Dinner with the King of Chenin, Ken Forrester

Ken Forrester was in ebullient mood;  slightly exhausted, but enthused, energised and excited about the vintage that was happening around us, as we met at his small, but perfectly formed winery, and captivatingly beautiful house on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, back in mid March.

I was on a week’s visit to the glorious, and spectacular wine regions of South Africa, towards the end of harvest time, when the temperature was still kicking in at about 35 degrees, and the area had hit a high of 42 degrees Celsius, just 2 days before I touched down. I’ve met Ken many times in the UK; I’ve tasted and know his wines extremely well.  But I’d never visited him on his home turf – and that always makes a difference to a wine writer - you see the location; you smell the earth; you taste the wine in the barrels; you sense the passion behind the wines; and the strands of the story, the wines and the people all then weave together.

So, on an azure-skied, steamily hot Friday afternoon, I arrived at Ken Forrester Wines. The location is spectacular, with the majestic Heldeberg mountain in sharp delineation against the clarity and luminosity of the skies.  Locals were sitting on the terrace outside the winery shop, enjoying a glass of Chenin, and stocking up on wines for the weekend. Ken’s winery is housed in a stunningly-restored, yet  traditional Dutch colonial building, with dazzlingly white-washed walls, and breathtaking views.  The family home is nearby, classical, historic ,and beautifully appointed, thanks to the painstaking skills of Ken’s wife Teresa – above all, it’s a wonderful, welcoming environment with any number of Ken’s 8 dogs milling around for attention at any given time.

Ken was just helping his team to bring in the last of the grapes, at the end of what he was later to describe to me as a ‘spectacular vintage’. He’d been up since 4am, working with the Forrester team who were harvesting the grapes, and controlling the fermentation of the new wines. ‘Everything is hand-picked’ he told me ‘ It requires a monstrous effort, but it ensures that we get the best selection of fruit for our wines – no one hand picks bad fruit.’ There was a real sense of family and teamwork.

We wandered through the winery, where scents of new oak, sandalwood and the heady, yeasty aromas of fermenting grape juice, soaked the air. The barrels were bubbling and babbling – literally; I put my ear close to one of them and could hear the gentle, but regular, mesmeric cadence of little bubbles bursting at the top of the barrels as the grape juice and yeasts started to mingle and create their magic – a sing–song of oddly calming, almost melodic noise. Ken calls it ‘the Symphony of Fermentation’ – an apt description.

One of the most fascinating and rewarding things about life in wine, is the never-ending passion and pride that you experience in talking to people from all over the world, who have made wine their business. But it’s not just a business, it’s a life; these wines are their children.

Ken Forrester has been in this business since 1993, when he bought a then derelict farmhouse; factually, he’s been in this business far longer, since he used to work in hospitality and restaurants in Johannesburg . So he’s had more than a few years of making wine.  But the 2015 is special; very special. The excitement was almost palpable in his voice: ‘The white wine vintage especially is simply insane’ Ken told me. ‘It’s very, very unique, and I’ve never seen anything like it; I’m told it’s a bit like the 1974. We may see white wines that will rewrite the history books for the South African wine industry’.  We tasted some of the new vintage whites, currently bubbling away - fat, yeasty, cloudy, but, gloriously rich, concentrated flavours which will form components of the iconic Forrester FMC and Reserve Chenin wines at a later stage.

There’s a great deal of philosophy in the wine industry, as to the impact of climate variations, and weather patterns in any given vintage, and a lot of blame when things don’t turn out as expected. I’ve always loved Ken’s pragmatic and realistic approach to wine-making, and his respect for the greater god, which is Nature. His strategy is to go with what he is given, to accept varying conditions and to make the best of the cards that he is dealt. ‘You can’t forecast what’s going to happen at any point’ he tells me ‘ you can’t guard the vines, or individual vineyards all day, every day, against what the challenges of the weather may throw at them.’ In true cricketing terminology, he came up with a classic quote ‘nature can throw the balls down, and I’ll bat them, be they a Yorker or a full Toss’. Entrepreneurial spirit indeed!

The 2015 vintage is likely to be exceptional, largely due to vintage conditions. It threw a lot of winemakers’ planning out of the window with its capriciousness. Nature dictated a cold, wet winter, but with an unusually warm spell in August (their midwinter) followed by an Indian-like spring with early flowering. The odd pattern continued, with many grape varieties ready 2 weeks early, and the fruit intensity is viewed as phenomenal. ‘ We almost ran out of tanks as the grapes were maturing at different rates, but coming in so early’ Ken told me ‘ It’s all about Nature – she’s too smart for us to second guess her, we just need to be able to react to her decisions’. Wise words.

Ken Forrester is a true pioneer of Chenin blanc in South Africa – he happens to make other spectacularly good wines as well, but, when he purchased the derelict farm, in 1993, it was Chenin grapes that he found planted. At the time, Chenin blanc was known for its easy-drinking style, and was viewed as a cheaper, lower quality alternative to the more classic grape varieties. How times have changed… enlisting the support of friend and fellow winemaker Martin Meinert, he set about putting Chenin blanc firmly on the wine map. 19 years later, his wines are world famous and stand with pride on the world pedestal.

Back to our tasting… the Ken Forrester Petit Chenin 2014 was crisply delicious, with a bright, citrusy edge. As Ken said ‘if you don’t want a lesson in wine and want a great little wine, this is it’.  Moving on to the Ken Forrester Old Vines Chenin, we tasted the recently released 2014 vintage, which has a lovely elegance, and apricot-infused style, with a crisp bite. ‘This one just worked’ Ken told me, ‘it was a dream vintage’.

We moved on to the iconic Ken Forrester FMC 2012, the current vintage on the shelves, full of exotic, buxom pink grapefruit and lime marmalade fruit.

Then he opened a bottle of the Ken Forrester FMC 2013, nervy, stylish, still restrained, still a baby, but demonstrating depth and poise. The 2013 wasn’t the easiest of vintages, and is more European in style. It’s elegant, it has depth. That’s what Ken’s wines are about.  In one of his incisive, analogically-perfect quotes, and one of my favourites, he stated ‘ the biggest wines aren’t the best; any clown can make big wines. We need to makes wine that can play rugby and ballet dance’. Love it.

We tasted the other wines in the ‘Petit’ range – Ken Forrester Petit Rose 2014 is simple and fun; it’s pretty and lively and frivolous with gentle strawberry fruit; perfect on the terrace pre dinner.  One of the lessons of the day for me, was the match of Ken Forrester Petit Pinotage, with tomatoes. This Pinotage is soft, fruity, ripe, with a light edge and bags of spicy, blackberry and plum fruit. Ken extolled the virtues of it match with tomatoes and raced off to pick some glossy, fat, ruby red baby tomatoes from his garden, and made me taste them together. How right he was? I now pair this wine with pretty much any dish, with a tomato-infused sauce, especially Indian based ones.

Ken Forrester also happens to own a top notch restaurant, 96 Winery Road, which is just down the road from the winery. We wandered over there, together with his wife Teresa, and a couple of friends, to continue the vinous journey through his wines. The restaurant was packed; nestled amongst vineyards and in the shadow of the mountains, it’s a truly scenic spot, with top chefs producing delicious morsels using local and seasonal ingredients.

We began with a platter of signature starters – perfectly crisp, but achingly tender calamari; meltingly soft and fragrant Lourensford trout; and a pasture egg and maple bacon salad, the egg yolks at the perfect ‘runny’ stage, wobbling delightfully onto crisp leaves and sweetly crisp bacon.  The two FMCs we had tasted stood to the task magnificently, as did a voluptuous yet restrained Roussanne 2013, that Ken brought out.

96 Winery Road is famous for its steaks, with a great range of locally sourced meat – they also happen to make a mean prime beef gourmet burger.  With the succulence and depth of flavor of the steaks, it was time for the reds. First up was one of my favourites, The Renegade 2011, a dusky , voluptuous beauty, full of wild cherry, plum, licorice and spice flavours; a Rhone style blend of Shiraz and Grenache, it has a seductive softness.

Then the flagship red appeared; Ken may be known as the King of Chenin, but he seems to have mastered the art of a pretty outstanding red as well. Ken Forrester The Gypsy 2011 is majestic, deep, concentrated, and full of latent, brooding power and beguiling wiles. The name reflects the inherent, hedonistic ‘wildness’ of the wine, based once again on Ken’s love of Rhone grape varieties. Here Grenache dominates, rich, fruity and concentrated, supported by the darkly sensuous Syrah, and the intense and brooding Mourvedre.  It’s a symphony of power, richness and regalness. This one’s still a baby – leave it, if you can for a few years, and it will reward you with a sumptuously rich gift of seductive glory; however  if you can’t, it’s incredibly friendly in its youth, with its exuberant fruit, and welcoming ripeness. We also tasted the 2010, which was coming into its teenage years, and showing the precocious talent of developing youth, with its opulent violet, fresh truffle and  scented black fruit layers of depth. Wines over which to linger…

Which we did. We ended  on yet another high of highs, the sublime Forrester T Noble Late Harvest Chenin blanc 2011, a glistening, honey and candied orange- infused delight, with layer upon layer of unctuous, lusciously sweet, yet balanced flavours, with a delightfully fresh twist of lemon zestiness. Perfect with a perfectly set and spikily zesty lemon tart, and the sweetest, and fluffily light   lemon macaroons.

I wish I were back there. If you visit South Africa, they also have a wonderful guest house. If you’re not,  try the wines, enjoy the different styles, and admire the skill of this charismatic and entertaining pioneer , who had a vision and has created something quite spectacular.

By Angela Mount