MICHAEL GREEN’S WINE NOTES #242

Grand Plaisir De Krans is a new wine from Plaisir de Merle and Cape Tawny Port wins Peter Schulz Port Challenge 2010.

One of the showpieces of the Western Cape winelands is the thousand-hectare Plaisir de Merle estate at Simondium, near Paarl. It was established by French Huguenots in 1693 and is owned today by the Distell liquor organisation, which owns and part-owns many farms in the Cape and produces wine from many more. It is a beautiful place and it produces beautiful wines, the latest being a blended red called Grand Plaisir, 2007 vintage. The wine is made of cabernet sauvignon (40%), cabernet franc (15%), shiraz (15%), and 10% each of malbec, merlot and petit verdot.

The winemaker, Niel Bester, says he included cabernet franc for its delicate elegance, shiraz for its sweet cherry and spicy white pepper flavours, merlot for its floral notes and petit verdot for its big, bold spiciness and colour. The best grapes from the farm’s vineyards were used.

Obviously this is a complex wine. Niel Bester says it demonstrates how the different grape varieties interact with each other. The wine is bright red, with a bouquet of red berries and spice, with touches of cedar and vanilla. The taste: blackcurrant, berries, ripe fruit, with the oak (16 months’ maturation in French oak barrels) adding hints of tobacco and cedar. This is a wine for a special occasion, not for everyday drinking. Only 500 cases are being sold locally, and the retail price is about R260 a bottle. More information from Plaisier de Merle on 021 874 1071.

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The De Krans wine cellar at Calitzdorp, a picturesque town about 50 kilometres north of Oudtshoorn, is known for its high quality port wines. One of them was recently awarded the title of overall champion port at the Peter Schulz Port Challenge 2010, the biggest port competition of its kind in South Africa.

The winning wine is the De Krans Cape Tawny Port. This wine is coppery gold in colour (hence the name tawny) and has tastes of nuts, spies, Christmas cake, toffee.

Port is an after-dinner drink and this one will go very well with the chocolates and coffee, but the cellar says it is also good with brown onion soup, which is a combination I have never tried. Sounds intriguing. At about R80 a bottle it is good value. More information from De Krans, phone 044 213 3314. – Michael Green