In Conversation with Angus Paul

What makes your wines unique, and how does the terroir of the Western Cape influence their character?

In theory nothing, but also everything. Winemaker’s will always talk about doing as little as they can to do as much as possible to show the site. Lots of blah blah. They’re not lying, I suppose, but we all have definitions in that word salad. We’re all saying the same thing but there’s no regulation: what does minimal intervention mean? What’s elegant? What’s natural? It’s all too much. People actually describe some wines as feminine and masculine – can you imagine someone actually saying that with a straight face?? We all apparently ‘do nothing’ and let the grapes shine through, but then why do all our wines taste different? Mine taste different because I make them.

Yes, I’m doing so-called bugger-all in terms of manipulation (and I actually am, compared to most, there’s no irrigation, acidification or anything from a Laffort booklet (and even if there is, who cares?)), but even still there are nuances to my decision making that I’m not even aware of sometimes – what ripeness I deign best for that vineyard for that season, when I decide to cut the press juice, when I decide to rack the wine the first time etc. etc. and even if my colleagues are making incredibly similar decisions, there will always be that small difference, and over the one hundred steps of making a wine, these differences will compound and viola! you have an Angus Paul Wine – as ‘true to the site’ as possible, but also 100% absolutely under the sway of a (doef) human being.

Oh and the Western Cape? It’s got some nice granite.

How do you approach selecting varietals like Chenin Blanc, Cinsault, and Pinotage, and what do they bring to your wines?

APW is about South African wine heritage. I work with them because they are intrinsic to the South African wine landscape. I like to think that this project will be one that helps solidify some sort of South African identity to stand on its own and not just in comparison to another country. As far as selection goes, wine is wine, varietals have become so front and center recently. Had you been born into winemaking in Mosel one wouldn’t ask what grapes you’re making, you would just make the wine to the best of your abilities. I like to see it like that, that I have inherited these varietals by way of the ground I live on.

In terms of the grapes. These are a mixture of greater and lesser varieties. Chenin is magisterial within the grape world. It has power, although sometimes not quite enough freshness (in South Africa). Pinotage is a little broody, and a little chunky but has masses of character. Cinsault is the village having a great time, and like King Lear’s Fool, sometimes, on the right site, says something profound.

How is this year’s vintage shaping up, and what unique qualities do you think it will have?

Very nicely. Weather conditions are pretty ideal – dry and cool (ish). It’s a mediterranean climate here, so we don’t have such contrasting modes of summer, but it bears a mirror opposite to last year in some ways – early ripening varieties were quite late this year and yielding quite well. The Fat Lady is yet to sing, but short of disaster there will be some great wine in barrel, with lots of power. The stuff I’ve pressed this year all seems to have a lucious fruitiness on the palate, much richer in that sense than some previous years, even at moderate alcohol levels.

What role do you believe South African wines play in the global wine industry, and how do you see it evolving?

Fine wine seems to be taking on a favouring toward the select and unique – I think that’s also been part of natural wine’s recent rise. As far as methodology goes it’s nothing new, but human’s will always want to collect, but now instead of high volume so-called ‘blue chip’ brands, the collectibility is zoning in on these area/vineyard specific wines. This seems to be a model young South African winemakers have aligned with, largely due to the cost of making big volumes of wine, but also because the intellectual curiosity resides there. There are many factors that make South Africa unique, and whether one can transcribe that into a wine so that a drinker in London can taste that is an ambitious answer to pen, but people want special things and South African wine can give you the unqiue, the opaque and even the weird if you want it.

Regarding evolution, I’d say South African winemakers need to get stuck in more. 

If someone is new to wine and wants to explore your collection, which wines would you recommend they start with, and why?

On A Flight of Furious Fancies Chenin blanc from Polkadraai Hills. It is my toughest nut. If you like that, you’ll like all the other stuff.

What’s the one piece of advice you would give to someone interested in entering the winemaking industry?

2 pieces.

1. Taste, taste and taste again and don’t pat yourself on the back when you think you’ve tasted enough. Spend every last penny you can spare. Know exactly what you like, what you want to make, and even then keep learning. Become a student of flavour.

2. Get out & travel. Work for people whose wines you love or at least make wine in the way that interests you. Not just the first job that comes around in a foreign place, or the first one a friend hooks you up with. Find people you want to learn from and become their student. This is probably the only thing more useful than tasting.

What’s a personal passion or hobby outside of winemaking that helps you stay inspired in your work?

Apart from staring at the ceiling, I like to read and write, which are much like tasting & making wine respectively. Only the tasting is much more abstract than reading & writing is more abstract than making wine. The venn diagram between writing & reading and tasting & making is quite revealing: in the center is simply ‘trust that you’ve developed your taste well enough. And by way of ‘trust’, assume that it needs severe improvement.’

Is there a specific wine or vintage that you’re especially proud of, and why does it hold such significance for you?

2020. The first one, for that reason. It’s definitely the weakest wines I’ve made and my god would I do it differently, but that’s immaterial. I made the leap, one I’d planned for ages, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but I didn’t screw it up completely and there was something halfway decent to bottle in the end. But, that said, the successes are banal. To come face to face with your own decision making and to see how fragile it is, how prone to error is a truly humbling experience. Perhaps I’d overestimated myself before then, but in that year I quickly realised how unforgiving your own doubt could be.

I think in the Southern Hemisphere we’re blessed to have our vintage coincide so directly with the measurements of the solar year: harvest is launched after New Years and by December we are bottling. It provides a pleasing mapping onto every year I live since starting APW; I can think in terms of the wines I’ve made – unsurprisingly, good years and good wines frequently have little correlation… perhaps I am out of sync with the universe, who knows.

2025 is the best one, for that reason I’m least proud of it.

What are the most challenging aspects of winemaking that you face, and how do you overcome them?

Winemaking is logistics, one must simply be organised. Vineyards are the same, but a bit more expensive. The nuts and bolts are easy enough. The calibre comes down to the fine details which frequently dissolve into, once again, having faith in your judgement, so crucially so that they override (almost) the former requirements of logistics. There are many many people out there who can out-organise me. I like to think there is a smaller number whose judgement on my wines is better than mine… but who knows?

Another difficulty is that someone has to run a business. In this case I run my own. I’m not very good that, so it’s not that easy.

How do you see the future of the wine industry, both locally and globally, and what trends are you most excited about?

If I wrote a book it might explain one possibility. But, in a snapshot, I’d guess it’s going to contract a lot. There’s a real reckoning that must happen – wine is so poor and so cheap generally, it would strike me as something of a punishment deserved. Not from maliciousness, but negligence. There are historical factors ad nasuem that are to blame. There is a poor economy and lack of government assistance right now. 

Conversely to this, wine quality will continue rising. Viticulture, at the ‘top end’ will sky rocket, as it has been already. Less wine, but more good wine I think. I can live with that. The dawn of the fine wine buyer in South Africa is just beginning.

What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned from your experiences in winemaking?

Learn to be able to take criticism, learn from it and move on. Especially from yourself. If you’re serious, you’re going to get a lot of it and it’ll make you invincible.