Beijing is a beautiful city in spring. Sky blue and balmy days. At night the skyline is like a fairground.

We continue this week with more about Stellekaya wines from South Africa.

Ntsiki Biyela, the country’s first black woman winemaker who joined Stellekaya in 2004, is especially good with blended wines. Orion, the flagship red discussed last week, is a Bordeaux blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. Even though it is rare in China this is a wine worth pursuing.

The nose on the 2006 Orion offers an almost bitumen-like aroma combined with intense flavours of cassis. The tannins are soft and the wine has wondrous length.

This week we consider another 2006 edition, the Cape Cross – an unusual blend of merlot, pinotage and cabernet sauvignon. It is common in Bordeaux in France to blend merlot and cabernet sauvignon, but the addition of pinotage is rare. The pinotage grape grows well in South Africa. It adds body and depth to Bordeaux styles of wine.

The 2006 Cape Cross is serene and stately, with an elegant nose of vanilla and spice, the result of 22 months in new oak. It has good structure and is black cherry in colour.

The flavours cascade like a madrigal on the tongue, offering a range of sensations, and the tannins are soft and slightly chewy. It would match a traditional meat dish like steak or casserole. This is a wine to savour over the next decade but is approachable now.

The 2007 Boschetto is another blend: 40 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 40 per cent merlot, with 10 per cent each of shiraz and sangiovese. It is more rustic than the Cape Cross and would be more suited to simple meat dishes like kebabs.

The third wine received for review was the 2006 cabernet sauvignon. As with most Stellekaya wines it has high alcohol, the result of ripe grapes. The 14.5 per cent of alcohol is obvious from the long “legs” that appear on the glass when the wine is swirled. These “legs” take time to slide down the side of the glass back into the wine, often an indication of high alchohol.

The 2006 cabernet sauvignon has an image of Scorpius, the giant red constellation, on the label. Scorpius is the brightest star in the sky at night.

It would be nice to say that this cabernet sauvignon is a star in the making, but that would be too fanciful. It is best described as a minor chord in the winemaking firmament. It starts powerfully with aromas of strawberry and hints of blackberry, and feels like the kind of wine that would throw a maiden over its shoulder and carry her off.

In the mouth it is sweet initially but slightly harsh tannins lessen its appeal. When matched with strong meat dishes it found its natural partner and suggested a good marriage. Overall the flavours did not linger and the palate fell short.

Prices for Stellekaya wines were not available as we went to press.

* “More on the stellar qualities of Stellekaya blends” in China Daily, 23 April 2011, page 12. Find a link here.

When Ntsiki Biyela joined Stellekaya vineyard as junior winemaker in 2004 she became South Africa’s first black woman winemaker.

Stellekaya means “home of the stars” – a combination of stella, the Italian word for stars, and kaya, an African word for home. Over time Ntsiki Biyela’s wines received increasingly fine reviews and she has evolved into one of the stars of South African winemaking. In 2009 the agricultural weekly Landbou Weekblad named her woman winemaker of the year.

Before Ntsiki Biyela got a bachelor’s degree in oenology at Stellenbosch University her only previous experience with alcoholic drinks was brewing beer from corn in her native region of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Stellekaya specialises in red wines and makes about 10,000 cases a year from cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, shiraz, pinotage and sangiovese. Vines are relatively young: Stellekaya planted 15 hectares in 2005 and supplements its output by buying grapes from neighboring estates.

The star theme continues with the wines. Blended wines are named after various constellations such as Cape Cross, Orion and Hercules.

Cape Cross is a blend of merlot, pinotage and cabernet sauvignon. Orion, the flagship red, is a Bordeaux blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. Hercules is made of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

The 2005 and 2006 Orion arrived for review. The cork in the 2005 crumbled as I removed it, and the wine was dead. But the suppliers provided a second bottle. It took a while to show its talents, but this is a wine to savour and appreciate. The nose offers a bitumen-like aroma combined with intense flavours of cassis. The tannins are soft and the wine has wondrous length. This is a wine worth pursuing even if relatively rare in China.

The 2006 edition was also impressive and smelled of ripe blackberries and cassis with hints of vanilla, spice and chocolate. The wine is big and imposing – partly because of the 14.5 per cent alcohol – and has an almost chewy mouthfeel. Yet the tannins are relatively soft (both wines spent about 20 months in new oak). This wine would be exceptional after five more years in the cellar.

Owner Dave Lello noted on the company’s web site that Stellekaya allows its grapes time to cool after harvest and then lets them go through a cold maceration for three to four days. Maceration is a way for the squeezed juice to extract maximum flavours from the grape skins and other materials.

Stellekaya uses a wooden basket press – an acknowledged way to get the best grape juice – and matures its wines in French oak barriques (the traditional size barrel of 225 litres). Most of the wines are matured for 12 to 22 months and then spend a few months in the bottle before being released.

I also tried Stellekaya’s 2007 shiraz and merlot. The shiraz came from ripe grapes and the berry flavours made it taste sweet. My friend who tasted the wine described it as Heathcliffian – suggesting the wine was dark and brooding like the character in Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights. This is a wine that exudes intense flavours and yet is succulent and inviting while young.

The merlot was similarly black red in colour, also high in alcohol at 14.5 per cent, and full of promise. Prices were not available at the time of writing.

* “S. African reds show promise of star quality” in China Daily, 16 April 2011, page 12. Find a link here.

Riesling is one of the world’s classic white grape varieties. Yet it has been ignored of late in favor of sauvignon blanc and chardonnay.

I have no quarrel with chardonnay, which produces some of the world’s great poetic wines in France as Chablis, and manifests as a wonderful evocation of terroir in places like the United States and Australia.

Sauvignon blanc is another matter. At its best it has some character, as in the wines of Sancerre in France, with aromas of pineapple and mango if ripe, and lemon and lime in less sunny regions.

But at its worst it smells of cat’s urine and newly-mown grass. This latter manifestation tends to come from parts of New Zealand where mass production of grape juice gets precedence over quality and flavor.

Riesling, sad to say, went out of fashion as people embraced sauvignon blanc – probably because of the power of the marketing machine over human intelligence and taste. But Riesling should not be ignored because it is a true classic.

As a young wine, Riesling is fresh and vibrant and partners beautifully with seafood. It offers aromas and flavors that range from citrus to floral.

But it is best consumed with half a decade of bottle age. Over time the wine changes color from pale green to yellow and gold. Flavors and aromas also change. This is one of the magical qualities of Riesling: while young it is acidic and light but with age it produces the most wonderful aromas of honey and toast. It also offers an aroma of what the cognoscenti call “kerosene” though this is more a reflection of the intensity of the previously mentioned aromas.

Peter Flewellyn, winemaker from the Pettavel winery in Geelong in Victoria, provided a review example of aged riesling from the Geelong region: the 2007 Sandbar Estate. This is a new label for China. Chinese wine drinkers tend to prefer red wine over white by a factor of nine to one. But they should consider riesling because of its intense flavors and the fact it would partner so well with a range of Chinese dishes.

Sandbar Estate produces wine from premium grapes from selected vineyards around Victoria. Winemaker Flewellyn said the Sandbar Estate range consistently “over delivered in terms of wine quality and value”.

By accident I left an opened bottle of Sandbar riesling in my cupboard for more than a week. Yet it was still fresh and full of flavour. The same could not be said for a range of other wines that had also been abandoned for week.

Flewellyn also offered for review a bottle of 2006 Angustum shiraz viognier from the Geelong region. Some critics are suggesting that Australia’s best red wines will come from a blend of shiraz and viognier. Hence the interest in producing this type of wine.

Ralph Kyte-Powell, wine scribe for the prestigious The Age newspaper in Melbourne, believes the Clonakilla shiraz-viognier blend from the Canberra region is one of the best in the country.

This could explain why Flewellyn has crafted this elegant wine. The blackberry flavors of very ripe shiraz merge elegantly with the perfume and soft velvety textures of the viognier. The Angustum shiraz viognier can be enjoyed now or cellared for half a decade. In the latter case you would enjoy increased complexity and softer tannins.

In either situation, the consumer is the winner through this new range of wines. Prices were not available as we went to press.

* “Time Rieslings occupied pride of place on the table” in China Daily, 9 April 2011, page 12. Find a link here.