OPIMIAN SUGGESTS

MANAGING DIRECTOR GREG RINEHART

Greg's wine style gravitates towards less serious styled rosés and whites. He believes that all events should start with a glass of bubbly! However, when done right, there is no better red grape for producing lighterbodied wines of elegance and complexity than Pinot Noir.

SERIOUSLY OLD DIRT BY VILAFONTÉ, WO WESTERN CAPE, 2020, LOT 3066, P33

LOOSE CANNON CAP CLASSIQUE, W.O. WELLINGTON, 2017, LOT 3049, P20 CINCIANO BIANCO, IGP TOSCANA, LOT 3083, P45

OUR PICKS FOR THIS CELLAR

VILAFONTÉ SERIES M, PAARL, 2018 (WOOD CASE), LOT 3067, P33

MANAGING DIRECTOR MICHAEL LUTZMANN

Michael has level 3 training from WSET. Before discovering more about wine through training, he only drank heavy reds. While those are still favourites, his palate pleasers now include the full spectrum with dessert/fortified wines edging toward the top of the list.

WARWICK ESTATE TRILOGY LIBRARY CASE, LOT 3038, P14 TALOSA VINO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO RISERVA, DOCG, 2016, LOT 3091, P49

An exciting and entrepreneurial spirit has transformed the industry from seeing wine as a by-product of brandy to its current focus on quality. Many of today’s top Cape wine producers, like Opimian’s Aristea and Kershaw, didn’t exist twenty years ago. Since the 90’s, winemakers have planted vineyards to explore new areas in both cool and warm climate regions. In parallel, South African winemakers have become enamoured with the country’s old vineyards in hotter dry farmed regions – grapes which were previously used for brandy production. However, it’s not all been smooth sailing in the Cape Winelands. The Cape suffered severe drought conditions after three years of low rainfall. Just as it was recovering, Covid hit. The toll of Covid on the South African wine trade was exacerbated by four government-imposed alcohol bans. These lasted a total of more than 161 days, preventing domestic sales and restricting exports of wine. Simultaneously, there was a major decline in wine tourism. For wineries dependent on domestic sales, this meant cash flow issues or worse. Earlier in the year, a reported 18,000 jobs, 80 wineries and 350 grape growers were at risk. Lack of sales also meant full tanks and less space to receive incoming grapes at harvest. Against this background, I spoke to Corlea Fourie, Vineyard and Wine Manager at Bosman Family Vineyards and Lukas Wentzel from Groote Post about the challenges and joys of being a winemaker in the Cape for the 2021 vintage. Harvest is what winemakers everywhere look forward to with anticipation and excitement. It is the culmination of the yearly cycle in the vineyard and preparation in the winery. It is a relatively short but very busy period when the fruits of the vignerons’ labour are revealed. All those ideas that have been taking shape in winemakers’ minds since the previous harvest can finally be enacted upon. After years of drought and water restrictions, the 2020-21 growing season saw good water replenishment of soils. Both Corlea and Lukas report that cool summer conditions meant grapes ripened slowly, developing exceptional colour and flavour. Deciding the

MASTER PIECE South African Winemaking | Resilience and Optimism

Jane Masters MW is Opimian’s Master of Wine

South African wine quality is on par with wines from anywhere around the world. The Cape's proximity to the cool Atlantic and the warmer Indian Ocean, cloudless blue skies, sunshine, and abundance of mountain foothills combine to create an array of terroirs.