Wines of the Week – Two Juicy Reds from Ernst Gouws & Co.

Ezanne and Ernst Gouws.

I had a lovely lunch recently in Stellenbosch with the charming Gouws Family.

Now, it wasn’t just myself, there were a few other journalist types there, so I didn’t have Ernst, wife Gwenda and daughter Ezanne all to myself.

We ate in Decameron, a well known and respected Italian restaurant in Stellenbosch. And I have to say the food was some of the nicest, most authentic, Italian food that I have eaten in a long time.

However, I did have enough time to chat to Ernst about his adventures in Germany, where he learned to make wine in the 1970’s.

Ezanne, his daughter, is also a winemaker and they are quite open about the family squabbles they have.

She would be a bit more of the scientific type and would nudge her Dad about things like harvesting times, based on what the Lab analysis has to say.

Dad Ernst, however, would be more interested in wading into the vineyard and pinching the grapes, squeezing the bunches and biting into the flesh to make a judgement call. I suppose he would claim to be a more instinctual, gut-feel type of winemaker.

Ernst, to date, claims that he has been right 100% of the time. Ezanne laughs and indulges her Dad a bit. The conclusion was

Ernst Gouws Merlot.

that both approaches work together, and I was delighted to taste some of the results.

I had a wonderful Sauvignon to start. It had a smoothness and lack of acid and raciness that a lot of young Sauvignons have.

The winners though, especially paired with the Italian food, was the Merlot and Pinot Noir.

The Merlot was delicious. I could leave it at that. Yes, it had all the right pepper and fruit but the wine note that stuck in my mind was that the vines grow in “Weathered Malmesbury Shale”.Doesn’t that say it all about the terroir?

The wha? Yes, the terroir – that sense of earth and place that imbues itself into the wine. If ancient weathered Malmesbury shale can’t do it then nothing can.

Pinot Noir has always been one of my favourite wines. I’ve drunk the best the Northern and even Southern Hemisphere has had to offer, but sort of gave up on it a few years ago, annoyed by overpricing and poor delivery in the liquid stakes.

But I am beginning to be recruited back into the fold. Ernst Gouws has produced a Pinot worth trying again, and it certainly performed when I tasted it. It had that lightness of touch while delivering on fruit, tannins and complexity. These are the elements that made Pinot Noir one of my favourite wines.  

Ernst Gouws Pinot Noir.

So I am nominating the Merlot and Pinot Noir my Wines of the Week; a right juicy pair.

Pinot Noir R105 per suggested retail price.

Merlot R70 suggested retail price.