Half-Century - Not Out: Kanonkop 1973-2015

BY NEAL MARTIN |&nbsp;JUNE 27, 2023Earlier
this year, fourth-generation co-proprietor Johann Krige and winemaker Abrie
Beeslaar flew over to London for a special tasting of Kanonkop wines to
celebrate fifty years since their first bottled release. Of course, South
Africa was a very different country back in those days, cut off from the rest
of the world behind anti-apartheid sanctions. Consequently, its wines, then almost
exclusively under government control, were entirely for domestic consumption.
Kanonkop’s decision to bottle their own wine was uncommon in those days, not
dissimilar to how Burgundy producers extricated themselves from selling their
fruit to négociants and the resistance they had to endure. I had always wanted
to taste a venerable vintage of this Stellenbosch stalwart - a constant through
decades of tumultuous change. This was a unique chance to taste their maiden
vintage. Before the wines were poured, Krige and Beeslaar presented a brief
overview summarized below.

“In
1903, the Sauer family bought Uitkyk farm,” Krige explains in a brief recap
(for readers wondering how to pronounce that name, think “oat cake”). Krige is a captivating orator, his
audience hanging on every word enunciated in a thick Cape accent. A bit
like winemaker Adi Badenhorst, he’s not averse to the odd controversial comment
to spice things up, always with a wink in his eye. “The farm was eventually
sold, but the family kept one part with favored terroir. The winery was built
in 1942, with nothing much more than a wooden container and little surrounding
it apart from wild brambles. Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee was appointed the first
winemaker in 1968. My father and Boland started bottling in 1973: Pinotage and
Cabernet Sauvignon. [Winemaker] Beyers Truter started in 1980, and the
following year, the maiden Paul Sauer cuvée was released. In 1991, we won the
IWSC Trophy, which was a big moment, and people started taking notice after
sanctions were lifted. In 2002, Abrie Beeslaar was appointed winemaker.”<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1687805902058-kanonkop+krige+beeslaar+%281%29.jpg">Johann Krige (left), together with his brother Paul Krige, co-owns Kanonkop with head winemaker Abrie Beeslaar (right).

Krige
hands the baton to Beeslaar, who is more quietly-spoken than his boss. I have
met him several times, both here and on the farm, a candid and principled
winemaker with a deep well of knowledge. Surely, he must have felt some
trepidation carving his own niche, following in the footsteps of two
long-serving figures?

“I
didn’t feel that I had to ‘win’ anything,” he answers. “It was more a case of
refining what Jan Boland had done over the last 40 years.”

He then
fields several questions about the Kanonkop vineyard.

“Our farming
practices are part of the natural environment. For example, we use cover crops
to improve the carbon percentage in the soil to enhance moisture, planting rye
that grows quite high and also protects the bush vines against the wind. Some
parcels have been re-trellised to also offer wind protection. In the future, we
are refining pruning practices with an Italian company to extend the lifetime
of the vines. There is also ecological restoration and thinking about how the
farm looked a century ago when there was more grassland and natural forest.
[Beeslaar shows a black and white overhead photograph of the estate that shows
the swathes of woodland that once occupied the estate.] Guinea fowl used to
sleep in trees. They are natural predators that eat mealy bugs, so if you lose
the trees, you lose the predator. Sustainability is important. We are also
bringing more cattle onto the farm to enhance these efforts.”

The
discussion shifts to viticultural practices. “We use the C46 clone for the
Cabernet Sauvignon because we believe it is higher in quality. In terms of plantings,
Pinotage is mostly planted on the slopes where their roots go down four or five
meters. We would have had too much vigor if we had planted Cabernet on these
soils. There are around three weeks from véraison until ripening [shorter than
Bordeaux, where it’s usually at least a month, though that is shortening due to
earlier picking.] In January, we found the sugar accumulates very rapidly, and
so one can struggle to find phenolic ripeness. So, the question is, how do you
manage that, especially the Cabernet, which is affected by late-season rain and
excessive warmth.” Apropos high temperatures and consequential dryness, there
is a constant risk for wildfire. Kanonkop has not been spared. Back in 2000, they lost 15 hectares.

With
regard to winemaking, Beeslaar says that it is not a “white glove operation”,
even though he points out that they were the second property in South Africa to
introduce optical sorting. Kanonkop continues to practice twice-hourly
punchdowns by hand, and as Krige remarks, the winery is rudimentary and little
changed over four or five decades. Why change something that works? They still
use open-top vats to manage extraction as carefully as possible, separating
skins from the juice. “Pinotage has a very high nutrient content that creates
higher concentrations of yeasts, high pH and high malic acid content,” Beeslaar
explains. “It’s a challenging variety, but it is the most rewarding. As soon as
you think you know something, Pinotage pulls you down again. For aging, we use
Vicard barrels for Pinotage and Seguin Moreau for Cabernet Sauvignon, a medium-type
grain.”<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1687805930827-kanonkop+bottles+%281%29.jpg">The tasting
notes speak for themselves. The one takeaway from this tasting is that top-quality
Pinotage mandates time in bottle. For certain, there is a lot of average,
commercial Pinotage designed to be consumed young and too often that besmirches
the image of South Africa. Conversely, in the hands of winemakers that show it
respect, Pinotage can excel and astonish when given sufficient time in bottle.
It can be a bit sullen in its youth, but time seems to placate it as the
tannins polymerise, rewarding patience with enticing secondary aromas and flavors.
Likewise, Cabernet Sauvignon can age just as well in the Cape as anywhere else,
as proven by the 50-year-old that would surpass anything in Bordeaux in that
admittedly miserable growing season. 

It had
been a thoroughly entertaining and enlightening morning in the company of one
of Stellenbosch’s most thoroughbred estates. The wines had acquitted themselves
well, vindicating Krige’s steadfast approach, keeping it simple and yet assiduously
introducing subtle tweaks whenever deemed beneficial. Here’s to the next
half-century. © 2023, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.<hr> You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/growing-up-n-getting-wiser-south-africa-in-2022-sep-2022">Growing Up ‘n Getting Wiser: South Africa in 2022</a>, Neal Martin, September 2022 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/back-in-black-kanonkop-black-label-pinotage-2006-2019-aug-2022">Back In Black: Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage 2006-2019</a>, Neal Martin, August 2022 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/south-africa-2021-new-releases-from-the-cape-nov-2021">South Africa: 2021 New Releases from the Cape,</a>&nbsp;Neal Martin, November 30, 2021

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