The man with a plan, Christian Eedes.
At the launch of the 2011 Best Value Wine Guide at Joostenberg none other than Christian Eedes shoved a glass of Koelenbosch Sangiovese 2009 over to me.
“Taste that!”, he commanded, “It’s superb!”
I did, and it was. And only R28 per bottle.
“But Christian”, I said, “It’s only R28 per bottle, isn’t it making you ill?”
I was worried for him, very worried.
He waved his hand gallantly, “I suffer for my art”, he said, staring into the distance, his eyes getting misty.
Koelenbosch Sangiovese.
What a man.
A few minutes later he leaned over to me. ” Pssst”, whispered conspiratorially, ” Koelenbosh is only next door to here”.
What a gentleman.
So I snuck off, quietly driving away, and a few minutes later found myself chatting to Erika Van Zyl, the winemaker at Koelenbosch, who is responsible for this wine.
“It’s my baby” she said, as she only works with this Italian varietal.
We had another glass or two together. She talked me through her passion; fruity and easy to drink, it displays layers of strawberry, soft oak and cherry. Unbelievable at R28.
It is terrific with pizza, pasta and it’s magic with any food with tomato in it.
“It’s not a complex wine, but I’m very proud of it. I believe the personality of the winemaker shows through in the wine. We are only one of 6 wineries making a straight Sangiovese wine. It’s a difficult grape to grow and it needs a huge amount of attention, especially in the fermentation process”.
Erika, 30 years of age, has been making wine since the age of 23.
She is still experimenting with this grape, but her ambition is to make the best Sangiovese wine in South Africa.
I bet she will.
The 2011 Best Value Wine Guide comes free with the November edition of Wine Magazine.
A great guide, all the wines in it are priced at under R60.
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JEAN LOUISE FROM WINE.CO.ZA
I cannot believe this! Christian recommends a red under R100 a bottle?
Of course wineries pay to enter this Best Value competition, a little known fact that stinks to high heaven.
Mother of God and the Madonna of Prague, why should a cut-price producer pay fat cats like Christian and friends to state the bleedin obvious?
Clare, wake up girl, they are scamming you!
Dear Jeanlouise
As stated in the Panel Chairman’s (Christine Rudman)introduction to the Guide on page 5, there is indeed a cost to enter the Best Value Wine Awards. Like most other wine competitions (Veritas etc), it would be impossible to manage the logistics of tasting 969 wines over 5 days without enrty fees.
The tasting is conducted blind (labels out of site) so I can’t really see how the wineries would buy their ratings as you imply.
If you would like more details, please feel free to contact us.
I would still tout the genuine article over the local stuff. You can get pretty darn good Italian Sangiovese for R29 from here: http://www.melgabinternational.com/wine/producers/medici/sangiovese_rubicone
I would only deem the above-mentioned commentators credible IF they have indeed had a taste of this excellent wine. Koelenhof Sangiovese has been and remains an above-average wine in taste and value-a personal favourite of myself. Although I would prefer the wine to remain value for money, I would not begrudge Erika van Zyl the recognition for making an excellent wine-well done!