LIQUID INVESTMENTS
MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Dilatory consumers lack appetite for new wave of cultivars
Not that long ago South African wine producers and wine drinkers had very little choice regarding anything other than mainstream varieties, the bulk of which reached our shores in the 1970s. Before that, there had been no commercial plantings of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, riesling, gewurztraminer, pinot noir, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot, mourvedre, sangiovese and tempranillo. Initially the varieties made famous by French vignerons crept into local vineyards, the full spectrum of what is required to produce good bordeaux, burgundy, Rhone reds and champagne. The important Spanish, Portuguese and Italian cultivars comprised the second wave and now a few of the useful gap fillers have started to appear. For producers, the problem is that consumers have taken about 30 years to wrap their palates around the first-wave varieties; they don’t appear to be ready to embrace the next tranche. Moreover, some of the earliest arrivals have remained marginal; even now there cannot be mor...
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