The August tasting at Bunch Natural Wine Bar in Liverpool was given over to three visiting winemakers from Swartland in South Africa. Each presented two wines, (one white, one red) from their portfolios and talked through their experiences making wine in the Swartland today. Living in the north west of the United Kingdom it is a rare opportunity to attend such an event without having to travel to London. This was an absolutely fascinating evening and I learnt so much. The wines on show were all excellent and choosing a favourite proved to be very difficult indeed.
The Blacksmith.
While working as an assistant winemaker in The Swartland Tremayne Smith began to make his own handcrafted wines under The Blacksmith label. This was in 2014 and his initial production that year was only four barrels. Things have moved on in the following five years and he now produces a range of wines using fruit grown in the Western Cape. His philosophy is simple, to make wines with minimalistic intervention, that exhibit a true sense of place and are delicious to drink.
The Kings Spirit Chenin Blanc. 2018. Darling. The Darling region is coastal with a warm Mediterranean climate with cooling sea breezes across the vineyards in the afternoon which help to cool the grapes and preserve freshness. The Chenin Blanc is from old bush vines planted in the 1960s. Bush vines are well suited to the dry, poor quality soils found here as they grow deep roots and so are more resistant to drought. Two barrels were made in 2018 representing only 580 bottles. Drought in the region has seen this fall by half in 2019!
Whole bunch pressed into barrel and a natural fermentation before a ten month maturation in old oak barrels. This has produced a fresh, aromatic wine with apple, pear and peachy stone fruit. It is complex with lovely texture and is perfectly balanced. It has a captivating almondy notes on the finish. Excellent stuff. The label is pretty good too.
The Basilisk. 2018. Paarl. Petite Sirah, also known as Durif, grown in the Paarl region of the Western Cape. 100% whole bunch with a cold natural ferment at 18 degrees Celsius. It spent ten days on the skins with pumping over every day. The fruit really does shine through here, it is a big, brooding, robust wine with blackcurrants in abundance along with an underlying raspberry freshness. It has lovely texture and is is savoury and meaty on the palate with a gentle touch of warming spice on the finish.
Swerwer Wines.
Swerwer was started by Jasper Wickens and is now into its seventh vintage. Swerwer means drifter or vagabond in Afrikaans and represents the notion of moving from place to place and gaining something from the experiences you have at each location. Jasper has worked at several wineries in South Africa as well spending time in Europe. His experiences have seen him move from a conventional style of wine making to one which is more hands off, allowing the terroir to shine through. His wines are generally unfined and unfiltered with the addition of only a minimum addition of sulphur required to keep the wine stable.
Rooigroen Semillon. 2018. Swartland. Semillon were some of the first vines planted in South Africa at the end of the seventeenth century and became the most dominant variety. However it fell out of favour following Phylloxera and only small pockets now exist. Rooi groen means red green in Afrikaans and this gives a clue to the origins of this rare Semillon Gris. Random mutation in the vineyard produces Sémillon vines with red bunches, these have then been cloned by cuttings to produce this varietal.
The wine has seen some skin contact with three different regimes in operation, 3 days, 5 days and 12 days. The wine is golden in appearance with good concentration, nice balance and hints of orange and almond on the palate. The finish has a distinct savouriness which is very appealing.
Red Blend. 2018. Swartland. A blend of 50% Cinsault, 40% Grenache and 10% Tinta Barocca. This blend works so well, the wine is well made and so good it demands your attention.Masses of dark cherry fruit with dried herbs, medium bodied and with a serious grip on the finish. Excellent stuff.
Silwervis Wines.
Winemaker Ryan Mostert is the driving force behind Silwervis. He loves to experiment and sees the Swartland as the perfect place to make his wines. It’s a dynamic region, full of like minded winemakers who are independent and innovative. Ryans approach may be seen by some as radical, he takes risks in his unconventional, experimental methods. It is an approach that large scale commercial wineries would never risk taking. For Ryan it has yielded some intriguing and fascinating wines that many people enjoy. Deliberately encouraging oxidation in a wine may well create some flaws but to Ryan you simply have to look for personality in the flaws themselves.
Smiley. NV. Swartland. This wine perfectly sums up the methodologies used at Silwervis to produce an innovative and distinctive wine. The Smiley is a blend of five different vintages of Chenin Blanc which have been made in different ways including skin contact, kept under flor and leaving barrels outside the cellar in the sun. The resulting wine walks a tightrope and does it perfectly. It has peach and apricot stone fruit with a pleasant salinity and great balance. There is some reduction but it adds and doesn’t distract. This wine breaks the rules and is a good example of it just might be a good idea from time to time.
Cinsault. 2017. Swartland. Perfumed red fruits, dried herbs and warm spice sit perfectly alongside a delicately savoury core. Medium bodied, round and with nice texture. The finish is lovely with herby red fruits. A beautiful expression of the grape.
