The Rich Vines of Cape Town

It is the geography that first inspires awe: a glittering city rising from the sparkling Cape of Good Hope toward the imposing granite edifice called Table Mountain. For miles around, the craggy landscape is accented by vineyards basking in the ocean-tempered sun. Its dramatic combination of history, sleek urbanity and superb natural surroundings puts Cape Town among the world’s handful of glamorous wine centers, with the likes of San Francisco and Sydney, Australia.

It almost looks like a stage set--which is appropriate to the moment, as the Cape wine community makes its grand entrance in the wine world.

And what an entrance. Even six or eight years ago most wine lovers were only vaguely aware of South African wines. Now it feels as though the Cape region has come out of nowhere, fully formed and highly polished.

Suddenly, fine South African wines are appearing on the best wine lists and wine shop shelves. The Sauvignon Blancs, in particular, are stunning. More important, they’re distinctive, with a combination of crisp acidity and ripe green fruit flavors that says “South Africa.” Close behind are red wines of powerful richness and elegance, especially Shiraz (the Africans have adopted the Aussie term for Syrah) and Merlot-Cabernet blends. Wine enthusiasts are also beginning to appreciate Pinotage, a spicy, smoke-inflected South African red from a grape created by crossing Pinot Noir with Cinsault.

The perception of immaculate birth is deceptive. In fact, the Cape is one of the New World’s oldest wine regions. Cape Town was established in 1652, and the settlers began making wine shortly thereafter.

South African wines were well-known in Europe during the next two centuries, and would be as established now as wines from California or Australia, if not for the government’s racist apartheid policy. Sanctions stifled the economy for three decades. The wine industry was isolated from the rapid development taking place in other wine regions. It wasn’t until Nelson Mandela left his cell at Robben Island in 1990 and was elected president in ’94 that the South African economy revived. At that point, its viticultural industry rejoined the greater wine world.

The global snub had been devastating. Still, the Cape wine industry has burst forth with remarkable unity and focus, much like vines that yield extraordinary wine after enduring a bitterly cold winter.

The Springfield Winery Sauvignon Blanc called “Life From Stone” is a prime example. Winemaker Abrie Bruwer’s family has been growing grapes in the Robertson area, east of Cape Town, for generations, but it wasn’t until the ‘90s that Bruwer sharpened his viticulture and winemaking. He traveled to Sancerre, the Sauvignon world’s spiritual home, to commune with the likes of terroir guru Didier Dagueneau. Back home, he revised his cultivation and winemaking practices and began keeping wines from distinctive vine blocks separate.

All that culminated in the initial ’99 “Life From Stone,” made from vines growing in weathered quartzite gravel. In its bold minerality, piercing herbaceousness and underlying peachiness, it resembled nothing so much as a Loire Valley Sauvignon on a heroic scale. Subsequent vintages have been equally impressive. Its companion bottling, the “Special Cuvee,” comes from sandy soil that expresses a slightly different texture, like peach fuzz over steel.

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Growing Refinement

“Life From Stone” has a double meaning: The arid ground is littered with prehistoric artifacts. (Archeologists know the estate well.) As I walked the vineyard with Bruwer under the blazing African sky, he showed how the rows are oriented to track the sun and pointed out differences in canopy management on the two different soil types. “We’ve only been growing wine in this country for the last 10 years,” he observed. “Before that we were only growing grapes.”

Indeed, the entire industry seems to have experienced that epiphany simultaneously. Every appellation has its own viticultural association, every grape variety a focus group dedicated to refining its expressions. Individual bravado shows up in clever and flamboyant proprietary names such as “Life From Stone” and Fairview Winery’s “Goats Do Roam” (a play on Cotes-du-Rhone). At the same time, the unified commitment of South African wine producers to the common cause--selling their wines to the rest of the world--is astonishing. Not even Napa Valley, the most effectively marketed wine region in California, can match it.

For example, virtually every South African wine is produced according to a protocol called Integrated Production of Wine, or IPW. Established in 1998, the IPW is not so much a body of regulations as an attitude toward environmentally friendly wine production. It aims to quantify an environmental ethic through guidelines for growers and winemakers that begin with soil preparation and extend through cultivation and cellar practices, all the way through use of recyclable packaging materials.

The IPW program can be seen as a collective, home-grown version of international business certification programs. Virtually the entire South African wine industry has voluntarily subscribed to IPW--some 4,500 growers and 350 cellars, representing more than 99% of production.

Another significant attitude that the South Africans share is cherishing and preserving grand old vines. As in California and Australia, most of their old vineyards have disappeared over time. Typically, old plantings have only survived through isolated efforts or neglect. Now the old vines have been recognized for their patrimonial value.

Flagstone Wines is among the most committed. Proprietors Graham Knox and Bruce Jack make wines from the “furthest, oldest, highest, wettest, coldest, driest, riskiest blocks of vines, those with the deepest roots, smallest berries, and thickest skins,” Jack said. “Throughout the Cape there are unique spots where a variety and its rootstock have found a special home and a passionate mentor. This perfect match has often meant that a vineyard reaches a great age.”

The first Flagstone wines, from the ’00 vintage, include such beauties as the luscious, figgy “Green on Green” Semillon, from an old plot in the warm Wellington area, and the intensely concentrated “Snowfield” Chardonnay from vines on an arid mountainside nearly 3,000 feet above sea level.

Wines from vineyards like that express real character. But so do wines from less extreme situations where grape varieties are perfectly matched to terroir. Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc, for example, shows the high-toned verve and ripe green berry character of the Constantia district in the lee of the Cape.

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Lots of Character

More to the point is the way Vergelegen Estate Red, with its larger-than-life Bordeaux character, expresses the nature of an area within the greater Stellenbosch district, which roughly embraces 60% of the Cape’s 400-odd wineries.

At this point the Cape’s appellation blueprint, called “Wine of Origin,” defines the vineyard areas in broad strokes as nesting geographical units. It’s set up to accommodate virtually endless refinement, as new appellations are identified and slotted into the framework.

And just as Bordeaux, Burgundy, and other established wine regions contain distinctive viticultural zones, the greater Cape has enclaves that are demonstrating distinctive characteristics.

Tasting along as the South Africans map their sensory landscape will be interesting, indeed. Assuming, of course, that they can keep up the pace.

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Sampling the New Style

Here are some wines that exemplify the new South African style, and stores that carry them. They can also be found by searching the Internet for the name of the wine.

2001 Thelema Sauvignon Blanc: Balanced in every direction, full and somewhat rich, yet lilting and crisp. At Hi-Time Wine Cellars, Costa Mesa, (949) 650-8463. $18.

2001 Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc: A brilliant combination of ripe green fruit, floral peach perfume and fine minerality. At Wine House, West L.A., (310) 479-3731, and Woodland Hills Wine Co., Woodland Hills, (818) 222-1111. $19-$22.

2001 Nitida Sauvignon Blanc: Beautifully clear Sauvignon character from perfume to finish. At Southern Hemisphere Wine Center, Huntington Beach, (714) 892-3030; www.sawineco.com. $12.

2001 Villiera Chenin Blanc: Lusciously honeyed with acidity to balance the richness from partial barrel fermentation. At Southern Hemisphere Wine Center, Huntington Beach, (714) 892-3030; www.sawineco.com. $10.

1999 Rustenberg “John X Merriman”: A convincing Bordeaux-style red blend (mostly Merlot with Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc). Tobacco meets black cherry in a complex, supple red that’s well worth aging. At Hi-Time Wine Cellars, Costa Mesa, (949) 650-8463, and Southern Hemisphere Wine Center, Huntington Beach, (714) 892-3030; www.sawineco.com. $19-$25.

2001 Neil Ellis Sauvignon Blanc “Groenekloof”: A sea-cooled slope north of Cape Town yields this lovely example of how the Cape’s Sauvignons bridge the stylistic gap between Sancerre and New Zealand--green and racy yet lusciously ripe. At Woodland Hills Wine Co., Woodland Hills, (818) 222-1111. $15

2000 Delheim Pinotage: Zesty red fruit and soft tannin. Zinfandel fans will appreciate the bright raspberry flavor and dollop of American oak. At Wine House, West L.A., (310) 479-3731, and Woodland Hills Wine Co., Woodland Hills, (818) 222-1111. $15.