What Style Pinot Noir, Syrah And Sparkling Wine From South Africa?

One often tends to focus on the grape variety when buying or selecting wine. “I want a pinot noir with the turkey,” for example. That can be a mistake. A pinot from Washington is very different from one from Burgundy. Central Otago in New Zealand is yet another big pinot region with its own specific style. We had one from Patagonia that was one of the most powerful wines we’ve had.

That the grape variety is not always a good indicator of style was underlined at the big Michelangelo Wine Awards tasting in South Africa, where I participated as a judge earlier this year. Wines from different countries and regions often have their own specific style, even if they come from grape varieties that you may think you know.

Here’s a review of some of the styles that you can expect from South Africa and some great wines to look for from the Michelangelo tasting.

South African sparkling wine, Cap Classique

But instead of grape varieties, let’s start with something that is not a grape type. Sparkling wine. South Africa makes quite a lot of sparkling wine, and of very good quality. Here, it is called “Méthode Cap Classique”, “Cap Classique” for short, or sometimes simply MCC, if it is made with the traditional method with a second fermentation in the bottle.

One tends to benchmark all sparkling wines against champagne, which in a way, is a mistake, quality in wine is always a question of personal preferences, but for the sake of reference, I’ll do that here too.

South African MCC is often more full-bodied and fruitier than champagne. If champagne can be very austere and almost astringent, then MCC tends to be more full-bodied, with more ripe fruit and sometimes more aromatic, citrus, flowers. Sometimes they can be almost smoky with ripe apples. South African Cap Classique will delight those who think champagne is too acidic and edgy.

Here are some of the South African sparkling wines that we liked best at the Michelangelo Awards:

• Mariette Blanc de Blanc MCC 2016, Belle Rebelle
• Canto Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut MCC 2020
• Paul René MCC Brut 2018
• Christiena MCC Brut 2021, Van Loveren Family Vineyards
• Alvi`s Drift Private Cellar, Brut Cap Classique
• Graham Beck Cap Classique, Ultra Brut 2016
• Graham Beck Cap Classique, Pinot Noir Rose 2017

Pinot noir

Next up was pinot noir, the world’s ninth most-planted grape variety. The icon wines here are from Burgundy in France. They are often relatively light in colour with high acidity and plenty of red fruits (cherries, strawberries…), often with a good dose of wood ageing. They can have notes of very ripe fruits and forestland underbrush. American versions tend to be denser and with more ripe fruit. Pinot is not widely planted in South Africa but has had great success on a small scale in the Hemel and Aarde region in Walker Bay on the cooler south coast.

South African pinot noir often shows a very good expression of the grape variety with clean and elegant fruit and little or just a touch of oak ageing character, elegant, clean-cut wines. Delicious drinking when one wants fresh red fruit and not too much tannins. Here are some of the wines we particularly liked at the Michelangelo Awards:

• Galpin Peak Pinot Noir 2020, Bouchard Finlayson
• Ghost Corner Pinot Noir 2020, Cederberg Winery
• Chamonix Pinot Noir Feldspar 2020, Chamonix wine estate
• Leopard`s Leap Culinaria Pinot Noir 2020
• PF Pinot Noir 2019, Peter Falke Wines
• Pinot Noir 2021, That Wine Demesne

Syrah

Syrah is worldwide a more popular, more planted grape variety than pinot noir, 190,000 ha compared to 115 000 ha. The two big producers are France and Australia, where it is often called shiraz. The yardstick for syrah is often the very distinctive wines from the northern Rhône Valley. They are dense, dark and concentrated. Aromas cover a broad spectrum, from flowery violets but more often toward smoke, charcuteries and even tar, sometimes referred to as “reductive”. But this is a style that is not always found in syrah from other origins, and so is also the case with South Africa.

There are some examples of the powerful and dense, sometimes reductive style of syrah but in general, the wines from here are more focused on the fruit. There is a lot of delicious fresh dark fruit with good concentration and spices in the better examples, rarely overwhelming or over-powering. The grape is sometimes labelled as syrah and sometimes as shiraz, but this is not a good indicator of the style (which it can be in some other countries).

Some delicious examples of South African syrah that we taster at the Michelangelo:

• Driehoek Syrah 2020
• Holden Manz Syrah Reserve 2017
• Onoma Private Cellar Syrah 2021
• Babylonstoren Shiraz 2020
• Erasmus Shiraz 2020, Cape Wine Company
• Monogram Shiraz 2017, Klein Welmoed Wine and Olive Estate
• Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Shiraz 2018
• Koelenbosch Shiraz 2020, Koelenhof Wynkelder
• Raka Biography Shiraz 2020
• Ridgeback Shiraz 2017
• Cape Five Reserve Shiraz 2019, Stellenview Premium Wines
• Great Five Reserve Shiraz 2019, Stellenview Premium Wines
• St Andrews Shiraz 2019, Wakefield Taylors Wines

To summarise, each country and wine region has its own style, even if the grape variety is the same. The wines from South Africa are often good examples with clean, elegant fruit expressions of the grape variety. Absolutely worth seeking out and getting to know.

Here you can find more wine recommendations from the Michelangelo International Wine and Spirits Awards.