Sweet Tooth

Wine tasting can at times be exasperating. There you are waxing lyrically about the asparagus nose and zingy acidity of what you know is a Sauvignon Blanc, only to be told that the wine is actually a Riesling. Such a nightmare moment all fellow wine tasters will recognise. So too the situation where as soon as you profess to have a passing interest in wine, a glass is thrust into your hand and the inevitable question is asked, “Well, what is it”? A tip here for such occasions is to describe what the wine is not rather than what it is. This elimination technique may seem somewhat evasive, but it has the advantage of equally wowing friends and more likely prevent the falling-flat-on-your-face moment.

Party tricks aside, wine tasting is a skill, which just like any other skill can with practice be acquired with the only prerequisite being having a sense of smell. It does help to acquire a modicum of understanding of human physiology, essentially the basics of how we smell and taste. For example, the sensation of sweetness is mostly picked up on the tip of the tongue. Next time you taste wine or pretty well any liquid for that matter, concentrate on the tip of the tongue. You should be able to pick up the fact that the liquid either appears sweet or not. How sweet or not the liquid appears will be different for different people based upon an individual’s tolerance. In other words, one person’s sweetness can be another person’s sour and vice versa.

I use the term sweetness, but what is being identified and categorised is the amount of sugar, expressed in wine tasting parlance as grams per litre. In general terms and in most countries, a wine with a residual sugar content of below 4 or 5 grams per litre is usually categorised as dry. Above 9 or 10 grams a litre then the wine is categorised as sweet with the intermediary category of between 5 to 9 grams per litre as off-dry.

For the everyday wine drinker these categorisations of the relative sweetness of a wine are somewhat academic. The buyer usually wants simply to know is the wine sweet or dry. New World wine producers are usually more helpful to the consumer often providing some form of symbol on the label to categorise degrees of sweetness, or, are more likely simply to have on the label sweet, semi-sweet, or, dry. Old World wine producers particularly the French are less likely to offer the consumer such help. The logic being, I think, that that if you do not know that Sauternes, for example, is a sweet wine then it is your lookout.

The popularity of sweet wines historically has waxed and waned. In Europe in the 18th and 19th Century’s sweet wines was all the rage, at least within the courts of the aristocracy and among the elites. Part of the explanation relates to the then scarcity of sugar and natural sweetness in any food was much prized. After the Second World War wine consumption began to move away from only the drink of two extremes; either a drink of the peasants or the tipple of the rich. Prosperity and the rise of the urban middle classes provided new and much larger markets for wine. By the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s sophisticated urbanites were moving towards a preference for dry wines. Why this preference away from sweet wines happened is open to much speculation and interpretation, but perhaps was noting more than fashion.

Humans have a penchant, if not a physical craving for all things sweet. The positive response babies’ display to sweet food is dramatic and early exposure to high levels of sugar in the diet can create cravings, if not an addiction, that many find difficult in later life to kick. This human preference for sugar as well as fat forms the basis of one of the world’s most successful industries, being fast food in all its guises. It is then no coincidence that the most successful brand of wine in the world, the Australian Yellow Tail labels, (annual sales of around 400 million litres), has relatively high levels of residual sugar. Again, this is no coincidence as cleaver marketing folk know full well that consumers, particularly those new to wine drinking, respond favourably in blind tastings to a degree of residual sugar in their wines.

There are several ways to produce a sweet wine. Natural sweetness is a function of the ripeness of a grape when picked. In northern Europe producing grapes which are fully ripe, meaning with sufficient sugar content, has historically been somewhat hit-and-miss due to the vagaries of the climate. Many European wine producers are in some ways happy that global warming may be changing this situation to produce far less inconsistent vintages than historically has been the case. European wine makers are still allowed to add sugar, or, more precisely grape must, prior to the fermentation process not to increase sweetness, but to provide the food for the yeast for the wine to ferment to a sufficient alcoholic strength. This addition of grape must is known as Chapilization named after a French chemist Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal in the mid-18th Century.

A “natural” way to produce a sweet wine is through desertification of the grape. This can be achieved either through using raisins, dried grapes, which by reducing the water content of the grape increases the relative sugar content. Another way is through a fungal infection called botrytis cinerea. This bacterial infection on the skin of the grape has the effect of educing rot, the process is commonly called noble rot, and reducing the water content in the grape and therefore again increasing the relative sugar content. The other natural way of increasing the sugar content of the grape is through picking the grapes when they are frozen. Ice wine as it is called is based on the principle that water freezes at a higher temperature than the phenolics properties of the grape, including the sugar content.

The other way to produce a sweet wine is to stop the fermentation process before all the sugars in the wine have been converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The good folk of the Douro valley in Portugal do this to their Port wines adding a grape spirit to the wine before fermentation has been completed. This has the effect of retaining the residual sugar content of the wine and importantly bumping the alcoholic strength to around 18% volume.

In Kenya the shelves of the supermarkets have plenty of off-dry or sweet wines. From Chile there are the products of the Frontera label part of the Concha Y Toro Company with their sweet wine offerings. At about 15 grams per litre and alcohol of 15% by volume and a price tag of KSH700 (US$9.00) it has proved a popular seller. Interestingly the wine has no vintage on the label indicating that it may well be a blend of wines from a variety of vintages and areas of Chile. How the sweetness is achieved is also not indicated on the label, but it maybe as simple as adding grape must to the final product prior to bottling.

From South Africa there are a variety of products that fall into the sweet wine category. The wine company Douglas Green have a label called St. Celine, marketed as a Natural Sweet Red, at around 15% alcohol and like its Chilean counterpart also a non-vintage. Douglas Green in my opinion has a sophisticated marketing strategy and quick off the mark when it comes to recognising the consumer preferences for slightly sweet wine. They have their labels St. Anna, Natural Sweet, 8% alcohol, (KSH499) and St Claire, Natural Sweet Red, 8% alcohol, which again cleverly recognise consumer moves to sweeter and less alcohol in their wines. For the Old World the French through the J.P Chenet company offer a Medium Sweet white, as well as a Medium Sweet Red 2008 at around KSH779 a bottle. Not to be left out the Italians are promoting the label Mama Mia Naturally Sweet, White, Vaglie at 12% alcohol at about KSH439, (US$6.00), a bottle. The label unashamedly leans on the Italian expression and the hit of the pop group ABBA. I have tasted this wine and the expression, “Mama Mia”, seems particularly appropriate.

Yoddle-lay-hee-tee

I am in Genève, Switzerland for work, but of course there is wine to explore. Over the last couple of years I have been back and forth several times to Genève and each time I have tried to taste as many of the wines as possible. There are around 19,900 hectres of vineyards in Switzerland divided between thousands of full and part time growers. Production of wine is not huge in world terms and according to data from the Swiss Federal Office of Agriculture, production in 2009 was just over 1.1 million hectoliters, divided into 527,000 hl of white wine and 587,000 hl of red wine.

The Swiss tend to drink all their wine themselves with less than 2% being exported and that mainly goes to neighbouring Germany. The Swiss are the 6th highest per capita consumers of wine in the world at around 45 litres per person per year. Not surprising then given the Swiss’s love of wine and the sky high value of their Franc, that we do not see any Swiss wine on the shelves in Kenyan supermarkets or anywhere else for that matter.

You do not have to go far in Genève to find vineyards as there are dozens within 10 kilometres of the city centre. Crossing the Rhône River and heading west in the direction of the French border, there are lots of attractive villages such as Peissy, Satigny, Bourdigny, Choully and Russin. I am told that within the Genève canton there has been a significant revival of small family runs vineyards over the last ten years or so. This is surprising as the price of land is astronomical, which makes me wonder about the economic viability of these small, normally less than 4 hectres, vineyards. There are though very strict building regulations that prohibit the urban sprawl from swallowing the patchwork of vineyards, thank goodness.

Once a year about twenty-five vineyards in and around the village of Peissy open their doors to the public for a goûter (taste). The taste of Swiss wines is likened to the Alpine air fresh and clean. The famous grape varietal of Switzerland is Chasselas which produces a light, dry, spritzy, and delicate wine. Chasselas goes particularly well with fondue, a sort of gooey cheesy mixture that various bits of bread, fish, or meat are dipped into. Chasselas constitutes 40% of all vine plantings in Switzerland and like most grapes is known by different names in different places including Dorin in the Vaud region and Fendant in the Valais. Switzerland also has a long list of historic vine specialties such as Petite Arvine, Amigne, and Humagne Blanc for the whites. For reds, the Swiss love affair with Pinot Noir has seen a significant increase in plantings this vine often at the expense of Chasselas.

In general Genève winegrowers are in the process of downsizing Chasselas, formerly the most widely grown grape in the canton. The wines I found interesting and liked were made from the Gamaret grape. A red grape it is a cross between Gamay, (the famous grape of Beaujolais in France), and the white grape varietal Reichensteiner. Gamaret was developed for cultivation in French Switzerland, and is a sibling of Garanoir, which was intended for the German part of the country and was created by André Jaquinet at Station Fédérale de Recheres en Production Végétale de Changins in 1970. Total Swiss plantations of the variety in 2009 are small at 380 hectares (940 acres) and about 100 hectres are found in the Genève vineyards. Gamaret has good resistance to rot and ripens early. It gives dark purple wine with aromas of blackberries and spices and subtle tannin. In many ways the style is much more New World with up-front fruit, light tannins, and subtle (French) oaking that can be drunk a year or so after bottling.

Extreme Winemaking: Leleshwa Naivasha

Unsurprisingly I tend to love vineyards and over the years I have been fortunate to have visited a number of what could be called unusual vineyards. In the Karoo in South Africa it is not unusual to find a combination of a vineyard with Ostrich rearing. In the Douro Valley in Portugal the steepness of the vineyards, which rise almost vertically from the river, send anyone with a vertiginous sensitivity into apoplexy. This last weekend it was to another vineyard right here in Kenya that could be categorised as being at the extreme end of the winemaking scale.

The Great Rift Valley Winery is located in Naivasha about 90 kilometres west of Nairobi. The vineyard lies at about an altitude of 1,900 metres with about 35 to 40 hectres of vines and the farm is framed by hills all around that rise to over 2,500 metres. The brand of the vineyard is Leleshwa, which refers to the Masai name of trees with a distinctive white flower that are common to the area. The vineyard has been in existence since 1994 when the previous owner of the farm planted about 3 to 4 hectres of vines suitable for wine making.

The vineyard changed hands in the late 1990’s and now falls under the portfolio of the Kenya Nut Company owned by a prominent Kenyan businessman. For the last two-and-a-half years the viticulturalists, winemaker, and pretty well everything else, has been James Farquharson. James born in Kenya of Scottish ancestry spent time in the South Africa’s Cape first completing a BSc in Viticulture at Stellenbosch University before practicing his craft at a number of estates, including becoming the red winemaker at the prestigious Boschendal Estate not far from Franschhoek.

The biggest problem James has confronted is the low yields of the vines when he inherited the vineyard. Crop yields were as low as 1.5 tonnes per hectre, which makes commercial wine making economically unviable. For grapes such as Sauvignon Blanc for a commercial vineyard a minimum of 5 tonnes per hectre and hopefully more around the 8 to 9 tonnes per hectre is desirable. James is getting there in terms of increasing yields by applying techniques such as particular types of pruning. James has for example introduced a pruning system of 6 to 8 bud canes instead of the 2 bud spurs that was being used at the vineyard. This encourages fruit production although other problems include loss of grapes to birds and animals such as antelope and monkeys.

As mentioned in a previous blog, there are a number of challenges growing grapes and making wine bang on the equator. Vines perform best within a band of latitudes approximately between 30oN 50oN and the mirror image for the southern hemisphere, 30oS 50oS. Look at a map of the world and all the famous wine producing areas fall into these latitudes. The reason is partly climate as to produce grapes suitable for quality wine making it is generally agreed that vines require a period of dormancy. In the appropriate latitudes and the on-set of winter, cooler temperatures encourage the vine to shut down and the sap falls from the plant above ground to the roots. Vines perform best when they have long daylight periods particularly during the summer ripening period. In Europe the 14 to 18 hours of daylight in the summer enable the vine to produce quality fruit; the right balance between sugar and acid as well as other phenolics properties.

In Naivasha James cannot do much about the length of days as they are what they are about 12 hours a day all year around. To encourage dormancy James tries to starve the vines of water. Naivasha receives on average around 550mm of rainfall annually. This year rainfall patterns have been far from normal with to date over 750 mm. The other technique often used by grape growers in the tropics is to waken the vine from an induced dormancy period by applying hydrogen cyamide (Prussic acid) the commercial brand name in Kenya is Dormex. An advantage of this application is that as well as wakening the vine it also encourages the uniform setting of fruit.

Despite the challenges of growing vines on the equator James has in a very short period of time achieved considerable success. The Leleshwa brand currently produces a very good Sauvignon Blanc with bright fruit and a definite varietal character. A rosé wine is also produced and the next venture is to add a Shiraz to the brand line. Marketing wine is a major industry in itself and in Kenya there are additional challenges. James hopes that the country’s tourist industry will want to serve Leleshwa highlighting the fact that it is a unique Kenyan product and all things considered it should be a winner. James is philosophical when it comes to accepting that the specific challenges of Naivasha mean that his wines are not necessarily going to be challenging Burgundy Gran Cru’s or Bordeaux First Growths and that is in any case certainly not the objective. Good quality, technically sound wine at an affordable price (Leleshwa Sauvignon Blanc retails at about KSH550 (about $6.80) a bottle in Nairobi) and a unique Kenyan product makes more than enough sense.

The Chocolate Block

Selling wine is a tough business. Annual consumption of fermented grape juice rises every year, but the picture is distorted by the Chinese and Indian markets, which along with other so called emerging economies, accounts for most the increased sales. In the traditional retail wine markets of Europe and North America the picture is very different. Here consumption of wine is at best stagnant and the supermarket shelves, where approximately nine out of every ten bottles are sold, groan with an ever expanding array of wines. In the traditional wine producing and consuming countries of Europe such as France, Italy, and Spain, the young increasingly drink beer or Alcopops and often view wine as distinctly un-hip, old fashioned and, heaven forbid, something their parents drink.

As mentioned in previous blogs, wine consumption in Kenya albeit at a low base level is increasing dramatically. For the lower price band of wine between $5 and $10 a bottle, promotion is largely confined to the handful of importing companies trumpeting their respective commercially successful brands, usually from South Africa or increasingly Chile. A typical promotion for these wines normally consists of a display in a local supermarket where (usually) young sales representatives try to tempt the shopper to sample and hopefully buy this week’s bargain.

The bargain more often than not is a commercial white, red and sometimes rosé, usually a single varietal, Sauvignon Blanc or Cabernet Sauvignon for example, that in wine speaking parlance is described as easy drinking; fruity with low tannins and at the higher end of dry, or, increasingly off-dry. These promotional campaigns, mostly through the supermarkets, are much the same as anywhere in the world, although we do not as yet have the three-for-two or the 10% discount offer if you buy a case.

For the mid price level for wine above $15, but below $30 a bottle, the choice is reasonably good in that quality examples can be found from the Old World, Italy, France, and Spain, and the New World, mostly South Africa and Chile. Much like anywhere in the world, consumers often bulk at paying a premium for these mid priced wines largely because they are not really sure what extra quality for their money they are getting. In addition for the consumer it is not helped by the absence of the promotion of these wines; the distributors perhaps believing that sales are relatively so small that there is little merit in investing in promotion.

Above the $30 a bottle price the wine market in Kenya is at best miniscule. In the wider world despite economic recession, the demand for so called fine wines seems to increase exponentially. Bordeaux first growths, Burgundy Gran Crus, and some flagship New World estates such as Screaming Eagle in California, can charge, and do, just about what they want. The need to promote these iconic wines is non existent as buyers already know that they are unique products and that the price is more a function of demand and supply rather than anything to do with the taste. Indeed, part of the attraction is that they are collectable, endowed with a caché that above all makes them a sound investment.

Against the promotional tide, there are occasionally in Nairobi promotions of wines that in some respects do not, from an economic perspective, seem to make sense. One example was an evening a week or so ago of an event promoting The Chocolate Block. The wine emanates from the Boekenhoutsklof Winery in Franschhoek, South Africa. A Shiraz led blend, (the 2008 vintage is a blend of 69% Shiraz, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and a dash of Cinsaut and Viognier[1]), the wine mimics to an extent a Rhône Valley wine from France; a quintessential so called “Rhône Ranger”, and the label has been a huge commercial hit in South Africa (current annual sales are around 180,000 cases). Also, the wine sales well in European markets in particular the UK. Boekenhoutsklof understands and exploit the fact that a wine with a discernibly taste, in this case chocolate, is both understandable and desirable for wine consumers who seek at the very least consistency. In other words, the label delivers what it says, chocolate.

The Market for The Chocolate Block is in Kenya at best is limited, not least because at a price tag of around KSH4,000 (about $50) a bottle it is not exactly going to fly off the shelves. Yet Boekenhoutsklof and Kafra[2], (the distributor here in Kenya), went to the expense of sending the marketing manager from South Africa to Nairobi (as well as Uganda, Nigeria coupled with a trip to the UK and Germany) to promote the wine, and I for one are more than grateful. Boekenhoutsklof as part of the larger Vinimark Company[3], (South Africa’s largest independent specialist wine wholesaling company), have the resources to warrant such “loss-leader” adventures into new markets. It underlines the fact that selling wine is a tough business and that it requires strong nerves to push the investment boat out, so to speak. As the saying goes the best way to make a small fortune in the wine industry is to start with a large one.


[1] The following are notes from Boekenhoutsklof. “The Syrah fruit comes from Malmesbury with its unique growing conditions and dryland farmed vineyards to ensure it deep-rooted vines and therefore optimal concentration of colour, flavour and tannin structure. The Grenache noir (from some of the oldest in the country) is sourced from Citrusdal with its very sandy soils and perfect terroir for ripening this grape varietal. This batch was matured in 600L barrels to retain the unmistakable fruit and freshness on the cultivar. The Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier come from the organically farmed vineyards of Boekenhoutsklof and the Cinsault is from old bush vines on decomposed granite soils on Welbedacht in Wellington. The wine matures in 2nd and 3rd filled French oak barrels for 15 months before it gets a light egg-white fining.

The wine shows typical Malmesbury Syrah flavours on the nose with intense spicy notes which is supported by ripe plum, black fruit and violet aromas. The wine has a grippy acidity and well integrated tannins with a well textured and rounded mouth feel. The long, elegant and succulent finish with superb structure from the Cabernet Sauvignon leads us to believe that this wine has at least 8 years of aging potential”.
[2] The Chocolate Box is aavailable from Kafra Wines Kenya Limited, Kafrawines@nbi.ispkenya.com

[3] The labels under the Vinimark Company include Avondale, Fish Hoeh, Glen Carlou, Longridge, and South Africa’s only bio-dynamically certified estate Reyneke Wines.

“Ho Brion that hath a good and most particular taste I never met with”

Here in Nairobi the Diploma course of the Cape Wine Academy has started. I am teaching the course, which consists of four units lasting approximately six months each with assignments and an exam for each unit. Once the exams for each unit have all been passed, students can then embark upon the tasting exam. All-in-all quite an undertaking and a total of six students are signed up, primed, and ready to go.

Each lecture within each unit culminates in a wine tasting the wines reflecting the subject of the lecture. For example, lectures on the theme of organic, bio-dynamic, and environmentally sustainable wine making we taste wines that best reflect these principles and techniques. For lectures more country and region focussed, such as Bordeaux or Burgundy in France, or, Mosel in Germany, then the wines selected reflect the styles and diversity from these different regions.

Finding wines in Nairobi to match the themes and subjects covered in the lectures for the Diploma course is quite a challenge. The supermarkets and most wine suppliers in Nairobi, as I have mentioned in previous blogs, tend to mainly stock the generic and brand wines from South Africa, Chile, and some European countries. Wines that are more interesting, endowed with a sense of character, are generally not available. For example, the wines available from Bordeaux are at best the generic regional Appellations d'origine contrôlées such as Bordeaux Supérieur, rather than the famous individual appellations such as Médoc and Graves. Obtaining interesting wines requires lots of lateral thinking, begging, borrowing, although not yet stealing. As a group we are dependent on ourselves and soliciting the assistance of many and any a friend to bring back from travels the necessary precious bottles.

Bordeaux apart from the Diploma classes is also on my mind at present because the recently released en premeur offerings for the 2009 vintage are causing a bit of stir in the press of the fine wine world. The international wine critics have let the superlatives rip by describing the 2009 vintage as the best in a generation and some have gone as far as writing the best ever. The quality of the 2009 vintage is somewhat academic as most mere mortals will never get to taste the wines. Even with a deep interest in fine Claret the chances of also having deep pockets to buy an even moderate example of the 2009 vintage are unlikely.

To buy a case of any of the famous 2009 first growths, as they are called, such as Chateaux Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton-Rothschild, and Haut-Brion, (the famous Ho Brion of the title of this blog), will cost between Euro 5,000 to 10,000 a case, about Euro 400 to 800 a bottle. This is the en premeur price meaning that when you eventually take receipt of wines some two years hence you will have to add tax and shipping on top of the price, about another 25% to 100% depending where you live in the world. These are wines that have not even been bottled yet. They have been assessed by wine critics from samples straight from the barrel and yet such is the almost hysteria that has been created for the 2009 vintage, at least in some parts of the world and in particular China, allocations of the best wines are already sold.

At one level the price of a bottle of any given wine should be fairly straight forward. Like any other commodity the price of a bottle of wine reflects the costs of production. Surprisingly then the production costs of a bottle of wine from a vast agri-business enterprise somewhere in the world are not that different from that of the world’s most expensive wines. Now I am not being precise here, but say the production costs of a bottle of imaginary el-cheapo are roughly $3 to $5 a bottle. The production costs of a fine and even an iconic great wine may only be very roughly twice that of my el-cheapo bottle of wine.

The owners of first growth chateaux in Bordeaux would most likely disagree with this estimation of additional production costs. They are more likely to argue that their costs are much, much higher than those of my imaginary el-cheapo producer. They would point to the stratospheric costs of land, higher labour costs due to for example hand picking of grapes, the low yields of grapes per hectre necessary for really great wine production, and the use of the finest and therefore most expensive oak barrels. Let me be generous therefore and revise my estimation of the increased costs of a first growth bottle of wine by say 5 times. Yet the fine wines of Bordeaux first growths for example can sell for a 100 times or more a bottle than the price of my el-cheapo bottle.

If the high price of a bottle of first growth Bordeaux in comparison to el-cheapo is not entirely a function of production costs, then perhaps it is because it tastes better, even a 100 times better? If you read the tasting notes of the more prosaic wine tasters you may actually believe this to be true. In reality the price of a bottle of wine is established by a whole cornucopia of factors, perhaps the most important one being what any given individual will pay. The spectacular rise of the economies of the Far East, in particular China, coupled with a rapidly rising demand for the very best wines is a major factor in why the prices of Bordeaux wines has been rising almost exponentially over the last decade. For the Diploma students in Nairobi we will taste really interesting wines. Unfortunately it is unlikely they will be first growth Bordeaux unless someone out there would like to donate a few bottles of say 1990 Pétrus?

Plop or Crack?

A perusal of the wines on sale in Nairobi’s supermarkets reveals that less than half are sealed with traditional cork. This is no surprise as it is common knowledge that for more than a decade the humble cork has been losing ground as the stopper of choice. Cork reigned supreme for centuries and the gentle plop sound made as it is pulled from the bottle is for many a vital component of the pleasures of drinking wine. The theory goes that corks will continue to disappear and in the foreseeable future will only be used for those rare and expensive first growth wines from Europe. It is the screw cap that is gaining dominance replacing the plop with a crack as a simple twist is now all that is needed to open many wine bottles.

The use of corks to provide a seal for wine containers, usually wooden barrels or clay jugs, goes back to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Interestingly though by medieval times cork was not commonly used in Europe as a seal for wine containers. The reasons for this are speculative, but some scholars have postulated that the conquering of Iberia by the Moors in the 8th Century, which was then as is now the main supplier of cork, put a halt to supplies. The use of cork began to increase with the development of glass bottles during the 17th Century. Firstly glass stoppers were used, which involved the expensive and skilled process of grinding a glass bung to fit the neck of the bottle in much the same way as in a decanter. Cork quickly replaced glass stoppers principally because they were and still are relatively cheap. Since the 17th Century cork has been the dominant form of seal, and only began to wane in popularity towards the end of the 20th Century.

Cork is undoubtedly a remarkable product. It is natural and sustainable as well as relatively cheap and has the vital quality of being porous. The porosity not only enables the cork to be squashed and pushed into the bottle neck where it expands to form a snug fit, but also allows an almost infinitesimal amount of air to enter the wine. Science has demonstrated that this interface between the wine and air is critical for the maturation and development of nuisances in the wine so loved by connoisseurs. In reality it is only that tiny quantity of fine wines that really benefit from bottle ageing.

Corks qualities and strengths are in part also part of their problems. Cork unsurprisingly derives from the cork tree, Quercus suber, a relatively young species of oak. The thick bark is stripped with no detrimental effect on the health of the tree and cut into corks. Historically corks received little if any further treatment prior to being bunged into the bottle. As a natural product cork contains all sorts of chemicals including residues of sap. Wine makers became quickly aware that living cork while pliable and forming a good seal also reacted with the wine not necessarily with desirable effects.

Modern producers to combat cork taint normally bleach corks in a strong chlorine solution prior to washing and drying in an attempt to create a more inert product. It is possible though to detect the smell of chloroanisoles such as Trichloranisiole or TCA, on a wine even at almost infinitesimal concentrations. Professional wine tasters develop an ability to detect technical flaws in a wine such as the smell of TCA and can distinguish this smell from other odours emanating from other faults such as for example Brettanomyces (a form of yeast genera) contamination. Best quality corks are more likely to be free of TCA residues although they are of course expensive, which partly explains the change to other forms of seals. Wine tasters use the term corked to describe the smell and taste of a wine contaminated by a faulty cork. The term corked is also used wrongly, at least in wine tasting terms, to describe bits of cork floating around in the glass. Wine in a glass may indeed be literally corked as it contains little bits of cork, but the fault is a result of the acts of the corkscrew and the ineptitude of the pourer and not necessarily a faulty cork.

In Nairobi there are few if any restaurants that employ a sommelier. It is though quite common for a waiter to proffer a small amount of wine to undertake the tasting ritual. Diners are familiar with this ritual the uncomfortable and often pretentious scenario where the recipient of the proffered wine swirls, sniffs, and tastes before declaring wine suitable. The waiter then proceeds to fill the glasses of the dinners around the table. In Nairobi most waiters like to fill glasses as full as possible deeming it impolite to fill the glass half-full as a wine taster would prefer.

Strictly speaking although the tasting ritual is necessary it is usually carried under a misconception. Many believe what they are doing by tasting the wine is to determine if they like it or not. In reality what the diner should be doing is determining that the wine quality is good: in other words that the wine is not corked. To achieve this it is nine times out of ten sufficient to merely asses the wines appearance and smell as this reveal without tasting any faults. If a fault is detected then of course it is perfectly reasonable to ask for another bottle to be produced. It is not acceptable to send the wine back because the taster does not like it. If the wine comes with a screw cap by definition it cannot be corked, but it may have other faults so it is always best the check even if it has been cracked instead of plopped.

Kenya to produce a Premier Cru?

Wine making is as least as old as human civilisation. Wine made from grapes from Vitus vinifera (wine-bearing) species are generally agreed to originate from what is now Georgia about 3,000 BC. The Ancient Egyptians left detailed accounts of vine growing and wine making, although not much about how their wines tasted. The Romans are credited with the spread of Vitus vinifera through Europe about two-thousand years ago to what are now famous wine regions. Today with the exception of Antarctica vines are grown and wine is made on every continent on earth.

Vines perform best within a band of latitudes approximately between 30oN 50oN and the mirror image for the southern hemisphere, 30oS 50oS. Look at a map of the world and all the famous wine producing areas fall into these latitudes. The reason is partly climate as to produce grapes suitable for quality wine making it is generally agreed that vines require a period of dormancy. In the appropriate latitudes and the on-set of winter, cooler temperatures encourage the vine to shut down and the sap falls from the plant above ground to the roots. Dormancy protects the plant against frosts and enables the plant to conserve energy in preparation for the next growing season. As temperatures rise with the on-set of spring the plant awakens, the sap rises again and the vine goes into its busy period of sending out shots followed by flowering, budding, and the final result ripe fruit.

In Kenya seasons are more based upon rainfall than temperature. Kenyan farmers do not talk about the winter, but the short-rains or the long-rains. Kenya straddles the equator and with its tropical climate vines can grow all year round. For producing table-grapes this is not necessarily a disadvantage, but for wine making it is none to good. To make good wine, wine makers search for grapes that are small with concentrated flavours. This is why quality wine producers throughout the world tend to constantly thin their grapes by picking and discarding berries to keep yields at relatively low levels and quality high.

Vine growers in Kenya and other tropical countries have developed techniques to cope with unfavourable climatic conditions. To an extent Kenya has advantage in the form of high altitudes. Kenya’s few vineyards are all at altitude mostly in the highlands above about 1,500 metres. This is beneficial as the altitude provides cooler daytime temperatures than the latitude normally would dictate that prevent the grapes becoming burnt or to hot. Even at altitude though, in Kenya temperatures seldom drop low enough and for long enough to encourage the vines to enter dormancy.

To encourage dormancy or at least to restrict the vine from continually fruiting tropical grape producers tend to double prune. This involves pruning right after harvest usually in February and then again in September. Additional fungicide spraying is also deployed mostly to militate against disease that is more likely to develop in the relatively wet and warm conditions found in Kenya. Some wine makers are experimenting with the idea of applying a hormone to the vine to in effect kid the vine into entering dormancy. To waken the vine from this induced dormancy period, grape growers are also experimenting by applying hydrogen cyamide (Prussic acid). An advantage of this application is that as well as wakening the vine it also encourages the uniform setting of fruit. This technique is used fairly extensively for grape production throughout the world particularly in the New World. Uniform fruit setting has a number of advantages not least being that there is more likelihood of achieving uniform ripeness at harvest. This means that mechanised picking can be deployed, which has the advantage of usually being more cost effective than hand-picking, which cannot differentiate between ripe and unripe fruit.

With modern techniques of vine growing, including on the near horizon the possible benefits of genetic modification, could it be that the tropics including Kenya will offer a future of good or even great wine production? Probably not is the answer, but on the other hand some would disagree and argue in depends on the time frame. India for example is storming ahead in terms of vine planting and wine production mostly within its tropical regions feeding the ever-burgeoning demand of its middle classes. Brazil’s tropical regions are also producing more and more wine. It is at least whimsical to consider that perhaps in twenty-years or so a Kenyan wine may bear comparison with a European first-growth cousin. I will keep you posted.

Praise the Pasta, Pizza, Pesto and Plonk

The adage that good food is first and foremost dependent on good ingredients seems particularly true for Italian food. Italians are famous for their pride in sourcing the finest raw materials and with consummate ease seemingly just assemble them to produce delicious cuisine. It is the insistence on quality that is impressive. Pasta has to be made from hard wheat, preferably durum, mozzarella has to made from buffalo’s milk, prosciutto preferably from the Parma region and made from a particular breed of pig, and even the humble tomato, of which there are over three-hundred varieties grown in Italy, has to be right and ripe one. The fact that the quality of the ingredients is paramount rather than contradicting seems to reaffirm the fact that most of Italy’s great dishes are what can be described as ‘poor-peoples’ foods. Italian food is everyday food and perhaps that is why it is loved the world over including in Kenya.

Maize is still king in Kenya and for most Kenyan’s they have not properly ‘eaten’ unless ugali, (maize flour cooked with water to a porridge or dough-like consistency), has been consumed. Nevertheless, every Kenyan city and town just like the rest of the world has its pizza and pasta joints that churn out what is occasionally authentic, but mostly approximations of Italian cuisine. Good Italian food in Kenya is usually found as a result of the relatively large and lively Italian community most of whom seem to be involved in a small or large way in providing Italian food and occasionally wine.

The first Italians came to what was East Africa in the 19th Century mostly for the Catholic Church. During the Second World War thousands of Italians soldiers were held at a number of camps throughout the country including in Gilgil, Naivasha and Nyerie. Some of the ex-prisoners stayed on after the end of the war and throughout the latter half of the 20th Century were joined by growing numbers of their compatriots. Malindi on Kenya’s coast north of Mombassa has become particularly popular with Italians and is known locally as Little Milan after the famous city in the north Italian region of Lombardy. There are about 4,000 Italians living in and around Malindi who own and operate 30 beach hotels and six safari lodges not to mention a host of Italian restaurants.

In Nairobi and Mombassa as well as many other cities and towns there are Italian supermarkets stocked with produce from home as well as produce from Kenya, either made by Italian expatriates or made in an Italian style. For the wine it is a different story for while there is plenty of Italian wine to be found whether it is known or even liked by Kenyans is more difficult to say.

Italy has surpassed France in recent years as the world’s largest producer of wine and the Italians still consume an awful lot of that wine themselves: about 50 litres per capita per year. Wine books, at least those written by non-Italians, often portray Italy’s wines in the form of a dichotomy. On the one hand, an ocean of what is euphemistically described as rustic or country wine perhaps the quintessential plonk, and that I should add is not meant to be derogatory. On the other hand, sublime examples of great wines often made from indigenous grape varieties, expensive, but matching beautifully the regional cuisines.

In Nairobi examples of Italian wines that fit into a number of categories can be found. At the lower end, 5, 10, and even 20 litres container of Italian generic wine can be found in the main supermarkets. There is usually not much information on the label as to what is in the container and certainly not what grape variety the wine is made from. At around the equivalent of KSH150 to 200 (US$2 to 2.5) per litre one should perhaps not expect much from these wines other than they are made from fermented grape juice.

Up a notch in quality, Italian wines like Valpolicella can be found in Nairobi, which originate from the Vento region in north east Italy. Valpolicella presents an array of wines of varying quality. Perhaps at their best Valpolicella is fruity, eminently drinkable, medium-weight product that compliments superbly a variety of Italian foods. Unfortunately and perhaps more often, Valpolicella for the most part can taste rather thin and acidic. The Valpolicella wine production regulations, (what is called the Denominazione di Origine Controllata, the Italian form of the French Appellation Contrôlée system), stipulates that a maximum limit of 70 per cent of the Corvina grapes in the wine, which is an impediment to those that believe the best Valpolicella is made from 100 per cent Corvina. In Nairobi look out for bottles that have on the label Valpolicella Classico or Valpolicella Superior, or rather ironically, given that it is in theory a lower classification, Valpolicella vino da tavola as this classification permits the use of 100 per cent of the Corvina grape.

At the upper end of the quality spectrum for Italian wine can be found wines from Italy’s famous and world-class wine producing regions. From the Tuscany region of central Italy famous wines such as Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, (confusingly not made from the grape variety Montepulciano), can be found. From the Piedmont region in the north west of Italy can be found Barbaresco, Barbera, and Barolo wines. These wines often described as massive are made from perhaps Italy’s best indigenous red grape variety Nebbiolo. These wines are only available from a handful of Italian families that import these specialised and expensive wines such as the New Italycor Ltd in Nairobi.

Finally and a wonderful quirk is Kenya’s own Italian wine. Meru Wine based not far from the town of Meru close to Mount Kenya, produce Barbera a Red Table Wine as well as a White Table Wine and a Communion Wine. The text on the back label of the Barbera wine is wonderfully romantic describing how in 1904 Monsignor Perlo and father Carliero planted the first vines around Murang and Nyerie. From the ‘success’ achieved from wines made from the grapes of these first vines, vines were also planted on the Ruiri plains in Meru. It was to these root stock that the brother of Monsignor Perlo grafted Barbera vines brought from the Piedmont region in the north west of Italy. Barbera next to Sangiovese is Italy’s most planted red grape known for its high level of natural acidity a desirable attribute in hot climates; perhaps this is why the brother chose the Barbera grape for Meru? How does it taste? Well the label describes it as, “A mature, full-bodied and honest wine”, and for me that is pretty good description of what it tastes like.

Bastille Day with Patricia

While the French celebrate the storming of the Bastille and the founding of the Republic, July 14 unsurprisingly for this wine enthusiast is always a good reminder of the oenological delights France produces. France’s position as the world’s dominant wine producer has perhaps over the last twenty years waned just a little at least in the minds of some. In volume terms France in tandem with Italy still produces more wine than any other country with between 7 to 8 million bottles a year. More importantly for wine lovers is the fact that France undoubtedly still produces more fine wine than any other country. It is perhaps a sign of the changing world of wine that today I celebrated Bastille Day with Patricia tasting a number of wines only one of which was French.

Patricia Amira hosts her show on the South Africa based TV channel M-Net, which is broadcast all over Africa. Patricia is a sort of Kenyan equivalent of Oprah and her show’s magazine format covers just about anything you care to mention. I was asked along with two wine friends to participate in a ‘snob-free’ introduction to wine. It was all very relaxed and informal as we guided Patricia and hopefully her viewers through a flight of whites and reds.

That wine was a subject on the Patricia Show reflects the fact it is gaining in popularity among aspiring Africans. Wine consumption is definitely going up as the sales graph with its sharply rising line shows. The doubling, tripling, and quadrupling of annual wine sales needs to be kept in context a little as obviously the base level of consumption is extremely low. Outside of South Africa where annual consumption per person is a round 7 litres, the equivalent consumption levels for the rest of Africa where wine is consumed is probably, and unsurprisingly, well below 1 litre. What I think is true, and this is only based on anecdotal observations, is that wine is the drink that has captured the aspirations of the Kenyan middle classes, or, at least middle class women. Kenyan (wealthy) men and for that matter many African businessmen while not adverse to quality wine brands, in my experience love their (malt) whisky, but that is another story.

The Patricia Show is recorded out in the western suburbs of Nairobi and admittedly I am no expert in these things, but to this novice it all appeared akin to organised chaos. The guest line-up for the show included an inspirational story of a teenager overcoming the traumas of paralysis, the ‘light hearted’ wine tasting segment, and on to the shows star guest a gentlemen in a flowing caftan complete with a fez-like hat who predicts the future.

For our small spot we were asked to identify a proffered flight of wines. I am generally uncomfortable with what is a bit of a party trick, guessing the wine. For some reason folk are unreasonably impressed that after a swirl and a sniff you are able to say, “Oh yes, of course it’s a Gewürtstraminer”. I tell myself that this piece tittle-tattle is all necessary and part of the wider objective of highlighting the pleasures of wine. The studio crew, that is the thirty-odd people in the studio that make the Patricia Show happen, were all excited and often the floor manager had to call for “QUIET”. At the end of the recording of the wine segment the rush to secure the leftovers was quite a sight. I hope the recording of the rest of the show retained a steady focus.

“I get juiced on Mateus and just hang loose”

I can picture in my mind what I admit is a somewhat romantic scene. It is of a French, Italian, or Spanish family sitting down to a meal complete with carafe of unassuming (cheap) local wine. The children in my imaginary picture learn by example that food and wine are inseparable, the perfect partners, and grow up to be well balanced adults that of course drink responsibly. The counterpoint to this image is one of a kid in America, although nowadays it could be just about anywhere in the world, sat solitarily in front of a TV chomping on a hamburger and swilling it down with a gallon of coke. The inevitable scenario for this imaginary child is a progression to Alco pops and a young adult life where Saturday nights are spent being sick in the local town centre. Both of my imaginary pictures are based of course on stereotypes, the former less common than I would hope and the latter far less common than I imagine. In reality wine has largely become merely another alcoholic beverage competing with a plethora of alternatives.

Most British people of my generation were not brought up in what can be referred to as a wine culture, something akin to my romantic image of a Mediterranean family at dinner. Growing up wine or alcohol of any kind for that matter was not common in our house. I have a vague memory that at Christmas time one of my parents took out of the cupboard an old, (meaning opened the previous Christmas as opposed to treasured vintage), bottle of sweet-sherry, Harveys Bristol Cream was the favourite. Alternatively a lucky visiting relative maybe offered a port-and-lemon, or pushing it a Stones Ginger Wine, which turned out not to be wine at all by today’s accepted definition, but instead made from a fermented blend of ground ginger and raisins. Wine appeared relatively late on in my teenage life and ironically given my enthusiasm for fermented grape juice I realise now was probably a result of cleaver marketing.

Mateus Rosé was probably the first wine I ever drank. For those of you not familiar with the name, Mateus Rosé was, and still is a sweet, and what the French call pétillant and the Italians call frizzante, but what we called slightly-fizzy, pink wine - a sort of (semi)grown-up equivalent of an anaemic, but crucially alcoholic Ribeana. Originally Mateus Rosé was made in the Minho region in Northern Portugal and modelled on the traditional Vinho Verde wines, (pronounced veen-o-verday), both facts I certainly did not know at the time, and in any case for me far more hip was the funky-shaped bottle. The bottle shape then as it is now was globular, or onion, or what the Germans call Bochsbeutel, and at the time it seemed that a whole cottage industry developed based on turning the empty bottles into table lamps.

The carefully constructed image for the wine was complete with a renaissance-style painting on the label depicting the Mateus Palace, although ironically the wine was never actually from the famous estate. It was all a created myth that this impressionable teenager fell for hook line and sinker. For me Mateus Rosé was the height of sophistication further enhanced when in 1973 Elton John released his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road double LP containing the lyrics of the title of this blog (the song Social Disease, last-but-one track, side four).

Mateus Rosé is in fact one of Europe’s first branded wines with production starting at the end of the Second World War. It was created deliberately to appeal to the developing North American and northern European markets and boy was it successful. By the late 1980’s fifteen years after I was introduced to this iconic wine, sales of Mateus Rosé and a sister white reached 3.25 million cases a year and accounted for more than 40 per cent of Portugal’s total annual table wine exports. By the mid-1990’s Mateus Rosé had lost its lustre as the increasingly sophisticated wine drinkers of North America and northern Europe moved on seduced by the fruit-bomb wines of Australia and the New World in general. For the last decade or so the Mateus Rosé brand has been owned by Sogrape, Portugal’s largest wine producer. Sogrape have relaunched the brand and expanded the range to include a Mateus Rosé Aragones (very sweet at 30 grams of sugar per litre), Shiraz, Temranillo, and a Rosé Sparkling. Interestingly the original Mateus Rosé is largely unchanged the only major differences being that the label is smaller than the original and that it is now mainly produced in the Bairrada region (south of the Minho region) of Portugal.

Kenyans can also enjoy the delights of Mateus Rosé as the main supermarket chains here supply at least two of the variations, the original rosé and the new(ish) Rosé Sparkling. In wine speak they are both technically semi-sweet and relatively low in alcohol; 15 grams per litre, 11 per cent alcohol, and 12 grams per litre and 12 per cent alcohol respectively. The difference from my youth is that in Kenya there are dozens of direct competitors for Mateus that line up on the supermarket shelves. I far as know Kenyan’s like Mateus Rosé and my local supermarket tell me it sells well. I am keeping my eyes pealed to spot the first Kenyan Mateus Rosé table lamp complete with Masai bead work.

OFSP to you too

Sometimes dubbed as “super-food” the orange-fleshed sweetpotato[1]is much the centre of attention in our household. Part of the convolvulaceae (morning glory) family for those of you botanically inclined they originate from South America where they have been propagated for the last 5,000 years. In Africa the sweetpotato is an important staple in some countries, but more often a supplementary food and usually of the white, cream or yellow fleshed varieties. The International Potato Centre based in Lima, Peru, and its sub-Saharan Africa regional office here in Nairobi, has a large programme underway that aims to promote the growing and consumption of orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) varieties. These are high in beta-carotene (the precursor to Vitamin A) and are also a valuable source of vitamins B, C, and E, and contain moderate levels of iron and zinc. In addition they have a low glycemic index, and therefore are a good energy source for people with diabetes. They are also reported to have all sorts of other almost magical properties such as anti-oxidants and anti-cancer properties, so I heartily suggest you increase your personal consumption forthwith. For me though in our household the challenge has been what wines go well with OFSP?

There is a saying that food and wine go together like peas-in-a-pod and for many cultures one without the other is unimaginable. Throughout Europe at least where vines are grown most regions have over the centuries developed a cuisine to match the local wines, or, it maybe it is the other way around. France is well known for its regional food and wine culture such as the Alsace in the east. With a distinctly Germanic flavour to its food with its charcuterie and terrines, the Alsatians quaff down their spicy Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Sylvaner wines as perfect compliments. The Northern Rhône Valley is famous for its red meats and rich sauces that can withstand the robust Syrah based wines of Hermitage, Cornas, and perhaps the more refined Côte Rôtie. In the Southern Rhône the softer Grenache based wines reflect the more subtle flavours of their local cuisine. The Loire Valley in the east of France is famous for its Muscadet white wines produced in Pays Nantais region, which match the local seafood specialities. I could on and it is not just France that has these gastronomic-vinous matches. Throughout Europe at least where grapes are grown and wines are made examples of complimentary food and wines are all around.

I think somewhat different to century’s old traditions of local food and wine cultures, is the growing art and some would claim science of food and wine pairings. If the glossy food magazines are anything to go by, there appears to be a whole industry dedicated to finding the perfect food and wine match. California as with so many new ideas is much at the forefront of the world of food and wine pairings led by some of the large and well known wine estates. The Fetzer wine company for example based in Mendocino County is well know for its almost religious zeal in its search for the perfect food and wine pairings. This is perhaps not unsurprising given that Fetzer has an awful lot of wine to sell, 4 million cases a year to be precise, and to be a tad cynical anything that can help sell wine in this highly competitive wine world is not to be sneezed at.

Personally I am standing on the fence when it comes to an opinion about the merits of the more recent trends of food and wine pairings. On the one hand, I sometimes cringe at the over exuberance of some ‘foodies’ as they wax lyrically about how well foie gras goes with Sauternes or some other such exotic combination. On the other hand, I have also been privileged to have experienced some fabulous food matched superbly with accompanying wines. Indeed next time you happen to be in South Africa’s Cape try the new(ish) restaurant at the Jordan winery just outside Stellenbosch to have your taste buds metaphorically blown away. The Jordan family have also this year opened a restaurant in London called the High Timber and although I have not been there I understand it offers much the same fine dining and wine experience.

In Kenya food and wine matching is somewhat of an esoteric exercise at best confined to a few up-market restaurants or the homes of the elite. As mentioned in a previous blog, this is not to say that Kenya lacks for either an almost infinite variety of foods, most of which it grows or harvests itself, or wines from around the world. Nairobi nowadays as with almost any capital city has access to a myriad of cuisines and styles of cooking from around the world. This is in stark contrast to not that many years ago when it would have been inconceivable to think that now (some) Nairobi residents can now tuck into for example sushi and sashimi washed down with a well chilled Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa or New Zealand.

Finally back to the important OFSP and what wine to match with it. Given the versatility of the OFSP almost anything goes. The sweetpotato by definition is sweet, but as with most food and wine pairings it is either a question of contrasting or complimenting. For a contrast for soups or roasted sweetpotato a zingy Sauvignon Blanc or young Riesling seems to do the trick. For desert such as sweetpotato pie or, I kid you not, a sweetpotato and cinnamon sorbet, then a good compliment seems to be a voluptuous Viognier or sweet wine such as a madeira. Perhaps the ultimate combination of food and wine would be sweetpotato wine, which I have yet to try, but some seem keen to encourage me to try making some.

[1] Sweetpotato is all one word in recognition of the fact that it is recognised by the botanical boffins as a distinct species and not simply another variety of potato.

Wake up and Smell the Coffee, or at least the Mangoes

Teaching wine tasting here in Kenya, albeit on a modest scale, I find that new students are often put off or even intimidated by the flowery language sometimes associated with the wine world. You know the sort of thing I mean when wine tasting gets sent up for all it’s, “hints of mocha-chocolate overlain by cassis and cigar box and perhaps a soupcon of mint”. It is enough to make even the most enthusiastic of wine lovers wince let alone the new wine student. I recently acquired a copy of, ‘Wine Tasting a professional Handbook’ by Ronald S Jackson and its almost 500 pages are to this self-confessed wine geek incredible if not mind boggling. The book to an extent is based on the assumption that it is possible through the adoption of a systematic approach to objectively assess the quality of any given wine. In other words, the preference of the taster whether she or he likes or dislikes the wine has got little if not nothing to do with it.

One of the tools wine tasting has developed in pursuit of assessment of quality are what are called tasting wheels. They vary in their complexity from the highly detailed such as the ones credited to the University of California at Davis to the less complex such as the Keep it Simple Tasting Wheel commonly abbreviated to KIST. These tasting wheels all endevour to provide a template to enable the taster to link the smell and taste of a wine with standardised associations for any given grape variety. For example, the red grape Cabernet Sauvignon is described as possessing a black-currant aroma and the white grape Sauvignon Blanc is often described as having elements of green peppers. So-far-so-good and as one works ones way through the eight or nine classic grape varieties it is possible to build up a lexicon of language to describe smells and tastes.

In Kenya two things spring to mind related to the development of students wine tasting language. The first is common throughout the world, which is that it is always surprising how many new students are quick to claim that they have, “no sense of smell”. When you dig a little deeper what I normally discover is that either they mean they have an undeveloped sense of smell, at least for the purposes of wine tasting, or, more commonly, they simply lack confidence. Once it has been explained that physiologically it is extremely uncommon for any given person to have a complete permanent lack of a sense of smell and that practice, normally a word what wine tasters love to hear, will quickly improve their ability to describe what they smell then progress is quickly made.

The second thing I notice relates to what I think is a cultural difference. There are many countries throughout the world that obviously do not have a culture or history of wine drinking and Kenya is not unusual in this sense. More unusual is that the wine language based upon associations of fruit and vegetables is often a challenge for Kenyan wine students. This is not because the fruit and vegetables used in most wine aromas wheels are not found in Kenya, in fact Kenya is blessed with pretty well growing anything you might care to mention. The difference maybe that for the average Kenyan they simply have seldom come across what may be considered to be everyday fruits and vegetables. Sniffing and tasting of all sorts of things in our Kenyan wine tasting classes has become a highlight and great fun. Do not be surprised next time you happen to be in a Nairobi market to see a huddle of Kenyans comparing the smells and tastes of the many different mango varieties we get here. Oh yes I have had more than one student tell me that the smell of a fruity South African Chenin Blanc is not the apple mango, but the mangoes one gets from the coast.

A trip to Scotland with an African Twist

Departing briefly from the Kenyan theme of this blog, but still retaining an African twist here is a story about a recent visit to Scotland. The purpose of the visit was a family celebration of the parent-in-laws sixtieth wedding anniversary. The location was beautiful Loch Tay, Perthshire, and a revisit to the Ardeonaig Hotel. I say revisit because over the last 40 years or more the family has made occasional visits to this idyllic spot. For much of its life the Ardeonaig Hotel was largely a small fishing lodge with pub attached very unassuming and catered for the needs of the fisherman and hill walker. The hotel fell on bad times during the 1990’s and by the early 2000’s was boarded-up and just about derelict.

As coincidence would have it a South African chef based in London at the time and with a keen interest in salmon fishing visited Ardeonaig. To cut a long story short, Pete Gottgens the South Africa chef decided that there was much potential in Ardeonaig and bought the hotel. From 2002 Pete has embarked upon establishing the Ardeonaig Hotel as one of Scotland’s best small hotels a task I can report he and his staff are well on the way to achieving.

The African connections are two fold. First Pete has from the onset encouraged a steady stream of Africans including from Kenya to work at the hotel. In the beginning this was partly prudence as encouraging qualified Scots to locate to this relatively remote spot proved challenging. Also as a proud African himself, Pete very much wanted to encourage and provide opportunities to his comrades from the continent. Pete was born in Durban, but led an exotic childhood with family living in various southern and east African countries as his parents worked in the field of wildlife and conservation. The African connections and themes are very much part of the hotels character enhanced by Pete’s childhood African photographs and pieces of African objet d’art.

The other connection with Africa is Ardeonaig’s extensive collection of South African wines. Pete first developed his love and extensive knowledge of South African wines while based in the Cape and now claims that Ardeonaig has Europe’s largest collection of South African wines. Having watched the collection grow over the last few years I have no reason to disagree with this claim. I for one have never seen so many cases of Sadie Family Wines, voted Winery of the Year in South Africa’s wine “bible” the Platter Guide 2010, in one place, both the iconic red blend Columella and the white blend Palladius, and I have visited the Sadie Family cellar in Swatland! The connection with the Sadie family is a product of the fact that Pete and Eben Sadie, who with his brother Niko make the family wines, are good friends. Pete has now gone further and commissioned Eben to produce for the Ardeonaig Hotel a special cuvee of the, “the best wine he can make” from the Spanish vineyard enterprise Eben has been working on for the last six years. Perhaps even more off-the-wall, Pete has recently planted an experimental patch of vines in the hotel grounds to see whether he can introduce wine making to a part of Scotland not known for oenology. Either Pete is confident of the effects of global warming, or, is just a wee bit optimistic.

As this is a wine blog, I should report on the South African wines we tried during our stay at Ardeonaig. Really good (as ever) was the Villiera Monro Brut a stylish Method Cape Classic made with half Pinot Noir and half Chardonnay. To link with a semi-Scottish theme, we also drank the Iona Sauvignon Blanc partly because it is one of my favourites, but also the estate is owned and run by the Gunn family, who with such a name you will not be surprised to learn have a Scottish ancestry and thus the name of the estate. The other standout was a magnum of Pinot Noir from the Cape Chamonix Wine Farm. There are some that argue that the verdict is still out on whether the Cape produces really world-class Pinot Noir. While I agree Pinot Noir from the Cape is by definition not Burgundian, some including the Chamonix are really fabulous and in general the Cape’s Pinot Noir’s improve with every vintage.

Wine in Nairobi: What’s in the Supermarkets?

Kenya is world famous for its wildlife, magnificent scenery, and diverse cultural mix, but not surprisingly given its relative poverty not wine. Wine consumption within a very poor country is as to be expected confined to a tiny minority largely the emerging urban middle classes or tourists. Consequently, Kenya is towards the bottom of the world’s league table for wine consumption, but for those with the wherewithal and bitten by the wine bug there is a surprising range of wine on offer through the country’s main supermarkets.

There are three main supermarket chains that dominate in Kenya: Nakumatt, Uchumi, and smaller, but still significant for wine Chandarana. These three supermarkets dominate and constitute by far the vast majority of retail wine sales in Kenya. Wine can be found as with all African countries in Kenya’s thousands of small shops and markets, which is separate story in itself. A difference between Kenya and Europe and South Africa is that none of the supermarkets import wines directly. Instead, they are supplied by six or seven main wine importing companies, which again is a separate subject.

As you would expect for an African country, South Africa still dominates in terms of volume of wine imported into Kenya at approximately 2.3 million litres of wine a year (see www.sawis.co for more statistics). This places Kenya sixteenth on the world-wide table of natural wine exports from South Africa with only Angola among African countries importing more wines (albeit 5 times the amount imported by Kenya). All the major South African brands can be found on the Kenyan supermarket shelves. These range from the “A’s such as A Few Good Men, Alto, Arniston Bay, and Avondale, through the ‘L’s, La Bri, Land’s End, Leopard’s Leap, and Long Mountain, and onto the ‘Z’s represented by the ubiquitous Zonnebloem, and of course everything else in between.

At the good quality end of South African wines value can be found from the bigger producers such as Nederburg where their Winemaster’s Reserve range of whites from Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, and Riesling can be bought at around Ksh(Kenyan Shillings)750 to Ksh900 (approximately $10 to $12) a bottle. For the Nederburg Winemaster’s Reserve reds Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the blend Baronne can be bought for around Ksh1,200 to Ksh1,500 ($16 to $20) a bottle.

At a similar price range to the Nederburg range Bellingham, part of the relative giant Douglas Green Bellingham company, enjoys approximately 10% of the Kenyan market for South African wines. Bellingham’s Fusion range such as Cabernet Sauvignon with a splash of Cabernet Franc, or, Shiraz with a splash of Viognier again offers good value. They also offer the clever marketing twist of a single grape varietal with a “splash” to lure the more adventurous wine apprentice to dip their toes into the world of blends. Particularly good value is Bellingham’s multi-award winner Fair Maiden white blend (Roussanne, Chenin, Verdelho, Grenache Blanc, Viognier) and the very good 2008 vintage can be found at selected supermarket in Nairobi for about KSH1,200 to KSH1,400 ($16 to $19) a bottle.

These prices may seem somewhat heavy viewed from the home of these wines in South Africa. However, if you considered the transportation costs and not least the very high tax and duties on wines in Kenya (more about this in a future blog) these retail prices are low particularly given the relative quality. Also from South Africa, but with a Kenyan flavour is the well marketed Mara wine. This wine a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon is made in South Africa and marketed as Mara Nyekundu (meaning red in the Swahili language) and comes resplendent with a beaded amulet around the bottle neck and attractive label. It is soft and fruity and with a price at around Ksh850 (approximately $11) a bottle and is particular popular with tourist who want an “African” flavour to their wine.

After South Africa and very much coming up on the rails so to speak in volume terms of wine sold in Kenya’s is Chile. The story of the Chilean wine production explosion over the last ten years is well known and is now the world’s ninth largest wine producer. Seven out of every ten bottles produced in Chile is exported and these wines can be found taking up every increasing amounts of shelf space in Kenya’s supermarkets. Gato Negro is claimed by some to be the largest selling bottled brand of wine in Kenya and can be bought for around Ksh500 to Ksh550 (approximately $6.50 to $7.50) a bottle. Its popularity is based much on its price, but its easily accessible and fruity style goes down well with Kenyan consumers. Good quality and value can be found through the wines produced by the dominant Chilean wine company Concha y Toro through its brand Casillero del Diablo. There are the full range of these wines on the supermarket shelves from the whites Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay, Viognier, Riesling, through the reds Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and what has become Chile’s national grape Carmenère. The whites are in the price range of Ksh800 to Ksh900 ($10.50 to $11.00) a bottle and the reds from Ksh1, 250 to Ksh1, 500 ($16.50 to $20) a bottle and in the price-to-quality ratio are the biggest competitors to the better South African wines.

While the New World wine countries dominate in Kenya, there is a broad representation from the Old World wine producers. The big French wine companies and brands are represented through J.P. Chenet complete with bendy-shaped bottles. J. P. Chenet is a wine made by the producer Grands Chais de France, a privately owned French business that is the largest wine exporter in the France. It is marketed almost exclusively abroad, with 64 million bottles sold yearly. The range of J.P. Chenet wines both reds (Merlot and a Cabernet-Syrah blend) and whites (Blanc de Blanc and a Semi-sweet wine) can all be found for between Ksh800 and Ksh850 ($10.50 to $11.50) a bottle. Also from France the Vin de Pays from Piat D’or (a brand from the largest wine company in the world Diageo) most famous in the UK wine retail market, can also be found in Kenya at a slightly cheaper price than the offerings from J.P. Chenet,

Italian wines other than the bulk producers are not that common although Nairobi does have a vibrant Italian community and there is one or two private families that import really high quality and hand selected Italian wines direct (more in a later blog). Spanish wine is less available although Torres Cornas can be found at Ksh1, 275 (about $16) a bottle. Moving back to the New World Australia is well represented through the ever popular Hardy’s brand range of wines and compete at a similar price range to the quality South African and Chilean offerings. Finally, also to be found are Californian wines although these are mostly represented in the form of three and five litre bag offering and what the American’s tend to call “jug” wines. There is nothing wrong with these wines offering good value per litre as they do, but perhaps better as a party or barbeque offering.

There is then an increasingly broad offering of wines through Kenya’s supermarkets. Inevitably the wines on offer are not necessarily the finest examples of the wines available from the respective countries. In general they are part of the worldwide ocean of bulk wines, albeit of sound technical quality, that dominate throughout the world. For the Kenyan consumer the general feeling is one of appreciation that these wines are on offer at all. For the more discerning wine aficionados there are fine wines available from a handful of specialist outlets, which will be the subject of a subsequent blog.

New sniffing and swirling in Nairobi

A group of seven students here in Nairobi have recently completed two exams for the Certificate course of the Cape Wine Academy. The Certificate course is no synch covering as it does viticulture, wine making, knowledge of grape varieties, South African wine producing areas, Brandy, fortified, and sparkling and sweet wines (see http://www.capewineacademy.co.za/ for more information). The course culminates in two exams a written paper covering theory and a tasting exam.

The students in Nairobi had already completed an introductory course, but with the Certificate course this was the first time a tasting exam had been tackled. Teaching the course has been really interesting not least because watching the students gain knowledge and confidence as they go along has given me a real kick. Wine education is sometimes criticised for at best being subjective and at worst full of waffle and flowery language. Analytical wine tasting does not necessarily claim to be an exact science. It can though demonstrate that the quality of any given wine can be assessed and verified over a large group of people. The Kenyan Certificate students have travelled a long road very quickly and at the risk of sounding patronizing to my scholars they have moved from wine consumers to tasters. All the students have worked hard and put far more effort into the course than they probably anticipated at the beginning. The students results are not in yet, but I anticipate they will all pass with flying colours. One final observation relates to this new cadre of wine aficionados. It is great fun watching them out in Nairobi restaurants, which are not necessairly known for their extensive wine knowledge (more about this subject in a forthcoming blog). Sniffing and swirling usually gives the waiters a fright and the subsequent discussion at the table as to the wines qualities leave them further dumfounded. Not exactly a wine revolution yet in Nairobi, but as it is said even the longest journey starts with a single step.

Welcome to the world of wine in Kenya

The purpose of my blog is to inform and entertain the reader with regard to the world of wine in Nairobi Kenya. I have been based in Kenya for eighteen months and work within the environmental and development sector. My other passion is wine and I have no affiliation with any wine company or organisation. I am however a Cape Wine Academy student and having completed my Certificate and Diploma qualifications I am currently working my way towards becoming a Cape Wine Master. I teach wine classes here in Nairobi and I hope to report on some aspects of wine education in Kenya as we go along. I will provide information as to what is available within Kenya with regard to the main retail outlets. Wine consumption in Kenya is very much confined to a minority, but within the major urban centres there is a growing Kenyan middle class that are interested in and increasingly consuming wine. Kenya’s tourist industry through hotels and lodges is the major consumer of imported wines. What maybe interesting and perhaps even surprising to the reader, is that Kenya has its own wine producers and I will report on these pioneers of wine. I hope to provide a twist in that although I am not Kenyan I am intrigue and fascinated by different perceptions of wine tastes and styles that my Kenyan hosts provide.