Launches: Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique

Ann Ferreria on reaching higher with South African sparkling wine

The mission at Six Atmospheres has always been to cover the wide world of sparkling wine as even-handedly possible. Uniqueness is what’s interesting in wine, and spotting uniqueness requires perspective.

Champagne is always going to be the urtext, the starting point, the place that isn’t trying to prove itself. I don’t think the sparkling winemakers of Italy, England or indeed South Africa make any bones about their debt to Champagne, either. That Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier isn’t getting a second fermentation in bottle by accident, after all. There’s a guidebook.

Drinking the sparkling wines of the world is something best done on their own terms, though. Some understanding of where they came from, what they are trying to do (and what they aren’t) is always going to help; when faced with a champagne bottle shape, a foil and a pop, it can be hard to to de-programme the instinct to place the wine in the context of Champagne, rather in the context of its actual home, its ground, its climate, its neighbouring wines.

What you find can be unique. And what you don’t can remind you of the uniqueness of others.

Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique : three new wines reach the UK.

Pieter ‘Mr. Bubbles’ Ferreira, the winemaker behind South Africa’s best-known sparkling wine producer, Graham Beck, is hard to miss. Except I did; by the time I met Mrs. Bubbles, Ann Ferreira, in London to taste through the latest releases from their own project, Pieter was already on his way back to South Africa after what can only be described as a miscommunication with our friends in Champagne (a story for another day, perhaps).

Pieter’s name may be on the label, and his work inside the bottle, but Ann’s is the one you’ll find the dotted lines. Wife-and-husband teams are always intriguing in the world of wine; in other realms the old adages about mixing business and family hold true, but, whether in Champagne or elsewhere, there seem to plenty of producers tango-ing à deux (although I’m still waiting to meet the winemaker-wife and front-of-house husband). Making bubbles has to be close to the jackpot when it comes to outlets for spousal entrepreneurship, though. What better to grease the cogs?

MCC - ‘Méthode Cap Classique’

South Africa is perhaps the only country outside Europe to have put together a concerted, cohesive and widely-used appellation for traditional method sparkling wines. ‘Méthode Cap Classique’ (or MCC) wines celebrated their fiftieth birthday in 2021, and whilst the term may not spark immediate recognition amongst wine shoppers on foreign shores, exports now account for approximately one quarter of all sales. The UK is destination number one, claiming 61% of total exports by value.

Pieter Ferreira is responsible for a fair chunk of those sixty thousand-odd cases in the form of Graham Beck Brut. In the USA the picture is the same, with Graham Beck accounting for 96% of all South African sparkling wine sold. Ann, though, feels that the sector needs strength in unity. “It's much easier if you've got allies doing it with you, travelling with you and talking the same story”. Her allies, from UK specialists and importers Rakq Wines, nod along. Rakq now represent four Cap Classique producers - still a case of toes-in-the-water, but together with others such as Museum Wines and Carina, a broader offer than ever before.

Pathfinding

Production at Pieter Ferreira runs to only seven and a half thousand bottles per year. Compared with the sort of numbers Graham Beck does in the UK this is barely a droplet, but these wines do just what South Africa needs to do; climb higher, drive some stakes into the rock face and establish a path for others to follow. “We need to charge more for our wines. We can’t continue to be on the bottom shelf - it’s a big challenge”, Ferreira explains. “There are too many wines going out at five pounds with a ‘Fairtrade’ sticker on, and it does nothing for the sustainability of the sector, nothing for the brand category.” With South Africa’s more ambitious still wines finally carving out a well-deserved spot on the higher shelves, the fizz is next in line.

We tasted three wines, all currently on sale via Rakq. With the UK joining South Africa in the international currency doldrums at the moment, these are some of the only sparkling wines in the UK whose prices don’t look like they’re either doing a runner, or thinking about one. The blanc de blancs (£40) and rosé (also £40) shone in particular, the former reminding me a little of some very good Northern Italian Chardonnay with its taming of ripeness with precision, the rosé a deft and fragrant Pinot success. Some of the most impressive South African sparklers I’ve encountered to date.

Ann Ferreira bringing some Southern Hemisphere sunshine to 67 Pall Mall

Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique Blanc de Blancs 2016

100% Chardonnay from Robertson, with six years on lees and six months post-disgorgement age. Almost all stainless steel, with a very small (single digit) amount of oak fermentation in pièces champenoises.

This channels succulent, ripe fruit into a body with enough focus and direction to keep the refreshment value up. Quite decadent on the nose, all lemon/grapefruit peel and sweet apricot, enriched with praline and a little butterscotch. There’s delicacy though, some magnolia-like perfume, a pleasingly narrow, focused delivery of soft, cushioned bubbles that tightens up the natural generosity of the fruit. Immediate and pleasurable, but not at all obvious. 93

Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique Extra Brut 2017

70% Chardonnay from Roberson and Napier, with 30% Pinot Noir from Stellenbosch. May 2022 disgorgement.

The Pinot jumps out with a sweet, autumnal fragrance of blackberry and spiced red apple. There are a few layers to unpick, both a creamy almond and meringue approachability and some intensity from toasted sourdough and tangy citrus on the close, which carries a touch of food-friendly grip. Some real light and shade next to the the pure sunshine of the Blanc de Blancs. 90

Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique Rosé 2015

100% Pinot Noir from Stellenbosch and Stanford

Made by a brief maceration for colour, this manages a pitch-perfect balance between extract and delicacy, just squeezing out a subtle snap of redcurrant seed intensity to tame the sweet, fragrant and charming fruit. Cherries, clementines and crabapples, pure and true, with just enough fresh nut richness and gentle pink grapefruit acidity. It still manages a certain ease and airiness in texture - not easy with 100% Pinot Noir. Just charming. 92