South Africa

South African wines

South Africa produces a huge amount of wine, from the very cheap to the outrageously expensive. Much of it comes from the Western Cape - a generic appellation (a legally protected region that appears on a wine label, akin to Champagne or Bordeaux) which includes an enormous and varied area - but hidden in that sweeping vastness are some of the most beautiful, oldest and most famous wines and wine regions in the world; Stellenbosch, Swartland and Cape Town itself are household names in every wine lover's memory.

Perhaps South Africa's most contentious contribution to wine is the infamous Pinotage grape. A cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsault, Pinotage was bred to produce a grape similar to Pinot Noir with better resilience to the weather on the Cape. It worked well - from a cultivation perspective, it's easily grown, fruits well and is well suited to the climate... but it's very much the Marmite of the wine world; some tasters love it, while others are adamant that it has aromas of paint and burning tyres - less wonderful!

Apart from their signature Pinotage grape, South Africa's French-influenced winemaking history is evident in the range of grapes found here; reds tend to centre around Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot while their whites showcase some amazing Chenin Blanc (which dominated South African vineyards until a hundred or so years ago), Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and pockets of Semillon. Constantia, near Cape Town, is famous for its Muscat Blanc-based sweet wines, and over on the Cape's eastern plains some of the Portuguese grapes we featured last month (Tinta Barocca, Touriga Nacional and Souzão) thrive and make fantastic fortified wines.

(map from Wine Folly, who make amazing maps, guides and are lovely people - click the image to visit their website!)

Cap Classique

South Africa isn't just famous for still wines - Cap Classique (aka Methode Cap Classique or just MCC) is South Africa's contribution to the world of sparkling wine, and it's a firm favourite of ours.

Sparkling wines can be made in a few different ways - the traditional method is the way Champagne, Cava and Crémant are made and is by far the most time consuming - and thus expensive - of the ways to do it (Prosecco, by comparison, is made via the tank method, which is easier, faster and cheaper). The wines are generally fermented as whole bunches and pressed very gently so only the best quality juice (the cuvée) is used. They undergo their first fermentation as most wines do - in oak, in concrete, in stainless steel depending on the grower's choices and aims - but then crucially they are decanted off into bottles the yeast still alive in the wine. Topped up with a little sugar to give the yeast a boost, they're capped and aged in the bottle while the yeast does its thing and adds alcohol, drying out the wine by using up that sugar, and then dropping to the bottom of the bottle and breaking down gently.

It's that breakdown that gives traditional method sparkling wines their complexity - as the yeast breaks down it adds texture and body and creamy, buttery, brioche-y notes, and what sets them apart from Prosecco and other tank method sparklings.

Cap Classique can be excellent value, especially when compared to Champagne with its premium label, but it also varies more widely than Champagne does. Unlike Champagne the grapes used can be almost anything (though the Champagne trio of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are "suggested") and ageing can be for just 12 months (vs Champagne's minimum 15). It's typically a little more fruity than Champagne, and sometimes not as fizzy (Champagne has to be bottled at at least 6am of pressure while Cap Classique only has to be above 3).