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Even for the most proficient wine judges, the qualitative aspects of taste memory are elusive.
It’s easy enough for anyone who has a trained palate and can recognise the component elements of a wine to remember its broad features: was it heavily oaked or not at all? How marked was the acidity? Was it tannic, grippy, perhaps even a little bitter or was it softer, creamier, more supple and velvety? But the harder questions relate to calibration, just how creamy, just how grippy, just how oaky?
Last week’s column covered several of the wines that made an impression over the three nights I spent working the room at WineX. When there are more than 700 different wines spread across about 120 exhibitors, it’s not possible, even for the most dedicated reviewer, to taste and record impressions of more than perhaps 200.
You need time to taste each wine, to ask questions and to write notes, and then to navigate a room that begins to fill up within an hour or so of opening.
It’s also not possible to do this free of the distraction of social engagement. Discussing the wines, whether with friends, acquaintances, or simply people wishing to share their impressions of what they have sampled, is part of the appeal of the evening. Often this is how new discoveries are made: someone enthusing about a wine presented at the stand of a first-time exhibitor can serve as a word-of-mouth signpost to a new vinous el dorado.
Sometimes, on a whim, I go to producers whose wines I know well but whose current releases are new to me. Perhaps there’s been a change of owner, though more usually it’s simply a change of winemaker. Kanonkop is in the middle of a transition, with cellarmaster (since 2002) Abrie Beeslaar focusing on his Beeslaar wines (but remaining on as a consultant) and Francois van Zyl moving across the road from Laibach.
This was what made the visit to the Kanonkop stand so interesting: the entry-level Kanonkop Kadette Cabernet Sauvignon 2024 (one of the Cape’s best-value high-quality reds at around R160 a bottle) was made by both of them. Beeslaar was there for the crush and Van Zyl saw it to bottle.
Interestingly, Beeslaar’s 2022 Kanonkop Pinotage — which sells for about R550 — had equally exuberant plush fruit and was equally ready to drink. One of the last wines of the Beeslaar era, it is both a top example of the national red grape and, despite the price, one of the best-value high-end wines produced in South Africa.
For those shopping in roughly the same price bracket as the pinotage, there’s an excellent 2022 Thelema Merlot Reserve: great intensity, almost caramel nuttiness and fine savoury tannins.
From Journey’s End there’s an exceptional white bordeaux blend — the Ad Infinitum 2023 (87% sauvignon, 13% semillon), which sells for R400 and could easily pass for a cru classé example from Pessac-Leognan.
For those with moderately deep pockets, the latest Jordan Nine Yards Chardonnay (2024 and selling for R580) is an exceptional buy — still obviously very youthful but already delicious. Chardonnay lovers were spoilt for choice: the Cap Maritime 2023 from the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley was splendid. It was quite burgundian in depth and generosity, but still fresh and precise, and comfortably worth its R460 price tag.
I also liked the latest (2024) Rupert & Rothschild Baroness Nadine Chardonnay. With fruit from Elgin and the cooler (Helderberg) side of Stellenbosch, it was fine, linear and precise.
A real discovery at the show was the newly released De Grendel Tijger Merlot 2022, which navigates the delicate balance between textural weight and freshness. Edouard Moueix, whose family owns more serious real estate in Pomerol than anyone else, has rightly said that good merlot is even harder to produce than pinot noir. Charles Hopkins and his team seem to have achieved this with this newest addition to the range. And at R325 for a bottle, it must count as a bargain.
This article was first published in Business Day.
