“An empty bottle of wine has much more worth than a full one because it means that there’s been an experience, there’s been a relationship.”
- Eben Sadie
One of the most remarkable capabilities of wine is the way it connects different emotional threads in your life. Every bottle you open captures a moment in time – it’s a photograph of the place you are, the people you’re with, the event you’re celebrating, the excitement or anxiety or jubilation of wherever you are in life at that moment.
For wine professionals, this affect is amplified. Because wine is such an important part of our lives, we tend to form emotional attachments to certain wines – specifically those which have captured some of our greatest moments. Those moments are encapsulated by whatever bottle (or bottles) of wine we happen to be drinking when they occur.
As I counted inventory at my restaurant this past month, I noticed I was down to my last case of Smiley V.2 Chenin Blanc. A terrible, foreboding sadness rushed over me. I had bought the last 10 cases of the V.2 in the country (for all I knew, the world). What we had left was all that I would ever have access to again.
This geeky, delicious, inspiring “friend” from South Africa has been with me through the ups and downs of two incredibly eventful years. As so much of my life has changed, the Smiley has been by my side – recording, capturing…sharing all of those memories. Both good and bad.
Selecting Wine
A question often posed to me is,
“How do you choose wines for the restaurant?”
One of the primary ways is by tasting wines with the many savvy wine vendor reps we have. Sometimes they bring me wines they are excited about. Sometimes I’ll ask for specific wines to try.
It was through a wine vendor that I discovered the Swartland region in South Africa. I asked one of my reps to bring me Chenin Blanc samples that I could pour by the glass. I taste “blind” so that I’m not affected by any of my preconceptions or opinions before evaluating the quality of the wine, meaning my rep will pour me a glass and won’t tell me the producer, vintage or region.
In this case I was looking for Chenin Blanc to pour by the glass. After trying 10 or 12 different wines, the one I liked the best happened to be from the Swartland (by the larger-than-life Adi Badenhorst).
Two weeks later and I’m at it again, this time searching for a tasty Grenache. Same scenario, same result. The wine I like the best is again from Swartland – the Momento Grenache by Marelise Niemann. Light bulbs. Something special was going on in this remote region and I was determined to get to the heart of it. Why was this region so much different than anything else in South Africa?
First, I had to look at what was going on in the rest of South Africa. In the post-apartheid era, South Africa looked to bolster their economy by producing popular (and more easily exported) varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from the more developed and renowned wine regions of Stellenbosch and Paarl. Though many producers made noteworthy wines, there were also a lot of uninteresting, mass-produced wines flooding export markets. High alcohol, heavily oaked, “New World Style” wines made up most of what we would see as buyers. While there is definitely a place for those, they didn’t always make for the most soulful contributions to wine lists. This wasn’t anything close to what I had been tasting from the Swartland.
The Swartland Wine Region in South Africa
About an hour north of Cape Town, Swartland was left largely abandoned with old and lesser known varietals like Tinta Barocca, Cinsault, Palomino and Semillon, as well the better known Grenache, Syrah and Chenin Blanc -- lots of Chenin Blanc. While Stellenbosch had become the standard bearer for South African wines, Swartland remained relatively undiscovered.
It wasn’t until the late 90’s/early 2000’s that Eben Sadie started to tap into the potential of the region. A first generation winemaker, Sadie came to the Swartland in 1997 and quickly realized its potential. His first vintage was released in 2000. He was soon followed by Adi Badenhorst and Chris and Andrea Mullineux. By 2010 there were a handful of super talented, hyper-dedicated winemakers who were taming the somewhat inhospitable climate and taking advantage of ancient soils and incredibly old vines to make absolutely world-class, terroir-driven wines.
Many of them banded together to form the Swartland Independent Producers association and created their own set of “laws” on how to make wine in a thoughtful, environmentally conscious and as a true expression of the Swartland. In effect, they decided to focus on craft rather than consumership, in a country which was doing largely the opposite.
Intrigued, I contacted all of my reps and asked to taste anything and everything they had from Swartland. I wasn’t disappointed with a single wine. I quickly decided to make Swartland the focus of our spring wine dinner. I had just about finalized my selections when one of my reps (thank you Scott Elder) suggested I take a look at a small, unique producer who was doing a Chenin Blanc that would be “right up my alley.” On February 13th, 2018, I tried Smiley V.2 Chenin Blanc for the first time.
It was something from wine-geek Heaven. 100% Chenin Blanc but a composite of three different wine making styles. The first batch was allowed to grow under flor yeast – which is how certain styles of Sherry are made as well as the delectable Vin Jaune wines from the Jura in France. This adds texture to the wine, as well as a certain “umami” or savory component. The next batch was put into barrel and left out in the wicked Swartland sun to cook, or maderize (as is done in the production of the fortified Portuguese wine, Madeira). This adds caramel, toffee and nut flavors to the wine, as well as helping to protect from oxidation or spoiling. The final batch is left on its skins for a period of time (aka “Orange” wine) which gives it an amber color and adds spice and tannin to the wine. All of those components (which are all from different vintages) are blended back together and topped off with a dose of “normal” Chenin Blanc. The result is a complex, savory, textural, delicious beast which perfectly walks the tightrope of freshness vs. oxidation.
Creating Connections Through Wine
I was in love after the first sip. The passion put into the wine came through in the glass. I’d never experienced that before. It took me on a long, ethereal journey. The food application was endless and even our chef, who frequently liked to point out that he did not like wine, asked me to order a case for his personal consumption. We used it in three separate courses during that dinner, including as a “Smiley Ice Cream” for dessert.
During the dinner, I posted pictures in real time on Instagram. I tagged many of the producers of the wines we had used. To my surprise, Ryan Mostert and Samantha Suddons, the couple behind Smiley, saw this and wrote to me. Not just the general platitudes of “thanks for using our wines, that’s really cool,” but to say, “Hey that’s really cool, we want to come meet you!”
Two months later, Ryan was on a plane to Rochester, NY to do a small, intimate dinner at our restaurant and to hang out with us for a night. The best way that I can describe Ryan is through anecdote. Two seconds after coming into the restaurant, he began making small talk with a random bar patron. In the course of five minutes they were best friends and the patron couldn’t leave without giving Ryan a hug. I have met very few people more passionate about life than Ryan. He is the sort of person who is so instantly inspiring that you will board a plane and follow anywhere — which is how I found myself in Swartland in November of that year.
Ryan had graciously invited me across the pond to attend the Swartland Heritage Festival with him. A three-day celebration (or possibly one-week, or possibly just all of time – I could never quite tell) of winemaking in the Swartland, people came from all over the world to taste wines, attend seminars, and go to Braai’s (South African BBQ’s, but dialed up to 11). He and Samantha took me all over the Swartland as well as Stellenbosch and Paarl.
Perhaps the best part of that trip, was the Smiley. I got to taste Smiley in every form. V.2, V.3, V.4. We tried Smiley “Especiale,” a yearly release of a specific batch. That years was their skin-contact Chenin. I got to see how Smiley was made. I tried “Sun” Smiley, and “Flor” Smiley, and “Rosé” Smiley. I truly loved them all and it was incredible to see what Ryan focused on and how he put them together.
I left Swartland having gained incredible knowledge and insight into the region (as well as being near death — those guys really know how to party). The passion and energy is something shared by all of the winemakers I had met there. From Ryan and Samantha, to Adi Badenhorst to Eben Sadie himself. What I realized is that the Swartland isn’t just a wine region. It’s a collective energy. You can feel it in the air. I came away incredibly inspired.
Looking back, I realized Smiley V.2 had captured all of the great moments from the past year and a half of my life – from the Swartland Dinner all the way to my epic trip to South Africa. It kept me connected to the joys I’d experienced, even as I struggled with personal loss. Our happy moments in life never seem to take the same hold as the tragic. I like to think as we get older and start losing things, we learn how to better appreciate the good parts of life. For me, wine has been able to help with that. It has served as a photograph for moments filled with happiness and laughter.
"When I see a bottle of Smiley, I see a photo album of happy memories."
Of All those joyous moments which helped get me through adversity. I see an old friend, sitting at the bar, waiting to share anecdotes and reminiscence about the past. At the end of the day I know it’s just wine. But as we get down to our last few bottles, I can’t help but feel as though I’m losing all of those moments. Like a part of my life will disappear into the abyss of memory. I’m not just running out of a stock of wine. I’m saying goodbye to a friend. I’m moving on to another chapter in my life. That is the great power of wine. It’s an experience. It’s a relationship. It’s a memory. It is so much more than “just” grape juice.
-Drew Tschappat