The Two South African Wines Luvo Ntezo Always Recommends

For Luvo Ntezo, the Head Sommelier atOne&Only Cape Town不管多远,他旅行或多少yabo电竞投注of the world's most expensive wines he's tasted—there's no place like home. "Nothing tastes greater than the familiarity of home," he tells亚搏电竞食品和美酒。亚搏电竞“当我从家里品尝出租车时，它给了我土壤的细微差别，熟悉感。这不仅仅是南非葡萄酒，这不仅仅是一些大酒中的葡萄酒 - 这是我的身份，这是亚搏电竞我的家。它击中了我内心的正确笔记，这使我们的葡萄酒在我的其他地方都脱颖而出。”亚搏电竞

在一个和唯一的开普敦，葡萄酒名单中有85％是南非人 - 其余的15％是剩下的最好的亚搏电竞：香槟，新西兰苏维尼翁布兰克斯，纳帕·坎伯斯，俄勒冈黑比诺，俄勒冈黑比诺和阿根廷马尔贝克斯区域葡萄酒源于Ntezo亚搏电竞对冠军和加强南非人的深刻信念亚搏电竞industry.

"Let us focus on our identity as South African," he says. "Let theterroir决定我们可以生产的东西并将其推向市场，而不是相反 - 否则，如果我们相反，我们将生产人造葡萄酒。亚搏电竞我们根本不是波尔多。

他说：“我去波尔多品尝葡萄酒，当我回来时，我最大的概述是，亚搏电竞作为一个国家，我们不远，这与世界上一些最好的地区相距甚远。”“我们有terroir，我们已经拥有身份，充满激情，我们拥有土壤。当您品尝南非葡萄酒时，会有一种热情，这会有一颗心，但是让我亚搏电竞想一次又一次地购买葡萄酒的原因是，我们的葡萄酒纯净了水果，它们具有可及性。

"Whereas if you buy a Bordeaux 2015 Cab, they will tell you that this is a great wine, so you should buy it, keep it in the darkest corner of your cellar and forget about it for the next decade," he says. "We don't make wines for that. Our approach is wines shouldn't be an ornament to decorate your house and to massage your ego. Buy it, drink it, enjoy it—because it's made to be enjoyed with that accessible fruit. We don't over-oak, we don't use a lot of new wood. I think we make some of the most beautiful wines you can find—and they over-deliver. Twenty dollars will give you one of the most amazing wines from South Africa. We are passionate about what we do, we put our hearts in the soil."

Among Ntezo's most-recommended wines is anAbrie Beeslaar Pinotage。卢沃说：“他是南非唯一三度被选亚搏电竞为世界上最佳酿酒师的酿酒师。”他说：“他是一个非常谦虚的家伙。他是一名酒窖大师，但他称自己是土壤农民，'我只是一个土壤农民。矿。'独一无二的是，我们与他在酒店之间的关系不仅允许客人在度假村享受他的葡萄酒，还可以参观葡萄酒庄园并与他有独家的大师班体验。这并不是您每天都去南非和亚搏电竞您去葡萄酒土地，与被选为世界亚搏电竞上最好的酿酒师三度的家伙一起品尝葡萄酒。

Ntezo说：“我喜欢他的Pinotage，因为我是他的忠实拥护者，但这也击中了所有正确的笔记。”“这是精心制作的，它具有可爱的水果纯度，它具有典型性 - 他做了一种多汁而肉质的生物。”

For guests looking to try a quintessentially South African varietal, Ntezo will often also recommend aChenin Blanc。"We've got more Chenin Blanc than any other part of the world," he says. "In fact, if the whole world combined their Chenin Blancs, South Africa would still have more Chenin Blancs than the entire world combined. So that's part of the identity of South African wines, and we make it in unique, different styles—you'll find very sweet 300 grams-per-liter sugar, and you'll also find dry 0.5, 0/8 grams, oaked, un-oaked, boxed, unboxed, good, bad—but the majority, of course, is really great. It's important for people who visit South Africa to taste Chenin Blanc, as it's the ultimate identity of who we are as far viticulture is concerned."

That said, in Ntezo's role as head sommelier, he ultimately takes a liberal approach when recommending pairings. "There's no orthodox way to drinking wine," he says. "People should be able to drink wine in whatever way that appeals to them. If you want your crisp un-oaked Sauvignon Blanc with your steak very well done, as angry as the chef may be, if that combination works for you, that's the best combination."

但是，对于有兴趣推动个人界限并尝试新事物的客人，Ntezo发现这是最令人信服的故事和背景。

他说：“我对故事很重要。”“亚搏电竞葡萄酒可以是相同的品种，也可以品尝相同的葡萄酒，但是每种葡萄酒都带有一个明显独特和不同的故事。作为侍酒师，这是我的工作，这是我的热情，可以找到这些故事并与客人分享它们- 并将它们带到葡萄酒土地上。当我们将它们带到亚搏电竞酿酒厂品尝葡萄酒时，其中一些故事发生了，我们发现这个家伙开始在壁球场上酿造葡萄酒，他converted酿酿酒厂，他去了成为南非最受奖项的酿酒师之一，只是在壁球场上制作葡萄酒。这是一个自己的故亚搏电竞事 - 这一切都是关于在土壤中工作的人们。”

So much so that each week, especially during harvest season, Luvo dedicated his days off to assisting in wineries throughout the region. He's actively involved in spreading the gospel of South African wine across the globe as well as mentoring a new generation of winemakers and key industry decision-makers. He tells亚搏电竞食品和美酒亚搏电竞他所看到的极为令人鼓舞，尤其是在崛起的新警卫方面。

"Two months ago, I was a guest speaker at the BRICS Summit within the agricultural sector and I saw a huge representation of predominantly black women enrolling in winemaking and viticulture. Not only tha, within the winemaking scene, we seetransformationeven outside the academic field.

"There's a program with Cape Winemakers' Guild, which is a very important guild in South Africa where they run a protege program," Luvo says. "This protege program will buy wines through auction—where I go every year to buy wines for the hotel. The protege is taken is taken out of university and is given mentorship of six months at different wine estates—but not just picking grapes, but in key positions. Wherever they work, they're able to bottle barrels for themselves and they're responsible for selling it—and the proceeds are completely theirs. At the end of the protege program, they get employment—it's a 100 percent success story, everyone who went through the protege program either went on to become a winemaker or went on to own their own wine label or wine brand. I think that's what being a protege or being part of a mentorship program should be all about—not just to mentor you to be a cellar assistant at the tasting room or at the cellar underground where your skill isn't really fully explored."

卢沃（Luvo）说，甚至除了行业的制造商之外，人们对南非葡萄酒行业的更多代表性得到了越来越多的支持。亚搏电竞他说：“我做了一项计划，开普敦的大学在商业葡萄酒管理方面进行。”亚搏电竞“这是一项研究生课程，该课程的75％是黑色的。在开普敦大学学习很昂贵，但是要看到公司提供资金来资助员工来参加这些计划，以便他们可以回来成为葡萄酒行业中的金融总监非常高尚。我们能够不断地参与和谈论转型，亚搏电竞而不是将其保密 - 因为在一天结束时，完全转化的葡萄酒行业对所有人都是有益的我们中的最终目标是我们要看到的最终目标：我们所有人共同为同样的共同目标而共同努力，这是葡萄酒行业和行业中的孩子。”亚搏电竞