A Rosé by any other name

On a hot summer’s days something soft and refreshing is required to quench the thirst. Red wines can be too heavy and some white wines too tart and acidic for hot weather. This is where Rosé wines can come to the rescue and above all offer fun. A well chilled bottle of Rosé wine, shared with friends and family is the perfect way to relax and enjoy a special weekend afternoon. Rosé wines can either be drunk alone as an aperitif or with food. Rosé wines can compliment almost any dish for example: crisp salads, spicy foods, seafood, or, grilled meats straight from the barbeque. Rosé wines come in a variety of styles from dry, semi-sweet to very sweet. There are also sparkling Rosés such as a luxurious pink Champagne, or, a recent addition to the market, a pink Port (which is a fortified wine) from Portugal.

Rosé wines are said to originate from the south of France where the hot Mediterranean summers are conducive to alfresco living. By volume, the region of Provence with its long coastline produces half of all the wine made in France, and more than eighty percent of this is Rosé. The main grape variety for making Rosé in Provence is Mourvèdre, which is actually a red grape. There are three methods for producing Rosé wines. The first is by blending red and white wine, a method usually used for cheaper wines. Then there is the method favoured in France and Provence called saignée, whereby some juice is immediately “bled” off the crushed red grapes. The remaining grape juice then has a higher grape skin to juice ratio. However, because the fruit has been harvested at optimal ripeness for red wine, there is a tendency for this style of Rosé to be high in alcohol. Most serious Rosé producers prefer the third method, whereby grapes are purpose grown to produce Rosé wines in specially selected vineyards. The grapes are harvested early to ensure higher acid and lower alcohol levels. The clear juice is left in contact with the skins after crushing to acquire the desired degree of pinkness. The longer the juices contact with the skins, the deeper the colour of the Rosé.

In Kenya a range of Rosé wines are available in good supermarkets and from wine suppliers. As with red and white wines, when choosing a Rosé wine decide whether you prefer a dry or sweet style. Rosé wines available in Kenya are mainly from the New World: South Africa, Australia, Chile and the USA. They are made with grape varieties such as Shiraz, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. They are increasingly available in what is called an off-dry style, which is described as semi-sweet on the label. “Semi-sweet” is a technical term and means that the wine has a residual sugar content above five to twenty milligrams per litre. Rosé wines are best drunk young, so look out for 2011 or 2010 vintages and be wary of any Rosé still on the shelves older than 2008. The exception to the rule is the wines from Tavel in the Southern Rhône in France, where some Rosé wines can mature nicely in the bottle for a decade or more. For a special occasion try a bottle fermented sparkling Rosé from the Champagne region in France, or from South Africa, Chile and Australia.

Here are some examples of Rosé wines available in Kenya, which were tasted with friends recently.

1. Villiera Brut Rosé, Method Cap Classique, South Africa, non-vintage, KSH2,600 available from MIA Wines and Spirits International (email: Kafrawines@nbi.ispkenya.com). A classy bottle fermented sparkling wine known as Méthode Cap Classique in South Africa. Interesting in that this Brut Rosé is unusual in that it is made with a majority of the red grape Pinotage, South Africa’s only indigenous grape.


2. Cinzano Rosé Vino Spumante Gran Cuvée, Italy, non-vintage, about KSH1,000 to 1,500, available in many supermarkets in Kenya. A sparkling sweet wine not to be taken too seriously.


3. Juno Cape Maidens Rosé, South Africa, 2010, KSH850, available from MIA Wines and Spirits International (email: Kafrawines@nbi.ispkenya.com). Cranberry cherry colour, dry, light and lively.


4. Goats do Roam Rosé, South Africa, 2010, KSH930, available from Mia Wines and Spirits International (email: Kafrawines@nbi.ispkenya.com). This is a Shiraz led Rosé, fresh, and zesty berry flavours.


5. Kleinfontein Rosé, South Africa, 2010, KSH850, available from Jos. Hasen (email: info@hansenkenya.com). Salmon pink, dry and bright fruit.


6. Frontera Cabernet Blush, Chile, 2010, KSH900 to KSH950, available from most good supermarkets. Dark Rosé, relatively high alcohol at 13.5%, ripe fruit and smooth tannins.


7. Nabygelegen House Wine Rosé, South Africa, non-vintage, KSH850, available from Jos. Hasen (email: info@hansenkenya.com). Merlot base Rosé, medium body, fresh acidity and good finish. This was one of the favourites amongst my friends.


8. Carlo Rossi California Rosé, USA, non-vintage, KSH1,200, available in supermarkets. I think this has some Zinfandel a grape very much associated with California.


9. Angove Nine Vines Rosé, Australia, 2010, KSH1,200, available from in supermarkets. A blend of 70% Grenache and 30% Shiraz. A bright pink wine bursting with Australian sunshine.


10. Bellingham Rosé, South Africa, 2011, KSH766, available from Wines of the World (Telephone 020 264 6020). Light pink, tangy and semi-sweet.


11. Caliterra Reserva Rosé, Chile, 2010, KSH1,200, available in supermarkets. Another Shiraz based Rosé from the Colchagua Valley in the Central region of Chile.

Wine and Restaurants in Kenya

More and more Kenyans are enjoying wine, either at home, nights out and in restaurants. Average wine consumption in Kenya is still very low and much less than 1 litre per person per year – this is higher than most African countries but less than South Africa which has an average consumption of around 7 litres per person per year. The growth in wine sales in Kenya has risen dramatically over the last decade in line with a prospering economy. Restaurants have responded to customer demands for wine and most now maintain a selection of wines. However, selecting a wine in a restaurant may be intimidating with many of us for what ever reason feeling self conscious and worried that we will make a mistake. This is not helped by the fact that the cost of wine in Kenyan restaurants although not expensive in comparison to most Africa countries with the notable exception of South Africa, can nevertheless set you back more than the cost of the food. It is also fair to say that when ordering wine in a Kenyan restaurant, staff may not be able to provide advice, as, through no fault of their own they have received limited training and experience in guiding the guest in their choice of wine. To help in navigating your way around a restaurant’s wine list here are a few tips.

1) Be confident in what you like. While it may be true that so called wine connoisseurs may know a lot about wine, they do not know your preferences and they certainly do not necessarily have a better taste than you do. In other words, if you like sweet and fruity, or, dry and crisp wines then tell the waiter this is what you would like.
2) Read the winelist and note the prices. Do not be worried to tell your waiter that you are looking for value for money, or, that you do not want to spend more than a specified amount. Remember you are paying the bill, not the restaurant.
3) Ordering wine by the glass is relatively expensive. By all means if only one person on your table wants to drink wine then ordering by the glass is the way to go. However, remember once there are two and certainly three people drinking wine it is more economical to order a bottle.
4) Do not necessarily order the house wine. While it is usually true that the house wine will be the cheapest wine on the list it will not necessarily be the best value. Restaurants are more than happy to sell you the house wine as usually this is the wine where they can put the largest mark up on.
5) Remember the mark up. Most restaurants mark up the price of a bottle of wine from 100% to 300% on the wholesale price. Since you’re paying so much I recommend something you can’t get at the local supermarket or shops which sell wine. What is the point of spending twice or three times as much on a bottle of wine you can get at the supermarket next door?
6) Check the wine when it is brought to your table. You would be surprised how often a wine brought to your table is different to the one you ordered on the wine list. More often the vintage (year) is different and at least for European wines the variations in quality from one vintage to the next can be significant.
7) Do not smell the cork. By all means check that the cork is not crumbling and that the cork bottom is moist; but smelling the cork is no indication that the wine is good, bad, or, indifferent. Be wary if the waiter has brought the wine to the table with the cork already extracted or the screw-cap ‘cracked’ it may be that some one is filling the bottles with something different to what is on the label.
8) First step is to smell the wine. When the waiter pours a small amount in your glass the first thing to do and more often the only thing you need to do is to smell the wine. The smell or bouquet of a wine is more than enough to tell you if the wine is corked or off. If it smells musty or of bad-eggs then the wine is off and you are perfectly entitled to return the bottle and request a replacement. However, if you do not like the taste of the wine, this is not sufficient reason to send it back and try a different one. You have already made you choice of wine before the bottle is opened. However, I have noticed in Kenya that some restaurants will sometimes let you taste a small amount of the house wine and by all means avail yourself of this service if it is available.
9) My advice is to pour your own wine. Some waiters try and pour out the whole bottle before you have buttered your bread roll. Others believe they are doing the right thing by keeping your glass permanently full. However, wine is best enjoyed with the glass a little more than half full. This allows the “nose” or bouquet and flavours to be fully appreciated. But note –too much “swirling in the glass” - can lead to an embarrassing spillage. Whether or not the waiter has been told to keep-the-glasses-full or not, pouring your own means you are in control of the amount in your glass, and your total intake and not somebody else.
10) Cheap wine doesn’t mean it is bad and expensive wine doesn’t mean it’s good. But expensive wine is usually expensive because it’s good and in demand. Simple economics really.

From a restaurant’s perspective in the Kenyan context, it requires some effort to keep a good winelist as I found out when speaking with Kiran Jethwa the Manager and Executive Chef at the restaurant Seven Sea Food and Grill located in the ABC shopping centre in Nairobi. Kiran has gone to a lot of trouble in assembling and keeping a varied and extensive winelist. Kiran’s preference is for wines of the New World, (South Africa, USA, Australia, Chile and the Antipodeans), partly because he prefers the taste and partly because from his patron’s perspective they offer good value for money. New World, unlike Old World (mostly European) wines, are certainly easier to understand because the practice is to state the grape variety or varieties on the label. This makes it easier for the consumer to know what she or he is getting. As Kiran pointed out though, most restaurants in Kenya keep more or less the same selection of wines. The reason for this is the limited number of wine wholesalers and therefore that all restaurants are buying from only five or six companies. For a Kenyan restaurant to source its own supply of wines directly from the maker is at best extremely difficult and at worst impossible as there are strict rules and regulations with regard to obtaining a license to import wines and spirits to Kenya.

The other challenge which Kenyan restaurants face is consistency of supply. Keeping a winelist up to date is a difficult as wines quickly become unavailable particularly if they are good and represent value for money. To partly get around this problem Kiran keeps a ‘Wines of the Month” list at Seven, which if you are a regular patron is a good way of trying different styles of wine rather than sticking with the same wine every visit. While being cautious of recommending a particular wine with a particular dish, Kiran personally likes the Goose Chase wine with the Mambrui Clam Chowder; this is an Australian blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, and is currently available at Seven. Seven does indeed keep a good and extensive wine list and Kiran will only be delighted if you ask for some help on your first or next visit.

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?