Adoro, Latin for “adore”, is not a very
familiar name among South African wines but its highly distinctive products are
now becoming better known.
Adoro is a wine firm at Stellenbosch that
does not own vineyards but buys grapes from various regions for vinification in
its cellar. Its winemaster, Ian Naude, and viticulturist, Lucas de Kock, argue
that this enables them to buy the grapes best suited for their wines.
It is associated in business with the
BenRiach whisky distillery in Scotland, in which two South Africans, Geoff Bell
and Wayne Kieswetter,
have a financial interest.
Adoro was
established in 2004 and its latest product is as unusual as the story of the
cellar itself. It is called Adoro Natural Sweet Mourvedre, and it is a type of
dessert wine that is not fortified with spirit and is not aggressively
high-alcohol.
The wine
was developed specifically as a complement for cheese, and it goes very well
with cheese platters, with dessert, or on its own. Made with mourvedre grapes
from the Swartland region north of Cape Town, it is a rather fruity red wine
that is not particularly dry or sweet. Alcohol volume is 14 percent. Mourvedre
is a red wine grape that has its origins in Spain and France. It is widely
grown in Australia and California, but plantings in South Africa are very
small.
When our
private wine group sampled the Adoro Natural Sweet Mourvedre recently we
thought it had a very unusual and pleasant taste, full and rich without being
cloying. It comes in an elegant, tall, slim 500 ml bottle. The cellar price is R109
a bottle (phone 083 630 3794). It will soon be available in KZN liquor shops,
probably at a slightly higher price.
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I have been
acquainted with them for many years, but Welmoed wines are perhaps not as well
known as they should be.
The Welmoed
cellar is at Stellenbosch, on a farm dating back to 1690. The name means
“Courage”, and it stems from the fact that the first owner, a retired mercenary
named Jacobus van der Heyden, spent some time in a dungeon in the Cape Town Castle
after refusing to retract criticism of the then governor of the Cape, Willem
Adriaan van der Stel. His admiring neighbours spoke about his courage, and the
Dutch word welmoed was conferred on his farm.
A friend of
mine, retired Supreme Court judge John Broome, gave me a bottle of Welmoed Chenin Blanc 2012 with the comment
that it was remarkably good value. It is indeed. He paid R30 for it in a Durban
supermarket, and it is a chenin of very good fruity quality, with apple and
citrus flavours and a refreshing, crisp character. Alcohol volume is 13,5
percent.
Welmoed is
owned by an organisation called The Company of Wine People, which was formed in
2006. It produces a range of ten white and red wines, and they all offer very
pleasant drinking at reasonable prices. – Michael Green