Balance is what I’m looking for in the perfect wine. And my perfect wine also has to have fruit that reflects the area in which it is grown. But ultimately the perfect wine is a wine that I keep going back to, whether I’m drinking it in front of the TV, or at a posh dinner.
The wines I enjoy the most are always occasion-related. So on a hot summer’s day there’s nothing more enjoyable than a glass of cool sauvignon blanc. On a cold winter’s day on the other hand, I’m particularly fond of a Rhône-style blend that we do called The Motorcycle Marvel. And to eat with it? We have a lovely family recipe of roast pork with roasted vegetables that pairs perfectly – or, for everyday eating, a big bowl of chilli con carne is superb. With the sauvignon blanc I love sushi - it’s such a winning combination.
What’s so special about South African sauvignon blanc? We have planted the grape in so many different areas, so we have access to lots of premium fruit, and each area has a totally different character, from sauvignon blanc with green, grassy asparagus notes to something with more tropical flavours. Here at Nederburg we love to combine those flavours to produce something unique.
The blending is the best part of the winemaking process for me. Take that Rhône-style red blend – this last vintage we took five different grape varieties from five different regions. Playing around with these blends back in the lab is an important part of the creative process. Each tank or barrel is a building block – I can spend a whole day putting together one particular blend. Our goal is to produce a wine that is better than each component.
The trickiest bit of my job is predicting the market. Some markets want a softer, juicier style of wine and others want heavier, richer styles, so the challenge is to produce something that ticks the boxes for all markets. That’s why travelling is so important - you get to know your market.
How do we manage to please all of our customers? Stylistically, this starts during harvest. If we want a juicier, softer style then we start harvesting a little earlier; for a riper style we harvest later.
And just because we work with 20,000 tons of fruit here at Nederburg, that doesn’t mean we are a factory. We have seven different tiers of products, from the small lots produced for the Nederburg Auction to our “no rules” range called Ingenuity, where, for example, we blend together Italian grapes, such as Sangiovese, Barbera and Nebbiolo – something you aren’t allowed to do in Italy – with stunning results.
I think we’ve set the bar for innovation and trying new things. We have a lot of grapes to play with, which means a lot of freedom – freedom that smaller producers often don’t have. That’s one of the things that excites me most about working here.
The most magical bit of the job for me is tasting through the barrels and seeing how the wines evolve – how the wines come into their own. I see the fruit come to the fore in red wines that started out aggressive and un-balanced, and I taste the tannins softening. That’s wonderful to observe.
We’re particularly excited about a vineyard we are working with in the Western Cape, in Ceres. It’s about 1000m above sea level and the riesling planted there looks very promising. It has superb pinot noir and sauvignon blanc too.
We have fun every day in this job. It’s exciting to look at grape varieties that aren’t planted widely in South Africa. At the moment we’re developing a Rhône-style white blend using roussanne, grenache blanc and viognier. We love playing around in areas other people aren’t looking at.
