LIQUID INVESTMENTS
MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Discovery over Jordan’s cool vineyards has injected serious fizz into its wines
Subsequent change in viticultural practices and harvest decisions has elevated its more recent offerings to among the best from Stellenbosch
Very few wine producers are disarmingly honest about where they’ve come from, and where they’re heading. This is partly because wine has a longer shelf life than most products, so to mention that you handled a particular vintage in a way you wouldn’t repeat today may be to condemn whatever bottles are about to the ignominy of dismissive consumption. It doesn’t always matter that much: if the “mistake” relates to a long-forgotten vintage, you get credit for the honesty without much of a downside. Veronique Drouhin made a point of presenting the wines of the 2003 “drought” vintage burgundies by comparing them with the largely unsuccessful 1976s — the previous drought vintage. She declared her debt to her father who guided them through the 2003 vinifications by avoiding what he described as his mistakes from almost 40 years before. It was all very polished, and very civilised, and obviously brand-enhancing. Gary Jordan, of Jordan in Stellenbosch, was even more disarmingly honest as he ...
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