BEFORE I launch into this let me just say that I am impassioned panegyric, deeply familiar with the Retsina Syndrome. It goes like this. Careworth and weary, you seize the chance to disappear to foreign parts pretty foreign parts, preferably, with Persilwhite houses, flower laden balconies, sun, cobalt sea. You feast on simple food outdoors, guzzle the local wines in alarming quantities and declare them wondrous definitely worth bringing home or seeking out at home. Alas, when the cork is pulled back in Dublin, to cheer up the humblest of suppers, the stuff you so recently loved tastes like bouillon of old socks.
I have been pondering on this all week, having come back from South Africa fired with vinous zeal. Six months ago, if anybody had asked me to name half a dozen really good South African wines on sale in Ireland, I would have had to summon Mandelalike diplomacy. I don't mean to scorn the well known brands we've seen advancing upon Irish supermarkets in the past couple of years Nederburg, KWV, Bellingham, Two Oceans, Helderberg and the rest. Frequently they offer good, everyday drinking at good, everyday prices. But head spinning excitement? I never seemed to find it.
Now, after on the spot immersion in the subject, I find there are more tempting South African wines here than can be squeezed into this column. Could this be just another case of having enjoyed the local hooch on its home ground?
I don't think so. In the few years since democracy became a certainty, South Africa's wine industry seventh biggest in the world, in volume terms has undergone changes more dramatic than any that have taken place since the first vines were planted an the Cape in 1655. With the sudden opening up of new export markets. South African wine makers have been busy improving their vineyards, updating their techniques and, most of all, attuning their wines to the demands of the world's taste buds. After the long dark night of apartheid isolation from international trends and production for the home market with a complex safety net of subsidies the entire industry has been hurled into a creative ferment.
"South African wines have improved 100 per cent in the past year," Oz Clarke said when he was in Dublin last autumn to launch two new wine books, "and they'll improve another 100 per cent in the next year." That is the scale of the revolution from which we are beginning to benefit.
Although the vast bulk of South African wine is produced by caaps, it is in the small estate wineries that the real excitement lies. There are about 80 of these, concentrated mainly in Stellenbasch and Paarl, the lush wine lands to the east of Cape Town, with a handful tumbling dawn the hills of Canstantia, right an the edge of the city. It's here, an immaculate family run farms, in amongst chickens, mottled pigs, donkeys and stud charallais, that you find the passionate enthusiasts, the innovators.
On my whistle stop tour I had time to visit only a few of the many tap producers whose wines are increasingly in evidence in Irish shops. Not enough to satisfy the urgent new need to imbibe the very best of South Africa, but certainly enough to alert the palate to quality, and the mind to significant new trends. To judge from Jeff Grier of Villiera (voted 1995 Winemaker of the Year by John Platter's New South African Wine Guide), Giorgio della Cia at Meerlust and Ross Gower at Klein Constantia (whose wines arrive in Ireland in a few weeks time), South Africa is only just beginning to show how it can dazzle with Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. At the same time, wineries like these are experimenting with drink it young Merlat or Cabernet Sauvignon aged in new French oak, without abandoning their South African identity. Pinatage, the country's clone of Pinat Noir and Cinsaut, is lovingly fostered for its unique character at Middelvlei, for instance, where the Mambergs scoop prizes for their version, fermented in the traditional way in open vats.
If anything has coloured my view of these wines, it might be the incredibly friendly, open attitude of their makers. Most estates welcome visitors, and anyone who wanders in seems to have a fair chance of swigging a few samples. The prices are pretty intoxicating too, with multi award winning wines selling for around £3 a battle. No wander tours of the Cape Winelands are among the sturdiest planks in South Africa's booming tourist industry. But even when freight, daft Irish duty and VAT have done their worst, South Africa's best bottles still offer undisputed value.
WHITES
Swartland Steen 1995 (Findlaters, SuperValu Raheny and other outlets, £5.75 approx)
South Africa's most common grape by far is Chenin Blanch known locally as Steen. Often it can be flabby but this one, from a caap that dispraves the big is bland rule, is fresh and fruity with a dry finish. Good Ii ht, summer drinking.
De Wetshof Bon Vallon Chardonnay 1995 (Verlings and other outlets, about £8) and straightforward De Wetshof Chardonnay (Wine Vault, Waterford, £8.50)
From Danie de Wet, the man who pioneered quality Chardannay an the Cape, two subtle and delicious versions with citrus and tropical fruit flavours opening out to a creamy yet crisp finish.
Neil Ellis Elgin Sauvignon Blanc 1995 (Mill Wine Cellar, Verlings, Terroirs, McCabes and other outlets, about £8.50)
Anyone who fears Sauvignon fatigue before the summer has even started should sip this smashing example and swallow all doubts. See Battle of the Week.
REDS
Villiera Merlot 1993 (some Superquinns, Roches Blackrock, Wine Bottle, Dunshaughlin and other outlets, £88.50)
For an estate winery not much more than a decade old, Villiera has made a huge impact, winning medals by the wailful. The Merlot is one of South Africa's best, with the scent with herbs and dark chocolate and the flavour of sweet damsons. Dangerously easy to drink.
Middelvlei Pinotge 1991 (Superquinn, Lynch's Glanmire and other outlets, about £8.99)
South Africa's unique grape variety can produce wines which' seem strangely sweet and coarse to' outsiders, but this one is substantial without being overblown. A heavyweight, all the same it needs the Irish equivalent of Springbok stew.
Meerlust Rubicon 1991 (Verlings, some SuperValus and Superquinns, McCabes, Vineyard Galway and other outlets, about £12.99)
The flagship wine of a prestigious, 300 year old estate a Bordeaux style blend, pioneered by Italian wine maker Giorgio della Cia. Concentrated fruit, smoky cedar aromas, firm tannins and a very long finish. Impressive.
Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 (James Nicholson, £10.50 sterling)
A blockbuster Cabernet Sauvignon from top maker Gyles Webb, rich and deep with luscious hints of blackberries and mint. Smooth and seriously seductive stuff.
SPARKLING
Pongracz Cape Sparkling NV (SuperValu Deansgrange, Redmonds, Vintry, Green Acres Wexford and other outlets, £12.99)
From the Bergk elder, an institution which is both wine producer and umbrella body for a group of estates, this zesty Cape bubbly is light and appley without being astringent. File it away far imminent hat days.