Glen Carlou has listened to its customers

Change is a constant, in even the largest and most successful businesses, and often driven, as it should be, by taking the time to listen to the customer.

For Johan Erasmus, managing director of large and highly successful Simonsberg-Paarl winery Glen Carlou, it was the flight home from ProWein, the massive international wine trade show in Germany, that got him thinking that, despite their local and international success, awards and reputation, the time for change was in the air.

Glen Carlou was making up to 20 different wines, including some “side brands” seen only in international markets, but just four wines were delivering 75% of their sales volumes.

“Those side brands, like the petites (“junior” versions of their Grand Classique red blend and chardonnay) and the export brands, were distractions,” he said.

“We needed to listen to what our consumers were telling us — we kept trying to sell them sauvignon blanc, but they were telling us they wanted chardonnay.”

Chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon have long been the signatures of Glen Carlou.

The green label chardonnay and the cab-led Grand Classique blend are, for example, the winery’s biggest sellers in the key US market, despite its offering of other, export-only brands there.

So, listening to its customers was what Glen Carlou had done, pruning the “distractions” and returning to its chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon roots, enabling winemaker Johnnie Calitz and viticulturist Marius Cloete to focus on six or seven wines, and making them really well, Erasmus said.

Glen Carlou positions its flagship single-vineyard wines as “leading our wine conversation” — Quartz Stone Chardonnay and Gravel Quarry Cabernet Sauvignon, both naturally-fermented and named for their distinctive vineyard soils.

Both the green label Chardonnay 2023 (±R180) and the Quartz Stone 2022 (±R420) are barrel fermented and matured, and both exhibit distinctive citrus qualities, but the key distinction is that while the green label shows crisp, fresh lemony zest, the Quartz Stone hallmark is “aged citrus” like marmalade, preserved peel and roasted orange.

The green label was recently the only SA chardonnay to make the top 10 of the international Chardonnay du Monde competition in France, just reward for a generous, elegant wine with layers of complexity, satin-smooth texture and soft oak influence.

Quartz Stone, meanwhile, is rich and ripe with buttery and spice notes, a touch of minerality from the quartz stone, balancing fresh citrus with deep marmalade and roasted citrus — a sublime chardonnay.

On the cabernet side, the 2022 (great value for a Cab at ±R190) is relatively light and fresh rather than a hot ‘n heavy over-extracted red, drinkable year-round with clean, pure ripe fruit layered with mint and dark chocolate, silky tannins (no furriness!) and lively acidity keeping it vibrant.

Gravel Quarry Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 (±R520) is powerful, polished and concentrated, showing immense ageing potential — juicy freshness balances with depth of flavour in classic blackcurrant and dark, ripe berries, touches of mint, chocolate and oak spice.

A taste of the 2017 last week showed just how well this ages.

Grand Classique 2021 has to be one of the best value full Bordeaux blends around, at under R250.

Always cab-led, followed by merlot and the other Bordeaux grapes “dancing along according to the nature of the vintage”, this just continues to evolve and tells new layers of its story in every sip. Incredibly generous, rich and ripe, just gorgeous.

Bordeaux varietals are grown not only for the Grand Classique, but a focused range of single varietal wines, of which Glen Carlou Merlot 2022 (±R170) is a must for the merlot-lover — dry, savoury old world style rather than a “tutti-frutti fruit basket”, fresh red berries play with herbal notes and a dusting of cocoa and cinnamon. Elegant and exceptional.