Caillard Wine - Andrew’s dream, Bobby’s reality

Most wine lovers know of Andrew Caillard as a Master of Wine, co-founder of Langton's Fine Wine Auctions, Australian wine expert, wine critic ... and producer of the documentary ‘Red Obsession’, but not too many know that he also has his own wine label. It was exactly because of this curiosity that I attended BBR's recent vertical tasting of his Mataro from Barossa to see what style of wine such a high profile expert had to offer.

The Mataro grape is the same as Mourvèdre from Southern France or Monastrell from Spain. It was introduced to Australia around 1830 and had become an important silent partner in blends of most wines by the mid 1900s. It certainly played a role in early Penfolds blends until Quarry Paddock, a 19th century Mataro vineyard, was lost to urban development. After that, it gradually made way for more fashionable grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, until Aussie’s winemakers realised that they could label Mataro as the trendier   Mourvèdre
and, even better, blend it with Shiraz and Grenache to produce a Southern Rhone style wine now famously called GSM.

At the tasting, what caught my eye (or my palate) was not the wine itself but the labels. Lined up on the table the six wines (five Mataro of different vintages and one Shiraz) all had different paintings as labels but clearly of the same style, with gardens, flowers and birds as the main elements. Bobby, Andrew's wife, told me that indeed the labels were all hand-painted by Andrew himself during their holidays (hence the theme of bushes and nature). When they bottled the 2008 vintage, their first wine, the bottle had no label and the wine had no name. After brainstorming for all possibilities they finally settled for using his paintings and their names as the brand—and they were proud of it. The production was only 120 dozen but, with packaging and name confirmed, the time had come to start selling the wine. Since Andrew had a busy schedule, the marketing responsibilities fell on Bobby. She affectionately jokes that Caillard Wine is pretty much "Andrew’s dream and Bobby’s reality."

Ask Andrew why he chose to produce a single Mataro rather than the more popular GSM and he will explain that he got the inspiration from the Penfolds book, ‘The Rewards of Patience’, of which he has written five editions in the past 20 years. For him, producing his own label is a logical progression in his career. It is an intellectual project—one requiring concentration and thinking—focused on how to adapt to the Australian climate and produce an elegant wine. He further illustrated this with a change in the label painting from gardens and bushes to a bird, a peacock to be exact, for the 2011 vintage because ‘peacock’s tail’ is also a tasting term denoting the length of flavour. His 2012 and 2013 labels were all paintings of long-tailed birds.

Turning to the wines themselves, they are certainly elegant. Mourvèdre is naturally high in acidity and a late ripener so is particularly well suited the hot Barossa climate. Ageing in only 10% of new oak adds complexity without imparting heaviness to the wine. The new 2013 vintage is fruity with a hint of herbal notes typical of Mourvèdre, while the 2009 vintage has intense marmite. Most attendees preferred either the older vintages or the younger ones but, for me, my preference was for the 2010, which has a fine balance between fruitiness and savouriness. Again, there is no absolute right or wrong in wine!

Andrew does not own any vineyards but instead sources fruit from reputable growers. So he can be selective. Caillard Wine has its own winemaker but Andrew is still hands-on in the blending process and tastes every single barrel before making the decisions. After seven years of business the winery still remains pretty much a micro-producer, turning out just 400 dozen Mataro and 200 dozen Shiraz each year. Of the five Mataros we tasted only three are available in the Hong Kong market. With his profile and limited production, I was pleasantly surprised that the wine retails here at just over $350 per bottle.

Watch out for Andrew’s latest wine, the Caillard Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon "Reynell Selection" 2015, which pays homage to his great great grandfather, Carew Reynell, who fought and died in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during the First World War and who was a descendant of John Reynell, a pioneer in planting Cabernet Sauvignon in Reynella in South Australia back in 1838 (now the famous Reynell clone). I am looking forward to trying the wine to see how Andrew expresses it to fit Reynell’s legacy.

Caillard Wine is available at Berry Bros & Rudd.

It’s a Revolution!

Swartland Independent? Most would assume it must be a bunch of arty people, radicals, rebels against big corporations. It turns out to be so much more.

Swartland Independent is a bunch of wine producers from the Swartland in South Africa, just over one hour’s drive north of Cape Town, but not just any old bunch. It is a group of like-minded winegrowers who believe in the true expression of the region’s terroir and in wines having their own identities.

The Swartland, like Stellenbosch, is a wine district in South Africa. Any wine made with grapes grown there can be labelled ‘Wine of Origin Swartland’. But to use the ‘Swartland Independent’ logo, producers must adhere to a set of viticultural guidelines with priority given to the conservation of old vines. The wine must be produced with minimal manipulation, with no use of commercial yeasts or enzymes, no added tannin or acid, and must not be chemically fined. Moreover, Swartland Independent believes that heavy oaking ‘masks’ the essence of grapes, so no more than 25% of a wine may be aged in new wood, and the wood must be of European origin. There are also guidelines on grape varieties. For whites, 90% must be Chenin Blanc, Marsanne, Roussane, Viognier, and specified others, while for reds, 90% must be Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, and more. Commercially popular varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are not permitted. The producers believe planting grapes on unsuitable terroir only results in wine with inherent limitations.

The result? Rhone blend wines from this Mediterranean climate in the Southern hemisphere. The wine is all about natural balance, freshness and purity.

The Swartland has some of the oldest bush vines in South Africa but viticulture was long in the back seat as this is traditionally a grain-producing area. Wines were robust and mostly fortified until a new generation of winemakers who believe in making wine that is a true expression of its origin went there to hunt for parcels of old vines.

Eben Sadie, one of the leaders of the movement, firmly believes in the diverse soils that the Swartland offers: decomposed granite in the Paardeberg Mountain, clay soils with iron similar to those in the Barossa, slate and schist, calcareous soils, sandstones from Table Mountain and alluvial soils like those found in Graves. It is a canvas upon which grapes can express their true sense of place. Eben praises bush vines with their 360º orientation towards the sun that helps avoid the excessive sun or shading of bunches that can occur on trained vines. And he expends the same effort in the winery. For years, he experimented with fermentation in amphorae underground, a Georgian winemaking tradition, with varying degrees of disaster until he finally mastered the skill. He is now extending the winery to accommodate a few amphorae. I am looking forward to trying those wines in a few years.

Swartland Independent has just over 20 members, all family businesses. Some of them, like Adi Badenhorst, ex-winemaker at Rustenberg, gave up their jobs in prestige wineries, while others, like Donovan Rall, still work for established producers but also make some wines of their own. Mullineux is an international team led by Chris Mullineux from South Africa and his wife Andrea from San Francisco. All of them, hands on in both vineyard and winery, gather in the Swartland to live their dreams of making passionate wine. Naturally, none of them has a big production. David Sadie (no relation to Eben) has just one barrel of 400 bottles for his Grenache Noir.

To attract the attention of wine lovers and to revive the image of the region, Swartland Independent organises an annual weekend event called The Swartland Revolution, comprised of tutored tastings, an auction and a braai (South African barbecue) evening that ends with a street-party open tasting. Tickets for last November's event sold out in 52 hours.

I am excited by the development of the Swartland and the enthusiasm of these producers. In the wine world, there are mass produced standardised wines that are clean and consistent but lack soul, and there are the premium wines with matching price tags that can only be a treat once in a while for many. To me, wines like those made by the Swartland Independent producers are wines for the true wine lover. We appreciate the fact that grapes are products of nature, and we embrace the different styles, even the not-so-mainstream funky ones. Above all, we respect winemakers who have the commitment, the passion and conviction to make wine that truly reflects the place.

Luckily, there is no shortage of like-minded producers in South Africa, and in fact in all wine producing countries. We should be bold enough to step out of our comfort zone and try wines from different regions and producers, including smaller and lesser known ones like these. Only then can we truly enjoy this wonderful drink that mother nature makes possible.

The Sadie Family wines is available from Berry Bros & Rudd.
Mullineux is available from Berry Bros & Rudd and Vincisive Wines.

A 160 year old Mourvèdre

It is not easy to find a 100% Mourvèdre as it is invariably part of a blend. So when Dean Hewitson decided to conduct a vertical tasting of his Old Garden Mourvèdre, it certainly attracted the attention of sommeliers and wine writers.

What is even more unique is that Old Garden Mourvèdre is made from the oldest Mourvèdre in the world. Planted in 1853, the vines are 160 years old this year. Dean decided to celebrate this with a vertical tasting around the world: Australia, London, New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong. He started making this wine in 1988. 2010 is the latest release but he brought along barrel samples of the 2011 and 2012 vintages. A line up of fifteen 100% Mourvèdres was an impressive sight.

The older vintages are mellow with a lingering length and backed by fresh acidity, somewhere between a Gran Reserva Rioja and an aged Barolo, while the younger ones are concentrated, spicy, and surprisingly elegant at over 14% alcohol. The finesse comes from a combination of factors: the age of the vines, the soil and the climate.

Mourvèdre is a late ripener and therefore ideal in hot climates as it only ripens by the beginning of autumn rather than in the heat of summer, thereby retaining acidity with a perfect balance of both sugar and phenolic ripeness. The vineyard is dry farmed, with roots penetrating some ten metres deep into the ground, which is sand over limestone for water and nutrients that help provide evenness in the wine. Being 160 years old, the vines bear few but highly concentrated fruits. There are only eight rows of plantings so you can imagine that production is limited. And it will keep reducing gradually as the vines get older and bear even less fruit.

Dean doesn’t own the vineyard, and he is smart enough to allow the owner, the sixth generation of the Koch family, to tend the grapes for him. After all, the family has been looking after these vines spanning three centuries since 1853 so they should know what is best for them. Dean is also pretty much hands off at the winery. He experimented with different percentages of new French oak in the past few years to strike a perfect balance with the fruit but has never done anything radical, preferring to let the wine express itself. The one arguably radical thing he did was to switch from cork to screwcaps in 2002, but he believes this is for the better.

This was truly a unique tasting. One can easily find vertical tastings of Bordeaux or Burgundy covering two decades, but one of 100% Mourvèdre? You don’t come across that too often.

Hewitson Old Garden Mourvèdre is available from Kedington Wines.

An interview with José Peñin

Less than a month after James Halliday’s visit, another wine critic was recently in town promoting his latest wine guide. This time it was José Peñin from Spain. José has over 30 years experience in wine journalism. He is sometimes called the Robert Parker of Spain and was awarded the Jury Special Prize for the best wine guide in the 2007 Gourmand Book Prizes. The Peñin Guide to Spanish Wine 2011 features more than 13,000 wines of which over 8,000 were sampled by a team of four tasters.

It was frustrating having to talk to José via an interpreter who only had minimal wine knowledge, as complex questions and answers were often lost. I know I could have got a lot more insightful opinions if I could have spoken to him directly—I should have learnt my Spanish better! Nevertheless, I can just about profile his general thoughts on Spanish wines.

Like most experts, José believes in terroir. Spain’s various wine regions are capable of producing widely differing wine styles thanks to differences in climate, soil and altitude. But it is always important to choose the right grape varieties. Tempranillo may be the flagship grape of Spain, but in hot, dry Priorat it will not produce the same great wine it does in Rioja. The south should concentrate on Garnacha (Grenache), Monastrell (Mourvèdre) and Cariñena (Carignan). He also disputes the notion that high alcohol is a consequence of global warming, asserting that Priorat wines have always been 14.5% alcohol or above. Instead, he emphasises the significance of high altitude vineyards. The high altitude counterbalances the high temperatures, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully without accumulating too much sugar. Hmm. I agree with most of this but wonder how many will accept his view about global warming. Or maybe something was lost in translation?

Asked about his favourite wine, José says he is still exploring. Regardless of the grape, the region or the price, good wine must have personality. He has certainly stuck to this philosophy when tasting the wines for the Peñin Guide. And for the Great Spanish Wine tasting in Hong Kong he was accompanied by 26 wineries that had scored 90 points or above. Most are small to medium size wineries with vines of great age, some over 100 years old. The wines are concentrated and expressive and definitely have personality.

One last comment from José: when he is with family and friends, it doesn’t matter what wine he is drinking—it is the company that matters.

My favourites at the tasting were:

Domaines Lupier La Dama 2008: 100% Grenache from Navarra. Concentrated and expressive.

Paco & Lola 2010: 100% Albariño grapes from Rias Baixas. Intense aroma, fresh and lively.

Vinyes Domenech Teixar 2007: 100% Grenache from Montasant. Powerful, spicy and round tannins.