Dessert spirit

Man, I haven't blogged in a while. I've been treating blogging like getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist - it sometimes crosses my mind that I should get around to it, but usually I forget until almost a year since I last did.

A lot has happened since the last post. I cooked a lot of meals, developed an interest in Japanese sake (and got a qualification for it, more on that later), broke my arm, went to Asia to check out the wine markets in Taiwan, S Korea, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and discovered quite a few new food and wine pairings.

In more recent memory, Adam and I invited to lunch this past weekend some wonderfully bacchanalian friends, the kind that you really treasure in your life, who brought over some amazing mature Bordeaux, white Rioja and calvados. In the vein of new food and booze pairings, we had the calvados with an apple tart which went swimmingly well. The tricky part about pairing desserts with wine is that often the sweetness of desserts strip away the fruitness of wines making them seem dull and too acidic. Thus, the classic rule is to pair a dessert with an even sweeter dessert wine to prevent this.

However, I don't have a massive sweet tooth and pairing sweet on sweet just seems like a one-two punch in the face. Although it is a thing already known to some, I happily discovered that pairing a spirit that mimics a dessert's flavours is a great way to drink something indulgent but not too cloying with it. Behold! The beauty of calvados (an apple brandy) with an apple tart! The calvados has a pure, lifted apple note which complemented the tart, and its spirity heat warms up the senses and nasal passages to better taste the apples in the dessert.

We also had snifters of a beautiful aged Mt Gay 1703 rum with chocolate truffles. This worked really well because the rum has an intense caramel note, which is a natural partner to bitter chocolate, and it added the sense of sweetness to the pairing without actually being sweet.  

Apparently certain spirits also go very well with cheese too, something I need to explore indeed.

Decanting to a new home

We moved to a new place in Brixton recently. While packing up our stuff, things were unearthed after several years that I forgot I had - a pair of clunky suede boots circa 2003, a cookbook in Catalan and one in Korean neither of which I can read but couldn't resist buying for the pictures and the misplaced hope I can figure out the recipes from them. Plus I had a million stashes of bobby pins and hair ties everywhere in the flat. But moving house is an exercise in self-reflection. What could the removal men have made of our wine fridge, which took up an inordinate amount of space in our closet-sized guest bedroom, the numerous boxes full of wines and our spirits collection, and all that Riedel glassware?

Our stuff has still been in boxes as we're doing some work to our new little house, but the wine glasses and corkscrew were swiftly put in a cupboard conveniently in reach. Our first dinner was takeout from our local Portuguese piri piri chicken shop, eaten straight out of the plastic containers in the middle of our forest of boxes. And a bit of Perrier-Jouet.

Hunger games...with wine

It’s been a week since I left Stellenbosch after my time working the vintage at Jordan and I’ve gone back to normal life in London. The stains around my fingernails have slowly been cleaned away and the bruises have faded. All the rooibos tea I consumed has finally dissipated from my bloodstream. Squeezing onto the Tube on rush hour is something I did not miss while I was away, but seeing friends and family certainly was. And sleeping. The night I got back I slept for 11 hours soundly, and was blissfully oblivious to the urban cacophony that usually occurs outside our flat coming from the cars, sirens, loud neighbours and urban foxes.

There were a few topics that I wish I could have blogged about while I was in South Africa if there were a little more time to do so. However, I decided some retrospective posting would still be fine, as there were so many wonderful things about the experience: harvest dinners, trips visiting wineries and cellars, and sightseeing around the Cape.

As my normal waking life is usually spent eating or thinking about what to eat next, I thought a quick post about harvest dinners would be appropriate. Also, since I’ve been eating the same amount now with much less physical activity as I did at harvest, I've been looking back longingly at all the amazing meals we had while I was there and wish I had the turbo-charged metabolism to eat that much again.

Most nights during harvest, we would all take a break from cellar work and sit down for a family-style meal at around 7:30 or 8 in the evening. Food was certainly considered fuel at that time, but our dinners were also a way to put some hedonism into our days and keep us sane. And what meals they were! The cooks, including Kathy, Siska (the bakery chef), and the Jordan restaurant chefs, fed us exceedingly well. Gary would also arrange blind tastings for us and we’d go around the table talking about the wines and how they were made. We had some incredible bottles. Here’s a look at some of my favourite meals:

Gary and Kathy's son Alex has a friend who is a tuna fisherman and sold the restaurant a whole fish one week. We were the lucky recipients of lots of tuna steaks that the restaurant chefs seared with a ginger sauce. The theme of the night's blind tasting was white wines from estates called 'Jordan' around the world - from Austria (from a family estate of a former intern who also had the surname of Jordan), from the Jordans in Sonoma, and from Gary and Kathy's range.

Roast chicken with a caper sauce. The Jordans had a signature salad with feta, olives and tomatoes that served as a lovely side to our mains on most nights. This was paired with a variety of rieslings, which had zesty acidity and crisp lemon and floral notes that stood up to the bold flavours of the chicken.

Paella night! Gary paired this with some seriously good oaked Chardonnays, which had the richness, deepness of flavour (ripe lemon and buttery/toast) to stand up to the heft of the rice dish but had enough bright acidity to cut through it nicely. The highlights were the Louis Latour Premier Cru Chateau de Blagny Meursault and the Jordans' top-end Cape Winemakers Guild 2010 Reserve Chardonnay.

And the whole line-up

Steak with bearnaise sauce and a 1987 Nederburg Cabernet Sauvignon. This dinner was on a Friday after a really hectic week and it was such a treat. The wine had lovely flavours of cedar, tobacco, dried plums and a slight oxidative nuttiness. This went so nicely with the seared beef and the creamy sauce.

Gary was so generous in sharing his wine collection with the team. During the first week he asked us what our birth years are and then towards the end of the harvest, he brought some lovely contemporaries of ours to dinner:

Mike: 1986 Iron Horse Chardonnay (where Gary and Kathy did their first ever vintage) - toasted almond, butter, lemon; a slight sherry note from the oxidative aromas

Mathias: 1987 Overgaauw Tria Corda - a Bordeaux blend that I've lost my notes for, but was indeed amazing

Me: 1982 KWV Cabernet Sauvignon - dried fig, walnut, tobacco and leather aromas

Sjaak: 1976 KWV Cinsault - dried cherry, rounded oak and nutty notes

And of course, we had good ol' spaghetti Bolognese with a beer. Sometimes after being around so much wine and grapes, you really just crave an ice cold brewsky. As Mike said, "It takes a lot of beer to make good wine."

Although we often had to go back in the cellar after dinner to finish up work and clean, our bellies would be full and our thirst would be satiated. We’d crank up music and then move, move, move. It might not have been easier after a big meal to climb up ladders close up tank lids or sweep grape skins off the floor after emptying the press, but it was a lot more pleasurable doing it.

Release date (a fond farewell to Jordan)

 

 

Jordan's vineyards and the estate's main building

Today is my last full day at Jordan and what a day it was. The cellar was extremely busy: we pressed three overhead tanks of red wine, inoculated two newly filled red tanks with yeast, crushed several tons of cabernet sauvignon and riesling, inoculated three tanks of chenin blanc we pressed two days ago, and received and cleaned several new tanks as the tonnage we've been harvesting looks to be the largest on record and we've run out of tank space to put things in. And I was only there part of the day, as Gary, Kathy, and Sjaak let me have part of the day off to do wine tastings at several nearby wineries (more on this in future posts)

 

 The recycling bin outside the Jordan building. Enough said!

 

Although it's 11:30 pm and I'm completely exhausted after having woken up for pumpovers at 5:20 am for the past three weeks, I thought I should post one last time before I leave to summarise a bit. In essence, it's been the most physically and mentally challenging jobs I've ever done in my life. It's a test of endurance, during which you learn so much about how you can push yourself. But you manage to get through it with the support of the team and the camaraderie that long hours, early starts and tiring work fosters.

I've learned so much about wine-making. Having taken theoretical concepts and putting them into reality here are a few things I've found out:

• Pumps and pipes are the lifeblood of a winery and most of the cellar hand's working day is spent putting them together and cleaning them
• Grape skins are extremely slippery when you step on them
• Making wine is like tending to a demanding lover - you have to pay attention to it night and day, treat it gently and stop at nothing to tend to its needs

In addition to being tougher mentally, my body has also changed. It's more badass. I have carved-out biceps. The surface area of my body covered bruises and cuts is greater than that without them. I banged up by elbow, got caustic acid burns on my foot, and have had gushing water, pipes, ladders and bungs hit my face at various times. Kathy also predicted quite rightly that on week 2 everyone gets a cold. Being wet constantly through the day and the lack of sleep started taking a toll on the immune system at exactly that point: me, Laura, and Mattias all got the sniffles right on cue on the first day of our second week of harvest.

 Sjaak's KT strips really worked on my banged up elbow, which was strained after trying to stop a CO2 tank from toppling over. 2 days of wearing them and it was healed.

My bandaged foot after getting burned by salanol, a cleaning agent with caustic acid in it.

 

Also, the  mark of someone who works in a cellar is hands that look like they've been infected with the black plague - once you start working with reds, you have a constant purple/grey stain on your palms and fingers and it seeps into the small cuts and cracks. I kind of like it...makes it feel like I'm part of a piratical-spirited community of wine-makers.

 

The very first two days on the job, every muscle was sore and I couldn't imagine not having a day for them to recover, as I usually do when I work out at the gym. After the first day of pumpovers, my forearms ached like crazy and I didn't think I could screw on a single pipe the next day let alone move my arms up, But, you learn to power through and get over the hurdle and become stronger. And leaner. My belt is on the last, tightest loop and my jeans are loose. I feel like I could run a 10K tomorrow without any problems.

I have to say that it's been an experience of lifetime. There were times when I thought I couldn't get through the day and sincerely believed that all wine-makers are insane to do what they do. And there were times when I loved being in the cellar and could completely see why people are drawn to wine-making as a career. I'll never forget what I learned and how I've changed. I can't thank the Jordans enough for giving me this opportunity and I hope to come back and visit soon...and maybe screw on some pipes and valves in the cellar for old time's sake.

 

A rare calm moment in the cellar, watching the press

 

Discussion with Siobhan Thompson, CEO of Wines of South Africa

 

 

 

Siobhan Thompson, CEO of WOSA. Photo source: Drinks Business

 

One aim of mine while on Jordan's Women in Wine Programme is to understand the South African wine market in a broader context. I was lucky enough to catch Siobhan Thompson, the CEO of Wines of South Africa (WOSA) earlier this week before she flies out to the ProWein wine fair in Germany. In our discussion, we covered a breadth of topics around branding, marketing and finding the right approach to promulgate 'Brand South Africa' around the world.  WOSA is the nonprofit industry organisation which promotes South African wines internationally and has the challenging task of banding together vastly different wine producers with different interests to create a unified marketing and PR message for various markets around the world. Here's a quick summary of our conversation, based on Siobhan's comments:

WOSA office in Stellenbosch

 "The wine industry here is full of very passionate and artistic people with a lot of heart."

One of the four cornerstones of WOSA's messaging is of "wamkelekile", which means "welcome" in Xhosa, one of South Africa's indigenous official languages. According to Siobhan, promoting the unique warmth of South African people is an emotional hook that will vividly bring the wine here to life peoples' minds. It's about friendliness, braai (barbecue) culture, and soul. Nothing could ring more true for me, based in my experience. Everyone I've met at Jordan and also at the other wine estates we visited has been extremely generous with their time and all speak about their wines with a contagious passion. The challenge is to communicate this to people who are unfamiliar with South Africa and don't have a clear concept of what the country or its people are like, but if this comes across to the consumer, it could be very effective.  Hand in hand with this brand message is an effort to promote wine tourism in South Africa. Over the past several years, many wine estates have put a lot of time, money and resources into developing their properties into places where visitors are attracted to. Jordan's fine dining restaurant and it's top notch bakery are a lovely case in point. 

"Marketing South African wines is like a push and a pull"

On one hand, there is an effort to push South African wines out to the greater market. WOSA communicates that there is a wide range of South African wines to meet any budget or taste. Bulk and inexpensive wine is still a key profit driver here and offer consumers good value for money like the major wine brands in the US and Australia like Blossom Hill and Yellowtail, but there are also premium and exacting  producers who are pushing the envelope of quality wine-making. Both sides are crucial to the livelihood of the industry here and at times there are conflicting viewpoints around what the unified brand message should be. However, each wants essentially the same things: for South Africa to be recognised as a serious player in the global wine market and for the consumers to recognise that they're getting good value for quality on all parts of the price spectrum. Also, different regions here offer the consumer a variety of choice. For example, Elgin is about the racy, elegant cool climate wines, Stellenbosch is known for it's classic styles (Chardonnays, Chenins and Bordeaux varieties), and producers in the Swartland are the rebels who push the envelope and are experimenting with new styles and non-traditional methods.

On the other hand, it's also an effort to "pull" South African producers in the right direction. WOSA does a lot of market research to determine what's important in each export country. For example, in countries like Sweden and the UK, people are attuned to South Africa's focus on ethical farming and fairtrade practices as well as sustainability/green issues. However, in the US, people care more about the story of the wines - the personal tales of the winemakers, land and the grapes. Tapping into what each export market is attuned to is key to successful marketing.

In addition to these topics, we talked about WOSA's extensive presence at trade shows internationally and their focus markets - primarily the US, Africa and China, as well as their traditional core markets in Europe (UK, Benelux, and the Nordic countries). Despite being in the role for only 5 months, Siobhan as a strong vision for how South African wines are positioned and it will be exciting to see what developments for WOSA lie ahead.

For more information, Harper's interview with Siobhan is a recommended read: http://www.harpers.co.uk/people/qas/qa-siobhan-thompson-chief-executive-wines-of-south-africa/351249.article

 

Barrelling down

There is something poetic about oak barrels. They give wine finesse and complexity, adding extra notes of spice, wood and vanilla to the fruit aromas and flavours. The barrel rooms are also the calmest places in the cellar at Jordan. Away from the din of the pumps, crusher and press (which all are really, really noisy during the day), the cellar room is an oasis.

The oak barrel treatment that wine-makers give to wine is necessarily careful and deliberate. Every year Jordan places orders for barrels from several cooperages in France and the US. They look at the sales of their oaked wines to determine how much to make for the next year, how many new barrels they will need, and how much wine from a tank to put into the barrels. As Sjaak told me, it takes a minimum of 5 years to get the process down in terms of sales projections, orders, and building up a relationship with the cooperages. Also, it takes that amount of time at least to get the recipe right. Not every wine that has oak treatment is made of 100% oaked wine; usually wine that is barrel aged or fermented also has a percentage that hasn't been in a barrel at all  to give it freshness and vibrancy. To make a finished wine, wine-makers blend specific proportions of oaked and unoaked wines in order to get the balance of flavours right.  In order to choose what is put into barrel, wine-makers will taste the must from different lots (vineyard plots) stored in separate tanks to gauge if they are suitable for barrel aging. Usually this means that they can 'handle' the oak - they're full bodied and flavourful enough to stand up to having an oaky influence too.

In addition, barrels from different coopers have different aromas. I've been sniffing the barrels in the cellar each day I'm down there, and there really is a difference between the types. Some coopers' barrels have a buttery/vanilla aroma, while others have a more spicy/earthy note.  Also, there is a consideration of how many brand new oak barrels to use versus old oak barrels, which had wine in it before and lends a subtler and softer oak flavour than new oak. When asked about how to decide what barrels to use for each lot of wine, Sjaak put it this way: "Blending wine from different barrels is like making a curry; you have different spices to hand and you add them according to your taste".

But how do actually treat wine with oak? For whites, Jordan starts fermenting the wine in a stainless steel tank and then transfers it to the barrels via a pump when it reaches a certain Balling (sugar) level, usually when it's been fermenting 3-4 days. We add nutrients to the barrels for the yeast, and the wine finishes fermenting in them.

 

Long, a permanent team member at Jordan, is pumping finished Merlot into barrels for aging

We also check the Balling levels each day by siphoning off some wine from a random selection of barrels from each lot, measuring them, and then putting the wine back into the barrel. That's been my job for the past 4 weeks since when we started putting wines in barrels and it takes about an hour to do each morning from start to finish.

Siphoning wine from a barrel to take a Balling reading

The yeast lees give the wine a lot of flavour and they and the CO2 that's produced protects the wine from oxidization and spoilage. After the fermentation finished, the barrels are topped up with more wine to protect it from oxidising, as the yeast have finished fermenting and producing CO2, and then they'll roll the barrels once a week so the yeast lees are circulated around the wine. The young wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in the barrel too. This second, natural bacterial fermentation automatically occurs and changes the wine's acidity from malic acid (which is like the acid in a tart green apple) to lactic acid (which is the softer acid found in milk-based things like yoghurt). This makes the wine creamier and more smooth in the mouth.

For reds, the process is much the same although the wine is completely fermented when it's transferred to the barrels. It simply ages in them for a specific number of months.

At Jordan, the approximate barrel aging times are:

Chardonnay - 9 months
Chardonnay in their Nine Yards (premium) label - 12 months
Sauvignon Blanc - 8 months
Chenin Blanc - 7 months

Merlot - 16-24 months
Cabernet Sauvignon - 19-24 months
Syrah - 12-16 months

3 months before the aging is due to finish, the wines will tasted to determine how to blend the finished wine. How much is coming from the barrels and those that were just kept in tanks is a crucial decision. Consistency is important year after year for a given type of wine (say, the oaked Chardonnay), but each vintage is different and thus the wine from a lot could be more acidic, alcoholic, etc compared to the previous year. Blending is a skill and an art.

Jordan's white wine barrel room

I really enjoy going down to the barrel rooms to do the fermentation readings as it's a pretty zen time of the day. The only noise you can hear is the CO2 bubbling away from the special bungs that are placed on them which allow the gas to escape without letting any air in, which oxidises the wine. There is a little recess of water which bubbles up as the CO2 escapes from the barrel as part of the fermentation process. The noise of upwards of a hundred barrels bubbling away is actually quite soothing. Although, one time after we added nutrients to a barrel of newly fermenting wine, the yeasts went a bit too happy, and bubbled up causing the bung to pop up out of the barrel and hit me in the face! Occupational hazard.

Don't put your face too close to the bungholes!

 

 

Booze hounds

Wineries are great for dogs, and they have the best life out of anyone living or working there. They laze around all day, come and go as they please and generally live a very comfortable life, oblivious of all the madness that occurs around them during harvest.

At Jordan, there's a cast of very colourful characters:

Here's Tessa, enjoying a bit of sun. She's the oldest of the lot and is sort of like a grand dame

Lilly, the border collie, is like the mascot of the estate. She's always around greeting guests and loves coming into the cellar and playing a game where you squirt her with a little water with a hose and she tries to catch the stream.

Pippa was a stray puppy who found herself at the estate and literally won the dog lottery of life, as Gary and Kathy took her in.

Picasso belongs to Hylton, who works in the vineyard team and lives in a cottage at Jordan. He's like the cheeky chappy Robbie Williams of dogs. He's a huge flirt, loves siddling up for belly rubs and photo-bombing wedding pictures taken on the lawn near the tasting room. He once came into our cottage and found his way to Laura's bathroom and poked his nose into the shower while she was in it! He has another Jack Russell friend name Da Vinci, but he moved while I tried to take his picture.

 

 

 

Other favourite dogs we've come across in other wineries are pictured below.

 

The lovely one at Beaumont Estate watched us while we tasted their wines:

 

 

The Rhodesian Ridgeback at Buitenverwachting winery who hung out with everyone at the Constantia Fresh event a couple weeks ago was very nonchalant, even when a Jack Russel about a third of her size kept on trying to get it on.