Well, I was on Santé duty last week, so I gave last Saturday’s wine column a miss, but I have great wine news today, which I hope will make up for the omission. It was my first Santé and I was naturally very curious and excited to attend both the International Wine Trade Tasting and the same event made public later in the evening.

I didn’t entertain hopes of tasting all the wines that were present (more than 300, d’oh!) but I was intent on working through the most interesting wineries in a nice and orderly fashion so as to gather a maximum number of impressions and still remain clear-headed by the end of the procedure. And, of course, I planned to devote particular attention to the wines of South Africa, special guest of this year’s Santé festival. I don’t expect that I would ever get there on my own so here was a perfect chance to learn the most about the world-famous South African wines in just a couple of hours.

My good intentions were dashed right in the beginning – when I came up to the 7th floor of magnificent Carlu and received one of the little notebooks for tasting-notes, with all the wineries listed in alphabetical order (not by country) AND without booth numbers. Of course this did turn the event into a kind of exciting wine treasure hunt, but I would rather have had less running around in circles searching for this or that winery (the effect was somewhat mitigated by the Fine Canadian Cheese tasting stand in the middle of the hall during the Trade tasting – nothing like a bit of aged cheddar or other noble cheese to sustain one during strenuous wine-tasting activities).

It was also pretty embarrassing to leaf through the notebook frenetically upon reaching an interesting winery unexpectedly (listing was rather erratic) in order be able to actually write some notes while tasting. By the end of the first hour the wine presenters had all learned their page number and just fired it off as soon as somebody came to them for tasting.

The other thing that detracted me from my plan to go straight for South Africa wines first was a stall with Taittinger (and a good thing it was right at the entrance because it was listed under C for Champagne!). I am not particularly fond of bubbly (even vintage French bubbly as it happens) but I had to try this and I must say that while their non-vintage Brut Reserve left me cold, their non-vintage Brut Prestige Rosé really impressed me with its fine salmon colour, exquisite aroma and seductive raspberry notes in the flavour. Still, a South African sparkling Graham Beck Brut Rosé I tried later was amazingly comparable in quality although a bit on a lighter side (but very vivid), which for me makes it even more preferable, not to mention a $50 difference in price! It is already on LCBO shelves – a perfect summer aperitif!

The same Graham Beck Wines company produces excellent Shiraz (they call it Syrah in the French manner for their top selection) and Shiraz blends (such as admirably warm, rich and spicy Railroad Red Shiraz-Cabernet at a bargain price of $12.35). By the way, I tasted a great many South African Shiraz wines during the event and can testify that most of them are very good – rich without being chewy, elegant without being thin, balance of spices and fruit perfect. I especially liked the magnificent Cirrus Syrah 2004 (with a slight addition of white Viognier in the best Côte-du-Rhône style) of Engelbrecht-Els winery.

Many other red blends were pretty impressive too. I was completely swept off my feet by Hannibal 2004 of Bouchard Finlayson, a unique blend of Pinot Noir and Sangiovese (think Burgundy meets Chianti!) of incredible finesse, complexity and power. Yes, Peter Finlayson is currently my favourite South African wine-maker. His beautiful varietal Pinot Noir Galpin Peak 2005 is worth the considerable money too (up to $40 or even more) – I should say every penny of it. But there were also simple BBQ blends like fruity Kumala Merlot Pinotage 2006 (under $10!) to discover.

And I even found another of the rare rosés I do enjoy: Delheim Pinotage Rosé 2006, already in store for the very adequate sum of $13.15, combining freshness and ripe red currants and strawberries in its bouquet. Pinotage wines, especially rosés, are pretty rare outside South Africa, seeing as Pinotage is a South African hybrid of Pinot Noir and Cinsault that was created in 1927, so everyone should profit from this occasion and have a try!

As for the white wines I liked almost every South African Sauvignon Blanc I tasted, but I especially preferred Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2006 that will hit the shelves in autumn (in the meanwhile you could try 2005) for a particular limpidity of bouquet and vividness. The intense lemon-grass flavour was fairly typical for almost all South African Sauvignons I tasted at the event but here it was enhanced by a subtle minerality that made it more harmonious and outstanding than those of other wineries. There was also a lovely Maverick Chenin Blanc 2005 of Bellingham – an enchanting rich round wine with hints of dried apricots and honey in the bouquet ($20.95). I also tasted a lot of interesting white blends full of flavour, such as Lammershoek White Roulette (its Red Roulette blend is pretty impressive, too) and Bouchard Finlayson Blanc de Mer. I can only hope that we will see them on LCBO shelves before long – it will be a treat!

Many thanks for Santé organizers for this experience (but do let’s hope that next year they could organize some simple map for navigating the wine stalls – a heart-felt plea!) and especially for Steve Thurlow and his individual wine and travel seminar on wines of South Africa that I enjoyed very much. And I have still lots of info to share on other wines I tasted at the event, such as a fabulous selection from Greece etc.. Actually I have stocked enough tasting-notes to last me for a couple of months, so I won’t be saying good-buy to Santé wine impressions for quite a while!