South African wine consumers are creatures of habit. You might be forgiven for extrapolating from the number of new labels which come to market every year that wine buyers are an adventurous breed, but the facts tell another story.
To the extent that they even try something different, it’s nothing more than a flirtatious flutter, before returning to the safety of the matrimonial bed. Fewer than 30 brands and five cultivars account for more than 70% of the country’s high-end wine sales.
Despite the often dismissive remarks by the wine commentariat, sauvignon blanc and merlot are the white and red cultivars of choice among consumers whose tastes extend beyond merely “a glass of white” (or “a glass of red”).
Chenin and chardonnay have a reasonable following, likewise cabernet and cabernet blends. For all the hype about shiraz/syrah when wine nerds gather, sales continue to lag behind the noise.
Once you look beyond the better-known and more visible varieties (so add pinotage, pinot noir and cinsaut to the list) everything else is either geeky (colombard and clairette, for example), useful for blending (petit verdot and mourvedre) or simply exotic.
It is this last-mentioned category where the most interesting wines can sometimes be found. Anyone who cares enough about true (weisser) riesling will probably go to great lengths to produce something memorable. Jessica Saurwein’s Chi Riesling is such a wine, likewise Botanica’s Albarino, Jordan’s Assyrtiko, Morgenster’s Vermentino, Olifantsberg’s Roussanne and The Foundry’s Grenache Blanc.
The launch of a subrange within the Steenberg offering focused me on the not-insignificant number of producers who have steadfastly worked with cultivars that are not mainstream — therefore not easily categorised and, accordingly, quite hard to sell. You might think that having pretty much the only Barbera, Nero d’Avola or Tempranillo would bring its own ecosystem and its own specialised demand, but the natural conservatism of the South African wine market militates against exceptionalism.
It’s a pretty easy test: can you really imagine people queuing at Wine Menu awaiting the latest release of trincadeira from Sjinn or viura from Alinea? Who is really going to care if The Fledge gives up on Tinta Franca or Overgaauw, which has been the only producer of Sylvaner in South Africa for the past 50 years, simply yields to commercial pressure and plants Sauvignon Blanc instead? The industry would be poorer for the loss, but not even the wiliest insurance assessor could put a number to it.
This brings me back to Steenberg’s Canvas range, which comprises three wines — one called simply “Blanc”, a Semillon, and a Nebbiolo. As pricing goes at Steenberg, none is expensive: the prices spread from just more than R260 to about R360.
To give this context, the Blanc (86% barrel-fermented sauvignon and 14% Semillon), instantly delicious though still with age in reserve, sells for about a quarter the price of the Estate’s Magna Carta, which is a blend of the same cultivars, but which will only reach the plateau of maturity after 2030.
The Semillon is very fine, leaner and less accessible than the Blanc, but made for the long haul. The oak is there, but it’s more to fill the spaces in the overall profile of the wine than to make it any more accessible. Semillon used to be the most important variety planted in South Africa, but that was 150 years ago. (The surviving old vines — most aged at 90-110 years — yield exceptional wines). Steenberg’s Canvas 2024 is more modern and suggests white Bordeaux rather than the old vine Cape classics.
The 2021 Canvas Nebbiolo is the natural partner to the Blanc. It’s made mainly from a block replanted just after the turn of the millennium. It has all the charm, texture and perfume of a traditional Piedmontese example, but with richer, more layered, leathery notes to accompany its malleable, plush tannins. Unlike some of the earlier renditions, this is instantly approachable. For R360 per bottle it obliterates — in value terms — all but the finest examples from Barolo.
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