MICHAEL GREEN’S WINE NOTES No. 248

Winemakers are often ingenious in the choice of names for their products. Vanilla is a word I usually associate with ice-cream, but now we have a vanilla wine from the Weltevrede estate at Bonnievale, in the Robertson valley.

The wine is Weltevrede Vanilla Chardonnay. Weltevrede’s cellarmaster, Philip Jonker, says it is made from chardonnay grapes from Karoo limestone terrain and fermented with light oak, resulting in an alchemy of extraordinary flavours. In a burst of soaring rhetoric he adds: “Some taste vanilla. Some gets hints of butterscotch or English toffee. Some call it crème brûlée, honey, coconut or crème caramel. Others smell tropical flavours of pineapple, passion fruit or peach”.

You might as well dispense with the dessert course and serve a glass of this Weltevrede instead. Obviously, it is an interesting wine, and it retails at the sensible price of about R45 a bottle.

From the Villiersdorp Cellar in the Worcester area comes a range called Dam Good wines: Dam Good White, Dam Good Rosé and Dam Good Red. The cheerful name comes from the Theewaterskloof Dam, which is near the Villiersdorp vineyards and is the biggest dam in the Western Cape.

The White is 97 percent chenin blanc and 3 percent sauvignon blanc, and it sells at about R28 a bottle; the Rosé is 100 percent merlot and sells at about R28; and the Red is 60 percent shiraz and 40 percent cabernet sauvignon and sells at about R32. They have all received favourable comments from the experts, and they sound as if they are good value.

Flat Roof Manor is another unusual name. This is a range of wines made at the Uitkyk estate at Stellenbosch. The estate’s 1788 town house gives the Flat Roof Manor label its name.

The latest addition to the range is Flat Roof Manor Pinot Rosé, a crisp and zesty blend of pinotage (70 percent) and pinot grigio (30 percent). The winemaker, Estelle Lourens, has her own line of description. She says the wine is “playful but complex. The pinotage gives it the spine and substance to last while the pinot grigio gives it a bit of frivolous charm”. Sounds OK, sells at about R38 a bottle.

More down to earth is a line called Eddy Wines (origin of the name unknown). These are unlabelled wines, a trend that is becoming increasingly popular. Checkers and Pick n Pay sell plenty of wines called, respectively, Oddbins and PnP.

Eddy Wines sell ten different wines that cover a wide spectrum, from sauvignon blanc to cabernet sauvignon. The wines come from cellars in the Western Cape. The quality is said to be good and the prices are reasonable, R22 to R35 a bottle.

There is a slight snag. The organisation is based in Paarl, and if you want to order for delivery in Durban you should add R6,65 a bottle for courier costs. Phone 021 863 2227, website www.eddywines.com