South Africa’s New Wave Tasting – Ten Years On.
The ageability of wine is a topic that surfaces regularly among global wine writers and commentators. Perhaps the most contentious aspect is whether a wine must be ageworthy to be considered truly fine. As younger generations of drinkers gradually move away from traditional styles—such as Bordeaux, which often require a decade or more of bottle maturation to become approachable—the spotlight has once again turned to the thorny question of fine wine and its relationship with ageability.
Current trends appear to clearly show that younger consumers are far less inclined to buy wine En-primeur or pre-bottled while still lying in cask, preferring instead to purchase wines that are both physical available and ready for immediate consumption or in the short to medium term. The concept of both buying wine to cellar, at home or in professional storage, is becoming an increasingly foreign concept to the iPhone generation, with the lack of suitable storage space and / or conditions in most forms of starter accommodation clearly an inhibitor.
With fine wine provenance and ideal storage conditions becoming critical to a wines secondary market value, the rise and rise of professional wine storage businesses has gone hand in hand with the past two to three decades of the fine wine boom times that have been witnessed up until around 2020 and the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is of course not only fine wine that has become increasingly expensive, so too has the business of professional wine storage, so yet another factor that has discouraged a younger generation from building fine wine collections.
While the merits of collecting wine can be debated endlessly, there is nevertheless a sizable cohort of Gen X and Millennial drinkers who are looking to drink less but also drink better, and this behaviour increasingly includes buying wines that are already optimally mature and ready to have their corks pulled. In the specific context of South African wine, it has been a long-held belief that the 10-year-old maturity mark is the golden moment to drink many of South Africa’s finest red wines, and increasingly, many of South Africa’s top white wines as well.
With the hallmarks of youthful primary fruit fading but not yet vanished, and the accompanying tertiary complexity and mellowing elegance of bottle age making many of these 10-year-old wines an absolute pleasure to drink, there is certainly a very sound argument to support the decade milestone. So, it was possibly only a matter of time before someone in the London wine trade set about putting together a 10-year retrospective, and this is indeed what transpired recently at the inaugural “South Africa’s New Wave Tasting – Ten Years On.”
For those consumers in South Africa unfamiliar with the “New Wave Tastings” that were held bi-annually for several years in London, the first event itself took place in 2015, representing a coming together of several leading South African wine importers in the UK market space including the likes of SWIG Wines, FMV, Indigo, New Generation Wines, and Dreyfus Ashby, who represent benchmark fine wine producers such as Sadie Family Wines, Reyneke Wines, Savage, Boekenhoutskloof, Rall, Newton Johnson, Keermont, Mullineux Wines, and many more.
The New Wave Tasting, an event for both the wine trade and for end consumers, rode the powerful wave that was the original young gun movement, profiling new producers and new releases of wines the UK trade had in many instances, never seen or tasted before.
In addition, 2015 was an ideal starting point, on account of its reputation, quality, and breadth. It was a vintage that earned widespread acclaim from the outset, an overall dry and relatively early harvest, taken on a long-term average (though since superseded by the deeper drought vintages of 2016, 2017 and 2018). A cool, wet winter in 2014-2015 ensured full vine dormancy, replenished dams and water reserves in the soil, and an even budbreak in spring. Broadly warm, windy conditions through summer (with few customary heatwaves) meant advanced ripening in generally excellent sanitary health.
Dryland vineyards tended to produce lighter bunches with smaller berries and lower than average yields were reported in the Swartland, Paarl, Stellenbosch and Hemel-en-Aarde. Full to larger crops were achieved in Worcester, Robertson, Breedekloof and Olifantsriver. At the time, producers and critics alike were excited about “the best Cape vintage since 2009” for both red and white wines.
Plenty then to justify a 10-year-old retrospective tasting. Co-ordinated and driven forward by South African wine champion Victoria Mason MW, the ex-buyer for Waitrose, Bordeaux Index, and currently working at the Wine Society, and Mark Dearing, the South African buyer for Justerinis & Brooks, there were many key players involved to make this fascinating tasting the incredible success that it was, including generous hosts Berry Brothers and Rudd, and with undoubtedly countless archive cellar doors opened by the influence of key importers like Damon Quinlan of Swig and Richard Kelley MW of Dreyfus Ashby. But enough back patting! What where the tasting results and who were the stars I hear you ask!?
The tasting format consisted of a sit-down tasting, organised into twelve blind flights (36 whites and 42 reds). There were seven red flights before lunch and five white flights after. Tasters were divided into two groups of nine tasters to make discussions more manageable after each flight.
Tasting Group A – Mark Dearing moderating am / Victoria Mason MW moderating pm, Daisy Gatt, Richard Kelley MW, Neal Martin, Robert Mathias MW, Jancis Robinson MW, Greg Sherwood MW, Christina Rasmussen, Emily Jago.
Tasting Group B – Victoria Mason MW moderating am / Mark Dearing moderating pm, Tim Atkin MW, Catriona Felstead MW, Matthew Horsley, Damon Quinlan, Julie Sheppard, Valerie Lewis, Robbie Toothill, Fergus Stewart.
Mark and Victoria collected notes during the discussion and collected the individual taster’s scores on a 100pt-scale. This blind tasting was the first large-scale opportunity to assess the oft cited capacity of the best South African wines to age – focusing primarily on the original New Wave producers who took part in the London 2015 event.
The results – best wines overall:
Chardonnay
Crystallum Clay Shales 2015 – 93.13
Chenin Blanc Stellenbosch & Other
De Morgenzon Reserve – 93.73
Chenin Blanc Swartland
David & Nadia 2015 – 93.93
Cape White Blends
Beaumont New Baby 2015 – 92.6
Sauvignon/Semillon and Blends
Thorne & Daughters Paper Kite 2015 – 93.2
Pinot Noir
1.= Crystallum Cuvée Cinema 2015 – 93.08
1.= Newton Johnson CWG Sea Dragon 2015 – 93.08
Mediterranean Varieties (Single Varietal)
Momento Grenache Noir 2015 – 91.75
Mediterranean Red Blends
Sadie Family Columella 2015 – 92.5
Syrah Cape South Coast
Kershaw Deconstructed Lake District Cartref SH22 2015 – 92.54
Syrah Stellenbosch
Reyneke Reserve Red 2015 – 92.79
Syrah Swartland
Porseleinberg 2015 – 94.71
Bordeaux Red Blends and Single Varietal
Boekenhoutskloof The Journeyman 2015 – 93.64
For ratings of all white wines tasted, download the following: SA’s NW Ten Years On Tasting – WHITES
For ratings of all red wines tasted, download the following: SA’s NW Ten Years On Tasting – REDS
Many global producers are aware of the reluctance of a new generation of drinkers to cellar and age wines, so, the industry is inevitably seeing changing styles of wines that are readily drinkable earlier and younger, modern Bordeaux reds being a perfect case in point.
Emerging trends may sway producers’ wine styles and global warming may lead to riper, more accessible earlier drinking wines, but South Africa’s best wines are still world leaders when it comes to fine wines that are accessible and enjoyable in their youth while retaining an almost magical ability to age gracefully for decades.
Greg Sherwood was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and as the son of a career diplomat, spent his first 21 years traveling the globe with his parents. With a Business Management and Marketing degree from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Sherwood began his working career as a commodity trader. In 2000, he decided to make more of a long-held interest in wine taking a position at Handford Wines in South Kensington, London, working his way up to the position of Senior Wine Buyer over 22 years. Sherwood currently consults to a number of top fine wine merchants in London while always keeping one eye firmly on the South African wine industry. He qualified as the 303rd Master of Wine in 2007.