Graham Howe reports on the trend to alternative varieties at key wine tastings in the first quarter of 2016.

“Grenache Noir tends to be thin, lean and mean or a big blockbuster, dense, concentrated and spicy” declares winemaker Philip Costandius. “We’re somewhere in the middle”, he says, at the launch of Oldenburg’s maiden Grenache Noir 2014 at the wine farm atop Helshoogte in Banghoek, Stellenbosch in March. It is the newest member of the growing Grenache club in the Cape – which now includes twenty-four cellars led by the likes of Diemersdal, Sadie, Spice Route, Tierhoek and Vriesenhof.

Made from low yields (half of each bunch was dropped) grown the traditional way on bushvines – to concentrate flavour and increase ripening temperatures, the small two hectare bloc of Grenache Noir was originally intended for blending. Costandius got permission from the Wine & Spirits Board to use the grape’s full nomenclature – adding Noir to the label – and is delighted with the result: a wine with perfumed ripe berry fruit and an earthy, savoury edge. The asking price is R250 at the cellar-door.