✒ Book Review – The Wines of South Africa
▴ The Wines of South Africa by Jim Clarke, Infinite Ideas Ltd £30 (see below for 40% discount offer!)
From the very beginning, nearly 400 years ago, winemaking in South Africa has been on a zigzag course, pulled one way by considerable promise, and pushed in other ways by incompetence, self-interest, and a brutally opaque bureaucracy, to the point where, even now, it still seems to be reinventing itself. At least, and at last, it seems to be on a more enlightened path, on matters of politics—always a strong factor there—and wine, though not without a variety of hazards, many serious.
It must be said immediately that this is far from being the usual wine book; the history of slavery and suppression, which are dealt with here in an admirably straightforward way, guarantee that. There is also the problem of the odd leftover baggage of the KWV, the semi-governmental co-operative that ran much of the wine industry in ways that provide an excellent argument against government involvement in business. The salvaging process is difficult and ongoing, but this account provides a good backdrop to why the legacy is still a hindrance (e.g., so much of the commodity wine, inexpensive and fancifully branded, that we see in supermarkets, creating a kind of lottery system—some are good and good value, some not, most are untraceable, almost orphans in a bottom-heavy gridlock).
Still, as author Jim Clarke, notes, “there is an entire story of winemaking and wine growing to be told.” His aim is to provide a context and wide-reaching information for appreciating South African wines, and he achieves that with ease and clarity. The tumult of South Africa’s culture is echoed in its viticulture, a crazy-quilt of change, with a motley farrago of grape varieties coming and going (and eventually improving) across a dramatic and often hostile landscape over the last few decades. As it settles, now is the time for the story to emerge.
There are brief chapters here on geography and climate, but the book really hits its stride with useful descriptions of the fortunes, and sometimes misfortunes, of various grapes (including a long paean to Pinotage, usually considered the awkward class clown of wine; there’s also proof that there’s more to wine there than Chenin Blanc), which leads to explorations of the nine major regions and some of their subdivisions, with profiles of 122 wine producers who seem to exemplify signal characteristics, either created or inherited; all together, they’re effective character studies that illuminate the industry today.
Wine in South Africa is clearly on the move, though it seems to be going in several directions at once, and this text helps a great deal in sorting it out and helping us to understand why that matters—it’s a book meant to be read, not dipped into. Fortunately, the stories are compelling; redemption is always a possibility, irony abounds, luck is often necessary.
In 1488, explorer Bartolomeu Dias discovered and named the southern tip of Africa the “Cape of Storms.” Shortly afterwards, in an attempt to boost the fortunes of the colony, it was renamed the “Cape of Good Hope.” Now, a torrent of initiatives is aiming to finally justify the re-branding; from the evidence here, it’s worth a bet.
Brian St. Pierre
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