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| Jonty Rhodes with Stefan Gerber at Hotel Sheraton,Delhi |
As the jovial and diplomatic South African High Commissioner, Mr. Francis Moloi put it, the three most well-known names in South Africa are Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Jonty Rhodes. Jonty may not be known for his non-violent protests against apartheid- he may not even be a Rhode Scholar, but his excellent acrobatic feats on the cricket field, besides three centuries each in the test and one day cricket made him a hero of cricket lovers throughout the world.
Building on this fame, he stepped into the wine barrel when he met Stefan Gerber, a young winemaker from the Stellenbosch University, when he retired from international cricket. He has a rather interesting role in the company in which he is a partner; he helps market wines for the 4-year old '10 Chapters wines'.
It is a testimonial to his popularity that 'many people we met in Mumbai and other places wanted us to put his name on the label,' says Stefan who is one of the youngest winemakers of South Africa, who got into wine consulting after college. Most people don't know that he has been consulting winemaker for an Indian winery for a few years.
York Winery in Maharashtra, where he has been involved from the beginning is getting ready for its first vintage to be released next year. 'Since my name will be on the bottle, I want to make sure that the wine is of good quality, despite the many problems we have had to go through with the grape growers,' says Stefan who travels every couple of months to India to supervise the wine evolution in the barrels.
South Africa in a Bottle
The company, is 'a virtual winery where we source wines from ten different regions of South Africa,' says Jonty who is also the brand ambassador for the company. A resident of Durban, which has a substantial Indian population, he finds the job very easy, as 'I love wine, I love South Africa and our wines and I love meeting people.'
10 Chapters is a story about ten South African regions which may not be technically the ten appellations of South Africa but each region has been selected for a red and a white wine. Then there are the blends, which denote the South African unity.
The regions selected by Jonty and Stefan are Stellenbosch, Swartland, Elephants River, North, Karoo, Breede River, Tulbagh, Paarl, Overberg and Cape Town. A firm believer in the South African terroir and its significance for growing specific grapes in specific regions (he believes Nashik may be a great table-growing region, but not necessarily for wine grapes), his company can offer a complete repertoire of South African wines.
Genesis of 10 Chapters
As a final year student at the Stellenbosch University, the young 21 year old Stefan worked on a project with 13 of his classmates. Rather than accepting things as they were, the group said, 'What if' to assemblage of wines from various wine regions and decided to create a wine that would denote South African identity and unity.
Stefan and his friends selected 221 wineries nationally and asked them to donate 3 bottles of their best red wine. All 663 bottles were poured into 2 barriques and aged for a few months before releasing the wine- which was South Africa in a Bottle. The wine caught the fancy of the media including CNN encouraging him to continue with the unity concept and the 10 Chapters was born.
Helping Jonty and Stefan select the wines is Dave Hughes, the well known South African Wine Master and a highly respected wine expert and a consultant who is their brand manager.
A New Chapter for UB
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| Wines from 10 Chapters tasted at the Dakshin Restaurant |
With a range of wines that include seductive Shiraz, Viognier, Pinotage and Sauvignon Blanc, UB has given a wake up call to the wine importers as well as the Indian wine producers. With some of the variants costing as little as Rs. 750 when purchased on a case basis in retail and most under Rs. 1400, the prices are quite attractive and affordable, a couple of them offering an excellent price-quality ratio.
Says Sanjay Roy, All India Marketing Head for UB wines, 'we wanted to source wines which have diverse flavours and character so that consumers drinking Indian wines may also find it attractive to switch over to our portfolio of imported wines.'
Gervino Blanc, Montestell Chardonnay, Montestell Pinotage, 10 Chapters Shiraz, and Gervino Rouge are a few of the labels that could become quite popular.
'I love Indian food and Indian people. I hope many of our Indian friends would have tasted our delicious wines by the time I come to India the next time,' said Jonty Rhodes as the parting shot.
Subhash Arora
October 25, 2008 |