Sometimes you're forced to wonder how it gets done: the most cursory scrutiny of importers' price lists shows any number of fine wines, some of them vinous rarities produced from century-old vines, at prices which appear affordable in the context of good (not even iconic) Cape wine. I'm not talking about the really cheap and cheerful - which require some form of EU subsidy simply to make sense. You might argue that we have a duty to avoid buying imported wines which land up on shelf at under R35 per bottle. Even handled in huge volumes by retailers adept at squeezing the best deals from the value chain, it's probable that these are being “dumped” using EU farming subsidies. On the other hand, many of them are simply delicious – and in the days when our wine farmers enjoyed statutory price protection, I don't remember anyone suggesting a boycott of Cape wine simply because consumers were being forced to subsidise the farmers.
Inexplicably Accessible European Wine
No, what I'm talking about are European wines (because they get here duty free, and pay the same excise as local wine) and which typically retail for R130 to R200, and which are not produced in industrial quantities by large scale operators. There are wines from Bierzo in northwestern Spain which are on shelf near the lower of these price points. They are made from the local varieties (mencia for the red and godello for the white). The fruit is harvested from low-yielding ancient vineyards and the winemaker wisely avoids the contamination of new oak (or oak chips). The Armas de Guerra red has the delicacy of old vine cinsaut, the white the richness and texture of a Meursault. Both are delicious, savoury and enjoyable rather than multi-layered and complex. I don't know how they do it. The same is true of old vine Albarinho from Pazo de Villarei, the Duas Quintas of Ramos Pinto, the Red, White and Rose from La Vieille Ferme, a range of southern Rhône wines produced by the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel, RK Mosel Riesling from the Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt cellars, and the fabulous whites made by Roberto Anselmi in the Veneto.
