Lammershoek, Cellar Foot, The underwater wine, Swartland, Coastal Region, South Africa 2013

Recommended by Julien Boulard

Maybe because I’m getting older, I increasingly like things with a simple style—be it decoration, fashion, art, food or wine. Simple wines can be as leisurely and pure as a Japanese rock garden. It’s a shame that nowadays the quality of wines are overly ‘standardised’, with beautifully simple and easy-drinking wines often being overlooked.

Last month, a student of mine specialising in importing South African wines gave me a bottle of red wine, which is exactly such a simple beauty. Though coming from a warm region (Swartland) and made using varieties known for producing high-alcohol wines (Carignan, Mourvèdre, Grenache), the 2013 vintage of this wine only has 12% alcohol. Clearly the winery harvested early, but the wine doesn’t have any green flavours. Discreet aromas of waxberry, hawthorn and boiled plum; refreshing acidity sets off by a small amount of bubbles; tannins are almost non-existent. This is clearly not a complex, strong and concentrated wine, but a straight-forward red that you don’t need to think too much about before drinking the next glass. Plus, it costs only around 200 RMB per bottle—what a bargain!

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