ferreira) was sourced from Old Vine certified vineyards in Stellenbosch and Durbanville. Part-fermented in clay amphoras and part in cement eggs, it is wonderfully precise: stone fruit, whiffs of green apple and ginger, fresh and flinty. It’s wholly different from the 2024 Vineyard Selection — also Old Vine fruit, but altogether more opulent, while the 2023 Family Reserve sits somewhere between the two: tighter than the Vineyard Selection, and with some of the nuanced detail of the Project Z wine.

Standout wines: Chenin Blanc & Grenache Blanc

Of the other specially crafted Project Z wines in the current release, the 2024 grenache blanc (produced by Henning Retief) was simply splendid. Piekenierskloof grapes, whole-bunch fermented in concrete eggs, deliver a wine that is brilliant, savoury and intriguing — and an absolute giveaway at R320. As an aside — if there’s any of the Heritage White blend 2023 (palomino, chenin and albarino) still available (it was at the same price), don’t hesitate.

There are not many purchases that justify shopping from the cellar door: Kleine Zalze’s Project Z selection is worth the hassle.