The Business of Wine
“Not the wine business, but the business of wine as I like to call it.” - Johann Krige
I meet Johann Krige on the first Friday I’m allowed to meet him after lockdown. The freedom of driving one’s car to the winelands, on a Friday (a day we’re still unable to deliver wine) seems almost illicit. After the first three weeks of lockdown I had to jump my car for lack of moving, I relish the freedom of a previous life, visor and mask in hand. It’s strange, what’s the mask protocol in an interview these days? I find masks FASCINATING. The variety of it, the surgical ones, the buffs, the patterned ones, the ones that seem too small, or too big, I saw an old lady with a beautifully knitted one the other day, an absolute FEAT in needlepoint, families wearing masks made from the same material like the Von Trapps … there’s something about a mask, it says something about you. It makes sense that Johann wears a visor. As he says of pandemics, business and struggles - you MANAGE IT.
4th Generation
Johann Krige is 4th generation Kanonkop. A feat in itself given that he says family businesses usually follow the trajectory - the 1st generation makes the money, the 2nd generation spends it and the 3rd generation USUALLY liquidates it. It comes back to the whole concept of the ‘Business of Wine’ and the fact that in the whole of their 4 generations, the Sauers and Kriges never had a winemaker in the family, thus their concern has always been an overarching one, not merely focussed on just one aspect of the business, but its entirety. “I will go to war for my people, I’ll go to war.” he says, emphatically. It’s not only up to the winemakers, but the viticulturists, the gardeners, the bottling line guy, the marketing people, the finance guy, they all have an enormous role to play in the bigger picture of Kanonkop. Though, if we’re talking winemakers, they’ve had a few good ones - Oom Jan Boland, Beyers Truter and now Abrie Beeslaar. I ask him what are the overarching traits he looks for in Kanonkop people, he says every role is different, that he’d be worried if the finance guy had a sense of humour, but that, when it comes to winemakers he looks for the following: 1. A chemical background. 2. They have to like good food. 3. They’re just a little ‘ondeund / stout’. (They’re just a little naughty.) Which I think is the very reason I started doing this series, that story tellers spirit that usually belies a great heart (Johnny Clegg, forgive me).
Strategist
Johann strikes me as a strategist. Not easily rattled, nor surprised, and above everything, PREPARED. As is my custom I ask him what the defining milestones in his career were. The first, was the realisation, on a Saturday afternoon in 1981 during a think tank session between Johann, his brother Paul, their parents, and Beyers Truter (he had only been there for 3 months) that they had to specialise in red wine. It was a terroir decision really, but up until then they had been making a ‘fruit salad’ of wines including Rhine Riesling, Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir - all varietals badly suited to the terroir. From that day Kanonkop made red wine only, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and possibly Petit Verdot, but only with an eye toward blending). The second, involved further utilising his business school logic. Johann made a strategic intervention that was to put Kanonkop in good stead for years to come. Having studied Bordeaux’s En Primeur initiative, in which Bordeaux producers sell wines, still in barrel, a number of years before bottling at an advantageous price (the end consumer not having a precise idea on the outcome of the wine yet), Johann put the idea into practice in Africa, for the 1986 vintage selling at R7.20 a bottle - BARGAIN. At that time the General Sales Tax stipulated that the tax on said goods was only payable on the day of delivery, two years later, giving Krige an immediate windfall which allowed him to build toward a future.
Crisis Management
It is THIS kind of thinking that comes in handy during a crisis. NOT just a pandemic. During the economic downturn in 2009, Kanonkop expanded their cellar, and because red wine has a bit of a lag (you know, in the barrel), two years later, when the market was on its feet again, they were ready to deal with the renewed demand. Droughts, winds, fires (The fax machine started a fire in the office behind the tasting room, and due to the damage it cause, the tasting room had to be renovated… but looks much the same now as before.) - they’re all merely seen as circumstances that one NAVIGATES. Johann says you hedge your bets, he sells 60% of Kanonkop wine locally, and 40% abroad, be it Asia or Europe. If the times are bad here, then he makes it up there, and vice a versa, nothing to get upset about. Similarly, he’s meting out this very crisis to ascertain its opportunities, of which there will definitely be some, and I look forward to his assessment and subsequent action - granted we may only see the results in a few years time. Remember, there’s no quick fix in wine, especially red wine.
Pinotage
When I tell him I don’t like Pinotage, he doesn’t flinch. Though he does quietly fire back with a “there’s so much ignorance when it comes to Pinotage.” You know, Pinotage is only 40 years old. If you drink a bad Bordeaux, you don’t say you HATE Bordeaux or Cabernet Sauvignon. Bordeaux even has such a reputation that you may just chalk it down to your own inexperienced palate. Kanonkop does a lot for Pinotage, and I think it only fair that they stand to reap the grand benefit of it in years to come. There is a lot of hand-selling going on - both here and internationally. Johann teaches somms in Dubai about Pinotage and they in turn recommend it in fabulously expensive restaurants to people who marvel at the reasonable price of a ten year old Pinotage amongst what you can only imagine the international wine list pricing must look like. Kanonkop also releases their Pinotage again 10 years on, the wine benefitting from the time FABULOUSLY, and the more we learn about the treatment of the varietal, the more intriguing the vintages. I went out to buy a Kanonkop Pinotage after that … the next Monday, you know, as per Government regulation.
The Man
Of Paul Sauer. DID YOU KNOW he was responsible for the law stipulating that grocery stores should be able to sell wine, and only wine? How many times have you found yourself wandering around a grocery store wondering where they put the beer or gin? It’s not THERE, hence why TOPS and what-what. Paul Sauer the man was a great advocate for food and wine pairing, always insisting on a glass of wine with his meal. Though Johann says he only ever drank Tassenberg (for red), Angelica (for white) and Château Libertas (for fancy). He died only a year or so after Kanonkop actually started making wine sadly, I ask Johann what he’d make of Paul Sauer the wine and he says laughingly: “I think he’ll rise from the dead.” As well he should, his ears should be RINGING at the grand success of this Bordeaux blend. As a nod to him, on the back label it says it should be enjoyed with Spicy Asian-Style dishes - and we’d literally make a meal of it. The man himself would have recommended it. Of the 2017 vintage, and its place against the 100 point rating of the 2015 vintage - Johann says its subjective, but that we’d be lying if we said it didn’t have in impact on sales. The point BEING, if its so subjective, why not put on the white hat and judge for yourself, we’ve GOT the pre-release here. And if there’s one thing about Kanonkop wines, it’s their ageability, and by extension their stature as investment wines. South Africa’s most investment of investment wine, if one were to be THAT bold.
Then I ask him, ESPECIALLY in this time when everything I read in the newspaper makes me anxious, WHY DOES HE MAKE WINE IN SOUTH AFRICA? And he says: “Rather ask me why I don’t make wine in Australia or Bordeaux?” I ask and he says: “It would be too MONOTONOUS. I love the volatility and the energy of making wine in South Africa. I thrive on it.” He said a lot more, but that’s what I remember, its a choice this uncertainty we entertain.
May we MANAGE IT and thrive on it.
