Lord of the Manor

Razvan Macici on a recent visit to Kenya

Kenyans drink more wine than ever and consumption increases every year in volume by about 5 per cent. As demand for wines increases so too do the visits to Kenya from winemakers from around the world promoting their various products. If numbers are to go by it is winemakers from South Africa who are leading the way. In the last few months Chris Williams from Meerlust, Ken Forester on a return visit and Giorgio Dalla Cia and his son George from their eponymous Dalla Cia Wine and Spirit Company have visited Kenya to swirl, sniff and taste with the great and the good. This last week we had the pleasure to welcome to Kenya on his first visit none other than Diners Club South Africa Winemaker of the year 2012 Razvan Macici. Hot-foot from the Dinners Club awards dinner; Razvan was on the plane next day to Nairobi and attended a variety of functions representing Nederburg and its parent Distell, South Africa’s largest wine and spirits company.


Razvan is from Romania where he grew up in the vineyards of Dealu Mare and studied Viticulture and Oenology at Alexandru loan Cuza University. Seeking to broaden his experience of winemaking, Razvan went to visit South Africa to work the 1994 grape harvest. Three years later he was offered an initial 18 months contract making white wines with Stellenbosch Farmer’s Winery, which along with Distillers Corporation formed Distell in 2000. Razvan at the time fully expected to return to his native Romania on completion of his contract. Eighteen years on after his first visit to South Africa and the rest as they say is history. Razvan became Cellarmaster at Nederburg in 2001, which has one of the largest crushing and winemaking facilities in South Africa. He married a local South Africa woman and now has three young children and loves life and work at his Paarl home. There is a twinkle in his eyes as he describes his idyllic life at Nederburg with his home some 500 metres from its super modern cellar.

I was amazed to hear from Razvan that for this last year Nederburg bottled some 83 wines with different labels. Admittedly there are four other winemakers at Nederburg working under Razvan, but still that is a heck of a lot of different brands and bottles of wine to come out of one cellar. In Kenya Razvan was promoting in particular the Manor House range the Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. Good wines they are too and interestingly, at least I thought so, was the fact that the Sauvignon Blanc was a 2008 vintage.

I know in South Africa as with most markets the demand from consumers for Sauvignon Blanc is said to be for as new a vintage as possible. Consumers seem to like a blast of tropical fruits and the zingy acids that young Sauvignon Blanc can deliver in spades. For the Manor House range Razvan explained his intention is to produce a style of Sauvignon Blanc with a little more restraint and finesse. Razvan is very much a lover of the ripe fruit flavours that South African wines, benefiting from the consistent sunshine of the relatively warm Cape, can usually provide. For this wine however, Razvan is after more minerality and complexity, which is assisted by the fact that the Manor House unlike most Sauvignon Blancs is not released immediately. The grapes come from the relatively cool district of Darling and Razvan believes that this origin accounts for the distinctive aromas of fynbos, the Cape’s unique flora, both on the nose and palate. Most Kenyans have never smelt the “slender-scrub” of the Cape so it proved a challenge to pin down how to describe the unique aromas. We do have in the highlands of Kenya heather-like vegetation, which although very different in terms of aromas at least gave an idea.

At one level and on a personal note I have a soft spot for Nederburg not necessarily because their wines have always been great, which indeed back in the 1980’s and 1990’s and with some exceptions they were not. It is more to do with the fact that over the years and having lived in many African countries the wines of Nederburg were the only wines available, at least from South Africa that one could approach with some confidence. It is perhaps hard for many to believe how much enjoyment a bottle of Edelrood or Baronne brought to wine-starved enthusiasts living in Africa outside South Africa back in the 1980’s.

Razvan’s contribution to winemaking at Nederburg and in South Africa in general is remarkable. The transformation in the quality of wines from Nederburg over the last decade is well documented, a fact recognised by the Platter Winery of the Year award in 2011. Razvan magnanimously points out that quality improvements are not just down to his efforts. Distell prioritised Nederburg to spearhead a drive for improved quality across all of their many brands backed by significant investments. We wine geeks can sometimes be somewhat sniffy towards the large wine corporations for a variety of often subjective reasons. For the average consumer in Africa though a technically sound product of consistency and quality at a price point that is affordable is not to be underestimated.

To finish our fun with Razvan we had a bottle or two of the Winemaster’s Reserve Noble Late Harvest the 2011 is yet again awarded 5 stars by the Platter’s Wine 2013. Most Kenyans are not necessarily interested that this wine is “blessed” as Razvan puts it with botrytis cinerea, or that it is made from a 100 percent Chenin Blanc. Instead they just loved the bright amber colour, intense apricot and fruit nose and fabulous sugar (about 240 grams per litre) with good acidity on the plate. Sweet wines are a love of Razvan and he told me that a few years ago he made South Africa’s first Noble Late Harvest sparkling wine, which at the very least sounds interesting. It was great spending a few hours with Razvan and hopefully next time he comes to Kenya we can show him some of the sites outside of Nairobi.