I drove over the mountain looking for something easy. Okay, all these sexual innuendos concerning Pinot Noir must be getting a bit boring. But what to do when most Pinot producers themselves deploy a healthy amount of horny-sounding analogies when their beloved Burgundian grape is mentioned? Seeing as this is a family site, I won’t go into too much detail and all culprits shall remain nameless.
It can get ugly.
Anyway, I drove over the mountain to Elgin to meet this dishy item. Easy. Accessible. Fleshy. Aromatic. This would be the Paul Cluver Seven Flags Pinot Noir. The new one that is. Last year the 2006 vintage was launched. Now we were going to jump between the thighs of (shit, sorry) of the 2007.
Now what, may followers of Paul Cluver ask, is the Seven Flags? Hasn’t the Estate been making some tit (whoops..) Pinots for some time?
Sure. But this time around we are talking serious Pinot Noir. The cream da la cream.
Last year I bought a case of the 2006, which is so awesome I did not drink all of it within the first month, stashing two bottles away for further maturation. So I was dying to see what the 2007 was going to do for me.
So we arrived on the farm. Neil Pendock – my designated navigator – and I were a bit early for the function. This gave us some time to get into some juicy industry talk with Paul Cluver Snr, who recently handed over the baton as chairperson of Wines of South Africa to Johann Krige. We also sipped some new brandy that is popping out of the copper still and spoke about the weather.
The guests started arriving, and things were swanky. A white Bedouin tent covered tables adorned with smart linen. There was some music and we sipped Chardonnay and mulled about, although there was not much action on the babe front for launching a sexy wine like this. Fortunately, as things tend to do at these occasions, one of the few honeys who made the trek out to Elgin sat at my table. Allan Mullins, who was next to me, was also chuffed, I tell you.
In any event, the wine followed the starters, so this gives me the opportunity to slip into (o hell, censors where are you!) PR mode and tell you what the wine is about.
Pause, thus for PR blurb:
This wine is the ultimate expression of the estate’s terrior and the culmination of dedication to the practice of viticulture and wine making.A specific section in our oldest Pinot Noir vineyard, planted to the Burgundian 113 clone in 1991, consistently delivers superlative Pinot Noir. This is ascribed to the balanced growth, the crop-to-leaf-surface area and also the smaller-than-average berry size. This vineyard section was identified for the production of the Seven Flags Pinot Noir in 2006 and in 2007.
In the cellar, the aim is to achieve the best possible balance; between fruit, acidity, structure and texture.
After extended cold maceration, fermentation starts naturally. The wine is then inoculated with a Burgundian isolated yeast which is known for its ability to produce the typical Pinot Noir aroma, while retaining the delicate colour of Pinot Noir. A combination of punch-down and pump-over, 3 times a day, is done to ensure optimal colour extraction.  All the while, the wine and must is assessed to ensure that the grapes are not over-worked. After fermentation, the wine is racked to barrel for malolactic fermentation and remains on the lees for 11 months.  To confirm the superiority of the vineyard site, the ear-marked Seven Flags Pinot noir barrels are tasted blind in conjunction with all the other Paul Cluver Pinot Noir barrels in the cellar. The best barrels of the site are then selected and blended to form the Seven Flags Pinot Noir. The 2007 vintage comprises 38% new wood and 62% third-fill barrels – from two Burgundian coopers.
(end PR blurb)
Now you know. So what does it taste like? (The press release mentioned “tightness” and “appealing”, which is just a bit risqué.)
Because less new wood was used than the previous 7 Flags, the wine is silky and devoid of any muscularity in the backbone. It is pure Volnay in the supple fleshiness, the kind of supple fleshiness that would make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. However, there is an early leanness in the wine, an almost virginal (I give up) purity that reminds me of the wines from the Echevronne region in the High Burgundy. If Andries Burger, the wine maker, has done things correctly, this leanness between fore- and rear-palate is going to flesh out over the next few years. A sweet-savouriness will appear, edging the wine more into the powerful realm expressed by the Vosne-Romanée region, which is going to be terribly exciting. Seeing this happen will be a first for a South African Pinot Noir.
Easy as it was in the first few sips, the wine gains body the more you drink of it. (And seeing there were no freebies to take home, we really let rip!) By the seventh glass it really was stronger, more resilient than those first few sensual sips. Pendock was also going great guns with this wine, and I just hoped that he was going to be sober enough to navigate us back to Cape Town.
A beaut of wine, and a real lush. I looked at the bottle and almost asked it if it took American Express and permitted kissing. But I just bought a case, instead.
Emile Joubert

We ate well. This was supposed to be a restaurant review. But we drank better and more than we ate, so I can’t remember what the food was like, so this will not be a review of food but a discussion on Bordeaux.
For it was Bordeaux that brought us together, in Constantia, at the Jonkershuis Restaurant which is on the Groot Constantia Estate. And we were there, Boela Gerber the resident winemaker, and myself, because I had procured some Bordeaux from Roland Peens at the Wine Cellar. And I thought it was good.
It was Château Yon-Figeac 2000, a fine St. Emilion meaning Merlot, mostly. Boela arrived with a flint bottle of gold. It was Château Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc 2004. I was happy, as I do not know white Bordeaux that well, like most plebs considering the region to specialize in reds.
The Lafitte Blanc was cold, but we iced it anyway. We sipped on some Groot Constantia Sauvignon Blanc 2008, which is a fine white wine. It is fresh and lively, and nice to drink.
Boela pulled the cork on the Lafitte. I smelt the wine, and it was an aroma unlike any white wine I had had the pleasure of meeting before. It had a nutty, orange peel aroma and I could smell it was dry, very dry. There was an oxidized character to it, but an agreeable one as this is the way these white wines are made.
It was bone-dry to the taste. So dry it actually shocked by mouth a bit. I turned back to the Groot Constantia Sauvignon Blanc, which now seemed trembling with tropical fruit compared to the dry French wine.
The Lafitte was awfully good to drink. It had a lot of grip on the mouth. The nutty sharpness that I got on the nose carried through to the mouth. It was herby, also, like dried herbs. With a light mouth-feel, that made you want to drink more, which is what we did.
The Yon-Figeac followed, and at this time we were eating, I remember, meat. The wine smelt of fresh blood and wild flowers. It was very good when I had finished working the aroma and allowed it to pass by my lips. It was not tight, this wine. Not tight at all. At nine years, it was of a good age.
There was fruit, black fruit, but it was still restrained. Not tight at all, just restrained, meaning the wine could last another ten years in the bottle.
There was no sharpness of tannins, just an operatic lightness of harmonious red wine flavours. With a hint of leather. It was deliciously easy to drink, this wine.
We finished the bottle easily, talking of wine and France and that pretty river that runs to the west of Toulouse. The one with the heavy trout and the deep ripples.
However, we still needed more wine. So I suggested we drink a wine from Groot Constantia, which was the right thing, the best thing, to do as we were on Groot Constantia. Boela suggested the Gouverneurs Reserve, which he made, and we ordered the 2004. A good year.
The wine is Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, mainly. With Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. And it was fascinating drinking this wine after the Yon-Figeac. The power was enticing and it was haunting. The power of the wine stayed, long after the mulberry and fynbos notes had departed. It was bigger than the Bordeaux, bigger and more robust. There was a gracious elegance we liked so much, we had another bottle to cleanse the palate and really giver the livers a well-deserved bit of working out.
Two good Bordeaux and one fine South African. Throw in a bit of fine conversation between two real men, and this is what wine is all about.
Earl Dexter

Letter to Emile Joubert
From Christopher Hope, director of the Franschhoek Literary Festival

Dear Emile

FRANSCHHOEK LITERARY FESTIVAL SA WINE WRITERS AWARD, 2009

We are writing to invite you to submit the best piece of writing you published in 2008 on any wine-related topic, for the Franschhoek Literary Festival’s SA Wine Writers Award. (this does not have to be a technical piece)
Your writing will be judged on its literary merits, so please indicate the publication format. (Just a sentence will do; for example, “this was a feature article in WINE magazine” or “this column was written for my regular food and wine blog”.)
Our judges are Jancis Robinson MW (Financial Times wine writer, Oxford Companion To Wine Editor), Stephen Tanzer (International Wine Cellar editor, Food & Wine Magazine senior editor) and Duncan Minshull (BBC commissioning editor) are widely dispersed, so please submit your work to gilly@thefamousidea.co.za  in an electronic format. The closing date for submissions is 10th April.
The award consists of a cash prize of R25 000 and you will also receive a certificate/artwork produced especially for this purpose by famous Pippa Skotnes. The presentation will be made at the Franschhoek Literary Festival on 16th May, at a reception hosted by one of the local wine estates. The travel and accommodation costs of the recipient will be met by the organisers.
Although any wine writer based in SA may submit his/her work, we are particularly hopeful that you will accept this personal invitation to be recognised as SA’s pre-eminent wine writer.
This new prize will be awarded annually from 2009 onward at the Festival.
Thanks and good luck!

Reply from Emile Joubert

Dear Mr Hope
Thank you very much for the invitation to participate in the SA Wine Writers Award. It is a most worthy initiative – like all scribes, wine journalists and commentators warrant some sort of recognition. As you know better than any wine writer, slaving away in a lonely space with only the computer screen as company can sometimes be seen as an ungrateful occupation.
Unfortunately I will not be entering this competition out of principal.
Firstly, a competition of this nature without a South African judge lacks credibility. As learned as these three persons are, not one can fully understand the nuances hidden in South African wine writing. It is as ridiculous as getting a panel of British judges to give an award to the best South African Pinotage.
Secondly, a lot of South African wine writing is done in Afrikaans, the language used by over 80% of the industry. By not offering Afrikaans media an opportunity to enter, the competition cannot be regarded as representative or complete. Take, for example, a writer such as Christine Rudman, a Cape Wine Writer whose columns exclusively appear in Afrikaans. There are many others.
I commend you on a worthy initiative. It is, however, unfortunate that the result will not deliver SA’s best wine writer due to it excluding a large percentage of writers and their audience.

Forget about phylloxera, leaf-roll or empowerment-hungry land-grabbers. The visitor currently most feared by wine farmers is a pretty blond from Pinelands. That’s right. Jeanri-Tine van Zyl, youthful staffer at Wine Magazine, is sending tremors down various backs at the mere thought of her visiting your winery for one of the magazine’s Cellar Door Shoot-out articles.
Jeanri, like me from Afrikaner stock, never fails to call a spade a shovel, the kind of honesty – with a slight hint of facetiousness – that has caused generations of Anglo Saxon males to reach for their ball protectors. Aesthetically unpleasing tasting venues, surly or patronising cellar staff, kitsch art….all are delicately ripped apart by Jeanri’s spicy prose.
In any event, I thought of Jeanri on Monday when I visited a fantastic winery in the Hemel-en-Aarde. Seeing it was Monday, and I had my cynical cap on. I was pissed at the stretch of bumpy dirt road leading towards Caledon. My two travelling companions, the Dachshunds Maximillian and Friedl, were edgy and their paws were irritating me as they jumped on my navel at the excitement of the journey. Max wet my T-shirt with excitement upon spotting a badger crossing the road.
Irritability vanished, however, as I drove into the gates of Creation Wines and cast an eagle eye over the rolling vineyards. A dam, stocked with trout, sits below the winery which is below the tasting reception.
Reception is open, light and airy. 260 degree views allow you to take in the vines, and the fynbos ridges beyond. A couple of arty objects are mounted, some for sale, as you head to the tasting counter.
Okay. By now Jeanri may have approved. But the prospect of conversing with a human being would have her sharpening her pencil.
If Carolyn Martin, one of the owners, is there, however, all prospects of knocking this Creation joint fly out of the window. Carolyn is life. Carolyn is energy. She maintains that perfect balance between marketing pushiness and convincing passion.
And she could sell hard liquor to a mosque in Quatar. And, be warned, if she had any Carolyn will have Jeanri’s balls for breakfast.
But it boils down to the “p” word. And this passion, well there’s a lot of passion in this creation. And much for Carolyn to tell. The ungrafted, virus free vineyards. The coolness blowing in from the Kleinrivier Lagoon each evening. The new Pinot Noir, 2008, that is clean and fruity and very European. “We don’t do farmyard.” Chardonnay from Creation is wooded, but only 30% new. French. Steely and minerally but with a touch of creaminess to lengthen the experience of the fruit.
Syrah-Grenache. Not overcooked or jammy. But restrained. Plummy. Touch of fynbos. And was that a cherry?
Carolyn takes me down to the cellar, where Christoph Kaser – one of the owners who is also a winemaker in Switzerland – is busy handling some free-run Merlot, Creation’s first. Carolyn’s husband, JC  – also from the land of Heidi and clocks – is off duty today.
The winery is picture perfect: open wooden fermenters, gleaming rows of stainless steel. Even the pressed husks look good enough to put on a post-card.
We taste from the tanks. Bracing Sauvignon Blanc. Some Syrah-Grenache from the barrels.
Only three years down the line, Creation’s wines are being listed in top restaurants and outlets – here and overseas. Quality of experience is evident from farm to bottle, to cork and into the glass.
The enthusiasm from Carolyn and Christoph’s side is very infectious and very un-Swiss. This is a beautiful place, and the enthusiasm is the kind shown by the fortunate people whose dreams have come true.
And at Creation, they have.
This is the place whereby all other wineries should be judged.

E. Louw Joubert

Eikendal, situated on the slopes of the Helderberg in an area renowned for its acclaimed red wines, excelled at the Berlin Wine Trophy 2009 with its Bordeaux-style blend, Classique, taking the highest honours at this closely contested international challenge.

The latest 2005 vintage of this elegant blend which proudly wears the crown as the estate’s flagship red wine, clinched a prestigious Premium Berlin Gold medal at this year’s judging. The Cabernet driven Classique is one of only five South African wines to be awarded this sought after, Premium Gold medal this year.

In addition, Eikendal also scooped a silver medal for its Sauvignon Blanc 2008 at this annual contest – one of the largest international competitions under the patronage of International Organisation of Vine and Wine (IOV) – held in the capital city of Berlin.

“I’m so delighted to see that our flagship is making waves beyond our borders. The results also show that we as a country unashamedly can compete against the best international standards,” says Eikendal Cellarmaster Henry Kotzé.

Described by the winemaker as a ‘wine that personifies what Eikendal is all about’ the Classique 2005 is a sensual yet substantial wine that unfolds a layered berry bouquet harmoniously backed by an integrated oak character. Juicy ripe black fruit, infused with spicy, peppery flavours coat the palate with hints of truffle and earthy herbaceous influences pointing to a strong Cabernet Sauvignon presence.

With Cabernet Sauvignon stealing the spotlight (73%), the wine also introduces the classical touch of Cabernet franc (27%) which adds gentle fruit layers and finesse to this oak-matured cellar masterpiece.

“Owing to our favourable terroir, fanned by cooling maritime breezes and ideal soil compositions, both red varieties deliver a strong sense of varietal integrity and quality, expressed wonderfully in this full-flavoured wine,” adds Henry.

Both wines spent 18 months in new French oak barrels before they were blended together, after which further maturation continued in older barrels over a six month period. The wine was bottle aged for a year prior to its release.

Alluring with a dark brick red hue, it is a full-bodied, well-structured wine with a long elegant finish lingering on the aftertaste. Fine, silky tannins grip the pallet and provide great potential for further ageing.

Eikendal Classique 2005 is an excellent choice with robust beef, venison and ostrich carpaccio, whilst vegetarians can enjoy this red wine with roasted or grilled vegetables infused with olive oil, garlic and herbs or with a gourmet cheese platter.

The wine is available from R120 per bottle, directly from the cellar or at selected fine wine outlets and restaurants countrywide.

Noting the Editor’s latest interest in Merlot, I hauled out a bottle of Château Pétrus 1992 during his recent visit. Pétrus is a nice example of Merlot, although the odd percentage of Cabernet Franc added in some ripe years can have a lucid influence on the Merlot expression.
1992 was not such a year. In fact, during the damp vintage the vineyards were covered with black plastic, allowing the moisture to evaporate against the plastic lining instead of seeping into the soil and diluting the vines.
I knew the Editor looks at the Pétrus with nostalgia. For it was this wine that, when presented to that vain little Matt Skinner sommelier who works for the irritable Jamie Oliver, was described as “ordinary. I’ll pay 30 quid for it, 40 max”. And this on national television!
It was presented blind to Skinner, and one only has to wonder what his opinion would have been once he spotted the majestic red label.
I decanted the wine and left it in a cool spot in my study for two hours. When I entered the room, with the Editor in tow, the smell of books and old pipe tobacco had been replaced by the haunting perfume of dried flowers, iodine and honey.
We poured the wine into Burgundy glasses, and both agreed that the wine was immensely powerful, a characteristic overlooked by New World Merlot producers who like to market their juice as sensual, soft and velvety.
The power on the nose was, in fact a bit too much and I had to open a window to clear the air a bit otherwise our palates would shut down.
I know this wine needs another 10 years – the Pétrus 1982 is drinking quite beautifully – but there is much to be said about the vigour of this great Pomerol still in its teens. There is an iron, steely flavour that runs from the tip of the tongue to the mid-throat – it is almost like the delicate pleasure-pain sensation one would experience swallowing a 1000 year-old Samurai sword. But the core of the strength is wrapped in unctuous flavours of wild strawberries, white truffles and – to keep the Japanese theme going – Kobe beef tartare.
As usual, there is nothing subtle about the palate weight. And this is what makes Pétrus so unique: even those cursed with the most wooden of palates would agree that something magical is going on here.
Adrian Morgan

The best French food in the Cape is being cooked by a farm boy from the Karoo and his wife Sarah. The place is Dijon, a bistro in the centre of Stellenbosch opposite the Town Hall, and the authenticity of this South African-French joint is unusual. South Africans returning from visits to France are usually more French in their pretentiousness than the lazy housewives of Montparnasse. But the Du Plessis’ of Dijon are down to earth, portraying a genuine admiration for French cuisine rather than attempting to recreate it with an air of awe and over-the-top reverence. (See earlier review of Bizerca.)
Myself and three other guys piled into the Dijon yesterday, sprawling along the shiny wooden tables nestling on the tiled floor. We ordered Mooiplaas Chenin Blanc, and told the waiter to keep the bottles coming whenever they were close to empty, which was about every 15 minutes. I mean, who can eat on an empty stomach?
The carte is usual bistro fare: steak tartare and marrow bones; steak and coq au vin. A couple of pastas. Veal and fish.
Two of the guys ordered the marrow bones, cut high, roasted and served with toasted bread. The other one decided on steak tartare, while I kept things green with asparagus and Hollandaise.
Marrow bones are the culinary equivalent of lacy black underwear – it always works. Simply roasted, unctuous marrow is scooped out and spread on toast. Lips were greasy, expressions satisfied.
The steak tartare was pronounced to be as genuine as Minky van der Westhuizen’s cleavage. The meat had been ground, instead of minced to a pulp. Seasoned to perfection, it was also served with toast.
My asparagus was fresh and sweet, and the Hollandaise light and zingy. It went perfectly with the Mooiplaas Chenin.
The companions were not extremely adventurous with the mains, all settling for cassoulet. I myself settled for a steak, which – in retrospect – was not very adventurous either.
Guy Kebble, one of the cassoulet eaters, knows his cassoulet from his bean stew, having caused various degrees of injury to rugby opponents in South-Western France. The chef was going to be cheered, instead of scrummed to a pulp as the cassoulet was given the thumbs-up. Confit of duck, saucisson Toulouse, perfectly cooked beans with a hint of tomato in the broth.
What’s there not to like?
My steak was cut thin, which I prefer to those chunky slabs that are usually cold in the middle when ordered rare. Good meat, such as this, only requires Dijon mustard and frites. The latter were perfect: crisp and fresh, with a satisfying potato taste to the bite. The rocket salad served as an apt palate cleanser.
The owner, Doepie, also brought as a serving of wild boar sausage he had procured, which was truly divine. This is the kind of sausage that serves to remind the Germans that they lost the War.
By this stage we were drinking Jan Boland Coetzee’s Kallista and La Bonheur Prima. Thoughts of desert did arise, but we decided on double espresso’s and a bottle of Tokara brandy, which did the job of finishing a truly splendid meal.
E. Louw Joubert

Sting goes Italian.

The rock star Sting – whose best known songs include Message in a Bottle – is to produce 30,000 bottles of Chianti a year from his 300-hectare estate in Tuscany.
The singer, 57, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, made the announcement at a public meeting called at Figline Valdarno, south of Florence, to “defend Tuscan agriculture and bio-diversity”. “Since January I have been round the world one and a half times,” he told the meeting. “When I get back here I take a deep breath and say to myself – I’m home”.
The singer, dressed in a grey jacket and T-shirt and sporting a full beard, said that from the terrace of his 16th-century villa, Il Palagio, which he bought in 1997, he could see the sun setting behind the Appenines – “a masterpiece” of nature. He said that he would market two kinds of wine: a Chianti DOC and a Tuscan red based on the Sangiovese grape.
The brand names remain a closely guarded secret. However Paolo Rossi, the estate manager, said that the “Sting wine” had been made two years ago, and the first bottles of the 2007 vintage would be on the market in September. It would amount to “rock music wine” with “a bit of swing and a bit of international pop thanks to the addition of Cabernet and Merlot grapes”.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Riccardo Nocentini, the mayor of Figline Valdarno, which is close to Sting’s estate and villa, said that the singer was not just a “welcome guest” in the region but also a serious farmer. Together with his wife, Trudie Styler, Sting markets “Il Palagio Sumner Family” honey and olive oil from his estate through Harrods in London and on the internet.
Sting said that his concern for the environment, which initially took the form of a campaign to save the Amazon rainforest, had spread to the defence of rural Tuscany. “I always use traditional methods – no pesticides,” he said. He bought the vineyards and woods adjoining his villa grounds in 2002, and employs 15 estate workers as well as seasonal labour.
A percentage of all profits from the sales goes to the environmental causes the couple support, such as the Soil Association, which promotes organic food and farming in Britain, and the Rainforest Foundation, which they helped to found in 1989.
Italian fans who attended the meeting said that they would buy the new wine the moment it appeared. “We have always bought Sting’s honey and oil,” Giovanni Pollastri and Lidia Di Corato told Corriere della Sera. “In fact with all the money we have spent supporting his agricultural produce we deserve a free bottle.”
Sting spends much of his time in Tuscany when he is not touring, and recorded the album All This Time at Il Palagio after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The villa grounds, which he tours on a mountain bike, contain a circular swimming pool and a giant chess board. The nickname Sting derives from the bee-striped jersey he wore early in his music career with a band called the Phoenix Jazzmen.
Four years ago Mick Hucknall, the lead singer of Simply Red, introduced a wine called Il Cantante (The Singer), at his estate on the slopes of Mount Etna in in Sicily. He said that he had bought the vineyard after turning to wine to curb the wild drinking of his youth. He said: “My logic was I would drink less if the drink was better. So I became obsessed with fine wines.”
Gerard Depardieu, the French actor, owns a vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, where he produces “passito”, the celebrated local dessert wine.

The Times of London

The results of an independent life cycle analysis of wine closures conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers clearly demonstrate that natural cork is the best wine closure in terms of environmental performance.
The year-long study found that CO2 emissions — a key factor in global warming — resulting from the life cycle of a screwcap are 24 times higher than those from a natural cork stopper, while a plastic stopper is responsible for 10 times more CO2 than a natural cork.
“Corticeira Amorim commissioned an environmental impact assessment on the main products we manufacture, including natural cork wine stoppers,” said chairman and CEO António Amorim.
“Our objectives were to identify opportunities to improve the environmental performance of cork stoppers and provide the wine industry with detailed figures in relation to the full environmental impact of different closures.
“The research results highlight the environmental benefits of natural cork stoppers over alternatives.”
The study found that CO2 emissions during the life cycle (production, transport, associated packaging and end of life) of 1000 cork stoppers amounts to 1,533g of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) over 100 years, while the figure for plastic stoppers is 14,833g of CO2e per 1000 stoppers and for screwcaps 37,172g of CO2e per 1000 stoppers.
The figures include allowance for transporting closures to the UK market for bottling. Under this model, cork stoppers are transported from Portugal, plastic closures from Belgium and screwcaps from France. The figures also account for the use of a PVC capsule that typically covers the top of a bottle sealed with a natural cork or synthetic closure.
The study included analyses of seven key environmental indicators: the emission of greenhouse gases; consumption of non-renewable energy; consumption of water; contribution to the acidification of the atmosphere; contribution to the deterioration of the ozone layer; contribution to eutrophication (nutrient build-up); and production of solid waste.
Cork stoppers emerged as the best alternative against six indicators and were placed second, behind aluminium closures, in relation to water consumption.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers study underwent a critical review by three independent entities, including a life cycle analysis expert, and was conducted in line with ISO 14040 and 14044 standards. Under these standards, the least favourable scenario for the promoter of the study (Corticeira Amorim) was taken at all times.
In addition, the analysis did not consider the environmental impacts associated with the process of transforming aluminium into screwcaps and raw materials into plastic stoppers.
In 2006 and 2007 Corticeira Amorim prepared sustainability reports that highlighted the crucial role of cork forests in carbon dioxide retention, preserving biodiversity and combating desertification as well as the role of cork manufacturing in sustainable development.
Mr Amorim said commissioning the life cycle analysis added to the company’s strong knowledge-base on sustainability issues relating to its products.
“Many sectors of the global wine industry are working hard to reduce their environmental impact and this study again highlights the role that natural cork can play in that process,” he said.
“Natural cork is the only closure option for winemakers, distributors and retailers that want to minimise their carbon footprint and adopt best practices in relation to environmental performance. We are their natural CO2-retention partner in these efforts.”
The 2008 PricewaterhouseCoopers life cycle analysis report and a summary presentation are available at www.corkfacts.com and www.amorim.com

It may sound like a fairytale, but Oranjerivier Wine Cellars of the Northern Cape recently hit the jackpot when its wines got listed at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions. Oranjerivier’s range of Star Tree Wines, named after the quiver tree that is one of the Northern Cape’s enigmatic images, can nowadays be found in a variety of restaurants and shops on the Disney World premises.
According to Koos Visser, marketing manager of Oranjerivier Wine Cellars who recently returned from a trip to America, the presence of this wine at Disney World provides for big opportunities
“It’s a good market with thousands of people visiting the venue for daily for entertainment and a general break-away from their daily lives. There visitors can enjoy our wines in the restaurants or buy them as souvenirs in the outlet stores,” says Mr Visser. “We have seen that after visitors to Disney World were introduced to a certain product – like Oranjerivier wines – the brand was imprinted in their minds. The product is then sought after and bought when the visitors return back to their homes.”
Apart from Disney World, Oranjerivier’s wines are found in several states on the East Coast of America, including North Virginia, Maryland and Delaware as well as the cities of Baltimore and Washington DC.
“In a year or two, America will be the world’s biggest wine market. Therefore it’s essential for any producer with export ambitions to be present in that market now,” reckons Mr Visser. “You have to know what the average American wine consumer likes, which is a sweeter, fruity wine with a colourful and interesting label. They particularly like the un-wooded Chardonnay and the fruity Shiraz of the Northern Cape. The interest in the Star Tree range is, in fact, so big that we will soon expand it with a natural sweet wine and a sparkling wine.”
According to Mr Visser, wine exporters to America must have the right representatives who continuously look for new markets and appeal to merchants to provide your wine. Once you are listed, it is imperative that you can supply enough stock. “Therefore Oranjerivier Winery has its own representative to work in that market 24 hours per day.”
Presently Oranjerivier plans to export 11 000 cases of wine to America per year. “But seeing the high profile of the wine in a place like Disney World, we hope to increase that figure and continue supplying a growing amount of wine to the American market.”