What is her message to those who recommend, specify or buy wine? “South Africa can deliver amazing wines in a huge variety of styles. We have our hooks in Chenin Blanc and Pinotage but we can make everything from cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc to world-class Chardonnay, to incredible white blends. On the reds you have classic Cabernets to crunchy, light Cinsaults, Mediterranean varieties, Pinot Noir, the list goes on.
“Our regions too, have strong identities, be it the heartlands of Stel-lenbosch, the reinvented Swartland, cool Elgin, Constantia, or the up-and-coming areas such as Breedekloof. We are full of stories, full of ways to talk to your customers – if ever there were wines with personality they are South African,” says Thompson.
Atkin concludes: “This is my seventh report about South African wine. It is by far the longest I have published, based on a lot of tasting, travelling and hard work.
“Why do I put in the long hours? The answer is because the wines, the places and especially the people, inspire me. There’s something happening in South Africa that is unique in the wine world. Call it energy, call it creativity, call it optimism, call it all three. But it’s apparent to anyone who visits the Cape. The good thing is that there is so much more to come.
“As Eben Sadie told me one lunchtime in the Swartland: ‘We are just warming up, we’re just pulling our spikes on. The real race hasn’t even begun. Just you watch what we can achieve.’”
Wosa’s Gous concluded her presentation at Cape 2018 using words from one of South Africa’s official languages, ‘hunnuwa, which means ‘good fortune, living in harmony, respecting community and protecting the environment’, and ‘Ubuntu’, which means ‘humanity, we are what we are’.
So, hunnuwa and ubuntu.
