I enter the tasting room of the Avontuur Estate in Stellenbosch with a small black book, two and a half centimetres thick, but only twenty high and ten and a half wide. "Ohhh, with the Bible under my arm!" is how I am received and how I am assessed. In South Africa, John Platter takes the place of Robert Parker in the Bordelais. He is the wine pope there. His opinion - even better: the opinion of his tasting team - influences the market value of South African wines. After all, there are about 20 people who test for Platter every year.
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| South Africa's wine guide: Platter's wines has been published annually for 30 years |
We have been on the road for weeks now. I can't prepare for every visit to wine estates the way I usually like to do. So I look up Platter's. Similar to the "Little Johnson", they also rate with stars. After all, there are thirty-nine wines with five stars in Platter's latest wine guide, the stars, that is. I have at least made a note of their names. Actually, I would like to visit them all, taste the whole range of wines everywhere - not just the star of the winery - to get an impression of what South African wines are or can be. Of course, I don't manage to do this. I get stuck, as I often do, in the desire to get to know a wine region, get stuck on one wine or another; get caught up in conversations or - even more often - get lost in one motif or another of the camera.
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| Presentation of the wines at Avontuur Estate |
The question is justified: Why Avontuur Estate? It is a well-known wine estate; but among the almost 600 wine estates in South Africa, it is by far not the best known or the best. It is simply that we have entrusted ourselves to a professional wine guide, in the time when we are not travelling with our own car. It's also interesting what the "wine tourist" business chooses and offers. Good wineries for sure, but there is always something additional that is particularly striking. A particularly good restaurant, impressive architecture, a wonderful park or very special wines.
At Avontuur it is the breeding of racehorses. "Dominion Royale" was one of the famous ones from the breeding, today it is an award-winning wine, a Shiraz, which we unfortunately cannot taste. But we can taste the "Baccarat" 2005, a wine according to the "classic" Bordeaux pattern (if there is such a thing: in any case Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Barrique). Without Platter's help we would be helpless, because - as everywhere on these tourist tours - what is advertised is what is pleasing and familiar and somewhat unusual: here it is the wine names, all of which are named after the racehorses of one's own stable. Good wines and fast horses.
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| Vineyards and horse pastures of Avontuur Estate at the foot of the Helderberg |
We also try out the wine guide on our own explorations. In Franschhoek - a little off the thoroughfare, lies Boekenhoutskloof, one of the oldest wine estates in the "Valley of the Huguenots" and one of the many insider tips; wine estates that have long since ceased to be insiders. With the "Chocolate Block" it has set a trend, with the "Porcupine Ridge" it has caused a sensation and with the Boekenhoutskloof line it is competing on the international stage. The Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 - they are all well-aged wines - received five stars from Platter, and - we are told - the best Shiraz in South Africa is to be found here. The fact that four other wineries (Dunstone, Haskel, Rustenberg, Saxenburg) make even better Shiraz after Platter doesn't matter, it's part of the wine rating game. Of course we have to go there!.
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| Secluded% almost somewhat hidden% is the Boekenhoutskloof wine estate in Franschhoek |
On the way to the remote winery we pass the sign "Stony Brook". Actually, we don't pay attention to such references, because there are too many recommendations, too many wineries that one would absolutely have to visit on a trip to South Africa. And again it is John Platter who gives us a discreet hint. He awards four or more stars to nine wines from "Stony Brook" and needs a whole page to cover the wines of this rather small winery (14 ha). It is early evening, the sun colours the landscape red, and we enter Stony Brook unannounced. We are the only guests, while at the nearby "Boekenhoutskloof" visitors fight over the last sunny spots. We are not greeted effusively, but warmly. It is to be the quietest and most enjoyable tasting on a South African wine estate.
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| Atmospheric wine tasting at Stony Brook in Franschhoek |
The Syrah is at least as good as the ones from "Boekenhoutskloof" and "Avontuur" and the "Max" (again a Bordeaux blend) better than anything I have tasted before. The "Ghost Gun" is not available for testing, we save it for one of the farewell evenings. It deserves it and has become - even now that our wine tour is long over - the epitome of top South African wines.
For once I realise the importance a wine guide can have, for people who want to explore a wine region, a country and its wineries. Blatter, whose name is not John but Sepp and who is FIFA President, brought the World Cup to Africa for the first time. A conciliatory major event in a country that has long marginalised itself. Blatter is not only known to me, the Swiss. But one letter has changed, become stronger. B has become P.
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| View from the terrace of the Stony Brook winery into the mountains and vineyards |
Platter introduced me to the world of African wine. I hope that the memories of the many hours of football during the World Cup will live on, but now accompanied by the (B>P)latter and the good wines that are produced from the approximately 100,000 hectares of vines year after year - not just every four years like the World Cup.
Cordially
Yours/Yours