Beck story

Pieter Ferreira, cellarmaster at Graham Beck Wines in South Africa, was in town last week, and I dropped by Cambridge Wine & Spirits to taste with him. The affable Ferreira is responsible for producing around 200,000 cases a year from the Beck properties. I was particularly interested in meeting him because I wanted him to address what I've begun to think of as my South Africa Question.

It isn't a political issue. The question has to do with the source of a characteristic -- and for me definitive -- flavor profile of many South African wines. It's something I think of and have described in print as a "smoky-gamy" note. It appears in red as well as white wines, and while prevalent, isn't obligatory. It's a quality I have never encountered, for example, in the pinots and chardonnays from Hamilton-Russell Vineyards in the Walker Bay region, or in the spine-tingling chenin blancs of Bruwer Raats.

Ferreira was engaging on the subject. He pointed me to this story about a study conducted by the South Africans to try to determine how widespread the perception of these flavors is among wine drinkers and whether they consider it a fault, per se (I never have). Apparently the South Africans don't yet know what the source is; the composition of the soils perhaps, or some benign indigenous bacterium

We tasted through the Beck portfolio. The wines impress me as offering good value across the board, but the stars of the lineup continue to be Ferreira's sparkling wines, which at the price (around $18) are super appealing.

Hey, they don't call him Bubbles for nothing.