South Africa has recently been in the news with the great Nelson Mandela ("Madiba" or "father") passing away at the ripe old age of 95. The country is also known to Indians as the crucible where Mahatma Gandhi forged much of his philosophy.
What is less well known is that South African wines have the fourth-largest share of all imported wines sold in India, after Australian, Italian, and French wines.
Winemaking in South Africa goes back 350 years, to 1659, when the first wine was produced near Cape Town by Dutch settlers, and has flourished there ever since - the country's oldest wineries, Groot Constantia, Klein Constantia, and High Constantia (all parts of the original Constantia estate, founded in 1685), are still operating. However, over the years overproduction has led to the formation of the KWV co-operative monopoly and setting of production quotas in 1918. While its regulatory role in the wine industry ended with Apartheid in 1990, KWV is still one of the largest wine producers in South Africa.
Today the country has 580 wineries producing nearly 900 million litres of wine, 50 per cent of which is exported worldwide. To put things in perspective, India's total wine market in 2012-13 (including cheap fortified wines) was just about 20 million litres.
Almost all wine production in South Africa is concentrated in the Western Cape area around Cape Town, where the temperate, climate and ocean winds provide a suitable terroir for wine grapes. The most famous areas for wine production in South Africa are Stellenbosch and Paarl, and the signature grape here is Pinotage - a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault developed there in 1925.
So what are South African wines like?
For the most part the wines available here are cheerful and well-priced: there are the ubiquitous Two Oceans wine (priced at about Rs 1,100) and the better-quality Nederburg (mostly around Rs 1,500); the Kingfisher Bohemia range being marketed by United Breweries at Rs 900 seems to have been quietly discontinued, but Sula is persisting with The African Horizon (Rs 1,000-1,200). Other labels available include MAN Vintners (Stellenbosch) and The Wolftrap (Paarl), both imported by Wine Park Mumbai, while the intriguingly-named 'Goats do Roam' (a take-off on the French wine 'Côtes du Rhône') at a mere Rs 1,200 is always a good tipple.
However, only a few of the better wines from South Africa have as yet found their way to wine lists in India - one is The Chocolate Block from the Boekenhoutskloof winery in Paarl, priced at Rs 4,300 in Bangalore. There are also wines from the Meerlust winery (around Rs 3,000), Thelema (Stellenbosch, Rs 3,500-4,000), and Fairview Rs 2,000-3,500), although many of the best wineries (Vergelegen, Jordan, Morgenhof and Springfield, to name a few) have yet to find an importer.
Wines I've been drinking: I broached a bottle of The Chocolate Block 2011 (Boekenhoutskloof winery, Paarl) and was quite blown away. This blended wine (mostly Syrah, with bits of Grenache and Cab and traces of Cinsault and Viognier) is complex, smooth and medium-bodied. And it kept improving in the glass, prompting us to explore a second drink. The wine seems to be inspired by far pricier French wines from the Southern Rhone - I got spice and dark red fruits and yes, chocolate on the nose and palate, and a long finish.
Winemaker and owner Marc Kent is a 'rock star' in the South African wine world - he'd been in India last year and I understand that hotels here can't get enough of the label.
Alok Chandra is a Bangalore-based wine consultant
