The annual reveal of the newest wine in the limited edition series of KWV’s The Mentors has become a major event on the tasting circuit. With five releases in the range under her belt – and many more in the apex Mentors range launched in 2006 – veteran KWV winemaker Izele van Blerk remains tight-lipped about the identity of future varieties already in the bottle and barrel.
Talking to her across the tasting table in Cape Town in May, we played a guessing game around which two future alternate varieties are in The Mentors' pipeline from the great 2022 vintage. But she does admit that KWV has a few tricks up its sleeve with Marsanne, Roussanne and Mourvedre in the barrel – as well as acclaimed varieties like The Mentors Grenache Blanc 2022.
Unveiling The Mentors Tempranillo 2021, Izele explains, "We need to promote our diversity in South Africa – not just culturally but in our climate, soils and vineyards. We try to be regional-specific and capture the unique character of a single vineyard in our choice of Mentors varietals. Each variety has to tell a story."
Naturally fermented in a small batch edition of one thousand litres sourced from a single vineyard of 400 vines in Wellington, she describes the new Mentors release as textbook Tempranillo stylistically coming of age in a blockbuster vintage.
The Mentors Tempranillo 2021
Educating consumers on the art of alternative varieties in South Africa and abroad has been a challenge for winemakers and marketeers. "It has taken five years to put The Mentors on the global map," says Izele, noting that The Mentors Tempranillo has all but sold out in export markets like the UK, Japan and Canada. There’s been no looking back since the triumphant launch of the limited edition series at Shakespeare’s The Globe Theatre in London.
The limited edition series now includes Carménère 2017, Petite Sirah (Durif) 2018, Malbec 2019, Nebbiolo 2017, and Tempranillo 2021 – not an impulse buy at R799 per bottle – but available in four-part interest-free payments online. You’ll probably have quaffed it before you pay it off. Rarity and exclusivity comes at a price – compared to the premium Mentors series of blends, Pinotage, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, and Grenache Blanc priced R179-R349.
Taking us through a vertical flight of the five super-premium limited edition wines, Izele says she tastes grapes in the vineyards and over 1000 barrels monthly in making the Mentors selection – that "winemaking is creativity and science". Ten years ago, I recall going walkabout with chief KWV viticulturist Marco Ventrello in the Grondves experimental vineyard, a nursery for alternate varieties now coming on stream – and tasted future wines in The Mentors range in the barrel.
"By its very nature the wine meets our philosophy of honouring the diversity of terroir," comments Izele. The tasting also showcases winemaking technique – The Mentors Tempranillo 2021 was whole-bunched, naturally fermented using native yeast and matured for 18 months in a 50/50 combination of 70% new French and American oak. Only the best barrels were used in the final blend, demonstrating The Mentors' pursuit of the very best from harvest to bottling.
While Tempranillo is the fourth biggest planted red variety (280 000 hectares) in the world – and the backbone of Rioja in Spain – it is a minor blip on our radar at 0.1% of the South African vineyard. Literally meaning early in Spanish, this early ripening variety suited to warm climates and global warming, produces full-bodied wines with good colour, acidity and firm tannins. A handful of Tempranillo producers in the Cape include the Tempel’s five-star Tydsaam Tempranillo from Paarl, De Krans Tinta Roriz (another moniker for Tempranillo) from Calitzdorp, Baleia on the South Coast, Dornier, and the highly acclaimed Super Single Vineyards in Stellenbosch Kloof. An inaugural tasting of the Cape’s dozen Tempranillo wines would be a fascinating exercise.
Going back to my notes on earlier The Mentors tastings, I note the ageability of the wines already shows in the evolution of these vintages. Izele says the low pH of the wines is the holy grail to ensure maturation potential – and why the Carménère 2017 (made from 138 vines a Grondves in Stellenbosch) and Petite Sirah 2018 (ex-Laborie) are still so fresh. Aged for 36 months in second and third-fill oak and 24 months in bottle, the Nebbiolo 2017 (supposedly named after nebbia, Italian for “the fog” which descends on Piedmont at harvest), with its big tannins, high acidity and signature tarry terpicity shows the exceptional longevity of this ancient Italian variety.
The Mentors Nebbiolo 2017
Izele emphasises Barolo takes three years in barrel and two in bottle to develop. She says The Mentors is stylistically very different from the handful of Nebbiolo grown (0,02%) grown in South Africa by inter alia Anura, Arcangeli (Romulus Nebbiolo), Idiom, Morgenster, and Steenberg.
The best Barolo I’ve ever tasted was in Piedmont, its native home in Italy. While attending the Hemingway exhibition in Venice in My 2011, an event which commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of his death, we raised glasses of long-lived vintages of Papa’s beloved Barolo, a wine he drinks by the flagon in "Across the River and into the Trees" – his tribute to post-war Veneto.
Off the top of her head, Izelle cites the limited planting of these unique varieties in the Cape – planted to only 8,6 ha of Carménère, 21,7ha of Nebbiolo and 181 ha of Petite Sirah.
Now that’s alternate for ya. Tasting The Mentors Carménère, the long-lost sixth Bordeaux variety which once flourished in the Medoc, and now thrives in Chile, we explored some of the distinct raspberry, pomegranate, green peppercorn and bell pepper character of the deep-hued carmine wine. If you want to explore further, renowned winemaker Carmen Stevens of Stellenbosch and Lozärn Wines of Bonnievale (both the red and rose versions are excellent) make first-rate examples of Carménère wine mistakenly labelled as Merlot when first exported to Chile.
Amazingly, it was only in 1994 that a French ampelographer came upon the variety in a vineyard in Chile – and undertook DNA tests which revealed the wine thought to be Merlot was Carménère, the old Bordeaux variety thought to be extinct. And the rest as they say is history.
Izele concludes, "It’s so easy to make good wine. You have to spend time in the vineyard. You have to work with nature. Don’t overwork the tannins and the grapes. There are no recipes. Learn to understand the variety in the vineyard and the cellar. You must focus on fruit purity."
The wines will appeal to connoisseurs and consumers looking for something different in the glass – and to purists in search of single vineyard, single varietal expressions of specific terroir. If you’re looking for a change from the usual suspects – Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet, Shiraz and Pinotage – take a walk on the wild side of wine. Vote for diversity.
