Wednesday, June 18, 2003; Page F05

Blended Red Out of Africa - By Michael Franz

It is a hunch rather than a conviction, but my hunch is that the Cape region of South Africa is a place where wines closely akin to red Bordeaux can be made. The evidence has been gradually leading me in this direction since South African wines began appearing in significant numbers here after Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990.

In my tastings since that time, I've found many of the best wines surprisingly hard to "place." They don't behave like archetypical New World wines from, say, California or Australia. They don't seem as ripe, or rich, or alcoholic, or overtly fruity. They show plenty of ripeness and richness and fruit -- but these characteristics don't seem quite as "pushy" as they tend to be in most quarters of the New World. In sum, South African wines lean more toward Europe by veering more toward restraint than intensity, and more toward minerality than gushy fruitiness. Stated differently, they lean more toward the earth and less toward the sun, and in this crucial respect, they display a notable resemblance to European wines.

My most recent round of tastings has focused on red wines made from Bordeaux grape varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot). The bottlings tasted include varietal wines (i.e., ones made predominantly from a single grape variety and then named by reference to that variety) as well as blended wines. Some of the varietal wines show a resemblance to Bordeaux, but the likeness is much closer in the blends.

This probably results from a combination of structural and stylistic factors. There is a closer structural correspondence between blended South African reds and Bordeaux reds, which are usually blended. But even when a single grape is predominant in a blended Bordeaux, the wine is rarely styled with the intention of showcasing the character of a particular grape (as opposed to the particularities or terroir of the place where the grapes are grown). By contrast, expressing "varietal character" is often an explicit objective for New World winemakers when styling varietal wines in places like California or Australia. When South African producers are crafting their varietal wines, they would find a more appropriate benchmark in California Merlot or Coonawarra Cabernet than in Bordeaux. Conversely, it would be very surprising if a winemaker producing a blended red in South Africa didn't see Bordeaux as the proper point of reference.

In any case, I hope that you'll try a few of the top blended South African reds I've tasted recently to see if you, too, find an intriguing similarity to Bordeaux. Recommended wines are listed in order of preference, with appellations, approximate prices, and D.C. wholesalers indicated in parentheses:

OUTSTANDING!
Mont du Toit (Coastal Region) Red Wine 1999 ($36, Franklin): Very complex but absolutely seamless, this is a beautiful wine and the one bottle that I'd choose to exemplify the premise of this column. Sublime stuff...