CHAPTER CONTENTS INDEX
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00:00 – WHAT WENT DOWN IN 1981
01:30 – WHAT IS THE RIEBEEK VALLEY WINE CO.?
01:49 – THE JECKYLL & HYDE NATURE OF SOUTH AFRICAN WINE CO-OPERATIVES
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WHAT IS THE RIEBEEK Valley WINE CO.?
The Riebeek Wine Co. is one of many wine co-operatives in South Africa. Although, perhaps these guys a re little more anonymous than some in that they communicate quite clearly how proud they are to work exclusively with Swartland fruit, produced by a huge number of Swartland grape farmers.
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But aren’t co-ops all about gross bulk wine?
As we’ve said before, the Co-ops in South Africa get a bad rap – sometimes correctly – for tarnishing the reputation of South African wine by producing huge amounts of low quality bulk wine…
BUT what doesn’t get said enough is that it is ALSO the co-ops who – by and large – have done the hard work of preserving many of South Africa’s certified heritage vineyards. They are ALSO the ones who have often taken the lead in importing, quarantining, and eventually planting experimental cultivars – the benefits of which we all enjoy today.
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Time and Money
Both the preservation and farming of old vines, as well as new cultivar imports are enormously costly and time-consuming, and the costs thereof are often beyond what smaller operations can absorb. So it is that some of the more forward-thinking wine factories take the financial hit… for everyone’s benefit. For every indie winemaker producing a fascinating Sauvignon Gris, there is a co-op or wine factory with an research & development department that made it all possible.
In a weird way, the incredible variety and heritage that makes the South African Winelands so incredibly exciting is owed to some of our co-operatives like The Riebeek Wine Co…Even if that variety and heritage is sometimes funded by underpriced bulk wine!
Oh what a complex web we weave!
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If you have yet to sign up for your
Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own time. But until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs:
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TASTING NOTES
👃🏼 The vanguard offers a generous warm note of baked yellow apple, pie crust, toffee sauce, but then also a touch of savoury sourdough, and an interesting note of moulding clay
👄 The palate is every bit as welcoming as the nose, except, along with the lovely spicy baked apple pie thing that’s going on, there are also brighter juicy elements of apricot, and some fresh peach.
For a skin-contact white, the tannins are super gentle, and instead of adding dryness, just seem to add fullness!
Lovely result.
