jamie goode's wine blog: Wine, episode 3: The Future

Monday, March 02, 2009

Wine, episode 3: The Future

Tonight I caught the third episode of BBC4's series on Wine. It was set in South Africa, and followed the fortunes of two producers trying to make it in the UK wine market. I quote from the publicity blurb:

Oupa Rangaka and Mark Solms are two unlikely wine producers. Six years ago, Oupa, a retired philosophy professor, didn't even drink wine, let alone make it.
Today he and his family, including three-year-old grandson Kwena, are the only
black people to own a vineyard in South Africa. Its survival depends on their ongoing relationship with Marks and Spencer and convincing the judges at London's International Wine Challenge that their pinotage passes muster. Mark is a world-renowned neuroscientist who inherited the family business, and is struggling to reconcile his idealistic plans for the farm with the practical realities of post-apartheid South Africa. He worries that the harvest festival he is organising may degenerate into an orgy of violence and drunkenness. Via the struggles of these two remarkable men, wine becomes a prism through which to view the current state of the Rainbow Nation.
It was a really well-constructed programme, tackling some tricky issues in an intelligent way. I particularly liked the focus on the International Wine Challenge, including a three-second shot of me sniffing and slurping! Pictured above is the film crew in attendance at the challenge, following the course of these South African wines.
You can catch it if you missed it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j0g7v

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14 Comments:

At 1:01 AM, Blogger Bob said...

I write an occasional Internet wine column about the Maine (USA) wine scene (Mainely Wine News at wwwhey're also.chowmaineguide.com), and last year I wrote a story about an importer of South African wines. Reading your story, I recognized the last name Rangaka, but not the first name. I checked back, and realized it was the nickname of one of the owners of M'hudi, one of the two producers I wrote about. I'm glad to see that they're also distributing their wines in the UK. And next week, one of the Rangakas is coming here to Maine to promote their wine.
By the way, the link to my story is: http://www.chowmaineguide.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=127&cntnt01returnid=182

 
At 2:27 AM, Blogger Bob said...

Corrected comment:
I write an occasional Internet wine column about the Maine (USA) wine scene (Mainely Wine News at www.chowmaineguide.com), and last year I wrote a story about an importer of South African wines. Reading your story, I recognized the last name Rangaka, but not the first name. I checked back, and realized it was the nickname of one of the owners of M'hudi, one of the two producers I wrote about. I'm glad to see that they're also distributing their wines in the UK. And next week, one of the Rangakas is coming here to Maine to promote their wine.
By the way, the link to my story is: http://www.chowmaineguide.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=127&cntnt01returnid=182

 
At 2:18 PM, Anonymous Keith Prothero said...

Of course,these wines are really Villiera wines under another label. Winemaker is Jeff Grier and consultant his brother Simon.The wines are made at Villiera.
Still a good story of course,and I wish them all success.

 
At 2:30 PM, Blogger Bob said...

Keith, Despite having written about M'hudi/Rangaka, I had never heard of Villiera before (I've now looked at their web site). Does your comment pertain to the Rangaka wines?

 
At 3:55 PM, Blogger diale said...

Distell and KWV wines are Botha Kelder wines because thats where they are made. It is common SA industry practice to buy in wines and to have grapes vinified at other wineries by other people than oneself. I certainly hope the comment that M'hudi wines are `really Villiera wines' will be applied to these Distell/KWV wines as well, that they are actually Botha wines. But it would be interesting to have a comparative taste of similar cultivars from M'hudi and Villiera to see just how informed this comment is.

 
At 4:07 PM, Blogger Bob said...

Is this a touchy subject among wine producers in South Africa? I may be meeting with one of the owners of M'Hudi next week, along with the US importer, and I'm wondering if I should steer clear of this subject.

 
At 6:53 PM, Blogger Canadian Tourism said...

The BBC show is really top-notch.

On our end, we've put together a brief behind-the-scenes video at the award-winning Gaspereau Wineries in Gaspereau Valley, Nova Scotia.

 
At 8:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay,
I spam by night and I spam by day...

 
At 8:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The M'Hudi wines sold in the UK by M&S use Villiera's facilities but fruit sourced by Rangaka.

JMac

 
At 7:04 PM, Anonymous Paul Hopkins said...

Whilst we should commend and promote racial equally in all aspects of our lives, I can't help think that the episode was attempting to drive home an alternative message. Someone needs to tell me when the colour of someone's skin if appropriate when it comes to wine. I long for the day when we neither distinguish or vilify people because of their race. This programme in my opinion does as much harm as it does good.

 
At 11:29 AM, Anonymous Stephen said...

I recorded this episode and watched it a few days later. The bit in the blurb about the Rangakas being the only black people to own a vineyard is misleading - in the programme itself they referred to it as the only black-owned FAMILY vineyard.

Anyway, that aside, at the time never struck me that the M'hudi wines were actually Villiera wines; I saw them simply using Villiera's facilities in the way that other growers might use a co-op.

However, there is the other angle that potentially the Rangakas are simply growers who are supplying Villiera with grapes for a particular brand of their wine. I think that it went far beyond that though, because the Rangakas themselves were involved in the selling and marketing of the wine rather than just selling the grapes to Villiera and being done with it.

And it was Gert - the man from M&S - who had the final say in what components went into the Sauvignon Blanc blend that M&S were going to sell. So from that point of view both Villiera and the Rangakas were simply suppliers to M&S.

As with many television programs though, it is hard to tell what the complete truth is because the producer will have an idea of an angle they that want to push or a story that they are trying to tell.

 
At 1:03 PM, Blogger Bob said...

Stephen,I had dinner last night with Malmsey Rangaka, along with 5 other South African producers who are touring parts of the US. I wasn't able to talk to her about this matter, but I did briefly talk to another producer about it. It seems that in most, if not all, of the cases it is simply a matter of using the winery's facilities, as at a co-op, and maybe using the winery's winemaker as a consultant. But I never really had a chance to explore this. But what is clear is that these producers are committed to making good wine, and what they lack in capital and experience they make up for in intelligence and enthusiasm for what they are doing.
And I went to the BBC site but I'm not sure that episode is still available to watch.

 
At 5:45 PM, Blogger Bob said...

Does anyone know how to get ahold of the BBC story on South African wine? I tried to watch it today but it is no longer availible on the BBC web site.

 
At 6:45 PM, Anonymous Stephen said...

Bob, thanks for your reply. It's really interesting that you had dinner with Malmsey; I'd love to be able to talk to them. I am curious as to their own knowledge of wine. In the program, they said that they had to train themselves to like wine by starting off by drinking wine mixed with grape juice, and that was only a few years ago. I imagine that although they know what to do to grow good grapes, they still rely heavily on the expertise of the Villiera winemaker(s) for consultancy in the vinification process.

I was born in South Africa and lived there until I moved to London ten years ago and still feel very strong connections with the country, especially the wine industry, so I really enjoyed watching this episode.

I love that her name is Malmsey; it seems fitting. Hopefully their wine-making venture will be as long-lived as the great Malmseys of Madeira. (Yes I've been drinking wine and am feeling poetic...)

 

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