Building an African Icon Wine

© 4G
| The 4G wines are among the most expensive to come out of South Africa.

Philipp G Axt and his wife Vanessa are looking to do just that with a project that began when they made the move to South Africa and decided to create their own fine wine. Snappily titled 4G, their wines are some of South Africa’s most premium offerings.

On board is renowned expert Dr Valérie Lavigne who brings with her the spirit of the late professor and winemaker Denis Dubourdieu, of Château Doisy-Daëne fame. 4G has also harnessed the knowledge of Giorgio Dalla Cia, the winemaker behind Meerlust Estate’s Rubicon, one of South Africa’s most celebrated blends.

How did 4G Wines come about?

Philipp: I don’t come from the wine world. I was a business consultant by trade, but always wine lover from university times. The idea came together with four friends, that’s why 4G – all of us had a G in their name – which made us create this brand and also the name of the wine.

South Africa, at the time, was still pretty much a blank spot on the map of fine wines in the world. And we knew there was not a practical reason for it, but just history and how it developed, and that it absolutely deserved to be there. At that point, we said: “Yes, let’s do it before somebody else comes and does it!”

What’s the vision for 4G Wines?

Philipp: So the vision is to create a first growth from the Cape – wine that stands alongside the big names in Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Australia, Tuscany, you name them. If you have a vision, it’s not only for yourself but also for the country and the industry surrounding. The potential is huge here, and the people are so lovely, on the other hand, there’s still so much poverty and so much to create and elevate.

So our vision is elevating the whole wine industry on an international scale – putting South Africa on the map for fine wine.

How was 4G initially received?

Philipp: In the beginning, it was very difficult and diverse. There were people who were super excited, and other people who were not excited at all. But that changed quickly. Outside of the country, it starts being recognized, and then it spills back into the country. So yeah, it’s good.

Vanessa: [There was] fear that what our project and what we’re doing will push other people aside, but actually quite a lot of other wineries have started creating more high-end products. We’ve seen a nice development in the last few years – more wineries are pushing more high-profile wines from smaller batch production and starting to pull with the trend, which is really nice to see.

Why is South African wine so poorly judged?

Vanessa: It’s unfortunate. Most of the work that we’re doing overseas is really trying to elevate how people see South Africa and South African wines. The States – they’re one of the worst culprits – in the States, the idea of fine wine coming from South Africa is non-existent.

People think South African wine is bulk, cheap plonk, and really undrinkable. We really have this missionary concept because as soon as people try the wine, they go: “This is amazing! I would have never known that this wine is from South Africa, I would have thought it comes from Napa, or France!”

So this is something that we’re working on, getting more recognition for the country in and of itself, for the amazing terroir it has, and the wonderful wines that it can produce.

Has the reputation of grapes like Pinotage made it difficult?

Vanessa: I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, Pinotage unfortunately is one of them.

Philipp: Pinotage doesn’t have a great reputation but Pinotage obviously has a standing on its own and the right to exist. You have that in other countries as well, look at Napa Valley with their Zinfandel – which is also kind of a weird thing but it has it’s own story. Pinotage, it’s just a small part of production here in South Africa if you look at the varieties.

I think the root cause for that reputation was when the wine industry in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s developed, improving processes with huge steps in the whole world – except South Africa because the country was closed due to apartheid.

When South Africa opened up in the ’80s and ’90s there was a time lag in that development. So the first thing they put out in the international markets was the cheap and cheerful, easy drinking, well-priced wines – always good quality for the price but nothing high level.

© 4G
| The 4G labels are inspired by local South African nature and created by German artist Sebastian Blinde.

Has South African wine become better?

Philipp: Absolutely. If you look at price, price is obviously an indicator for quality – not always – but it’s a starting point.

So when I started in 2010, our wine was by far the most expensive from South Africa, the next one was a third of the price, and I think there were only three wines above 1000 Rand, which is roughly $50. Now, if you go into duty free in Johannesburg which has a broad wine selection from all over South Africa, you have at least 20 or 30 wines at that level, above $50, $100, even $150.

So there is development and it’s not like somebody just increased their prices. It’s all new small batches, mostly from known producers, some from new producers.

Vanessa: I think Philipp said the perfect example – the duty free shops here in Cape Town and Johannesburg have lots of medium-priced wines and the fine wine section of nice wines that you can buy has grown from like two bottles to now 15 to 20 bottles. You can see from year to year, the portfolio increases.

What’s also really great is the diversity within winemaking is really starting to spread and get more diverse. You’re getting more people from many different ethnic backgrounds in winemaking, a lot more female winemakers here in South Africa, which is really great to see.

What brought you to South Africa?

Philipp: I have been to South Africa the first time in 2001, had friends there, went for a wine tourism. So I knew about it, I knew about potential.

Then, when we started the 4Gs, one of whom was Giorgio Dalla Cia, who was like the wine guru in South Africa. He had been working for Meerlust for 35 years and was basically retired, he was still looking for a big project to do whatever was impossible in a formal setting and that’s what brought us together.

Vanessa: I think it’s important to mention that we don’t come from 200 years of family winemaking, we don’t have a château that’s already been in the family for a really long time. So a project like this, with the little money that we had at the very beginning, would have been in a place like France not even possible – and it wouldn’t have been necessary because there’s so many incredible wineries and wines in that country already.

The potential for South Africa was just so great, and all the other places pretty much were already taken with a big portfolio of fine wines – except here. So that was one of the reasons this was an ideal place to start.

Denis Dubourdieu was hugely important to 4G Wines both as a mentor and a winemaker. Was it difficult to move on with 4G Wines after he died?

Philipp: It was probably the biggest good luck that I had in my entire life, that Denis joined that project, which I actually would never have imagined but somehow I got him…

Vanessa: In a weak moment…

Philipp: A weak and good moment, and had the chance to actually meet him in Bordeaux and talk to him and present the project to him, and that sparked his interest.

It was in 2011, so very early for our second vintage. He flew down to South Africa and [it was a] very intense week, checking it all out. In the end he was like “There’s only one thing I regret – not having come here earlier, I’m on board.”

It was like being knighted. If this man believes in that project and joins it – because he obviously had proposals like that twice a week with his experience of 30-odd years, making wines for some of the big names like Cheval Blanc, Yquem and Margaux. This gave us an immediate step up in the quality that we had from second official vintage.

So when he passed away, obviously it was super tragic personal loss because he was not only a brilliant winemaker and scientist but also very, very nice, humble, beautiful person. He has, from the beginning, worked together with his associate, Dr Valérie Lavigne, they always have been working together. Valérie, she is brilliant, she is super nice. So, she continued and continues with us seamlessly. She actually did her PhD with him 25 years ago and then immediately joined his business and they’ve been working together since. So it was like one brain in two bodies. We also have an amazing local team, winemaker and viticulturist, who pour their heart and soul into the wine.

Tell us a little bit about the wines: the G and the Echo of G

Philipp: The difference between the two wines is a barrel de-selection. That means everything goes through the same process throughout the viticulture, the vinification, maturation in the cellar. And then after 15-17 months, when we do the blending, we decide which barrel goes into the G and which barrel goes into the Echo.

So from the composition, the style, they are both very similar because we are working with Bordeaux plus Syrah as varietals, playing around with that.

Obviously, the G is more powerful, more complex, more intense wine, with a higher longevity. The more intellectual wine that can stand on its own, that is for enjoying throughout a whole evening, and obviously for aging. I mean these wines with experience of Denis – they’re made to last decades.

Echo is the value for money, or the entry-level product – we sometimes say “this is what we drink for pizza!”

© 4G
| The Western Cape offers a variety of soil types and micro-climates for winemakers to choose from.

Are the wines more Old World in style or New World?

Philipp: We are on that very fine line between Old and New World. You have very different micro-terroir, microclimates, which are extremely close to each other. You drive to one spot, it feels like you’re in Australia in the middle of the desert, it’s 35 degrees, baking hot, intense aromas, the vines are really pushing and going for it. Then you drive half an hour and suddenly you feel like you’re in Saint-Émilion. Sea, ice cold sea, you can feel the ocean breezes. Very different soil.

So this complexity is what we’re playing with and we have about 20-25 different vineyard plots in different locations all over the Western Cape.

So from the stylistic approach, we combine a Bordeaux-like structure – elegance, backbone of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc with the intense sun-kissed fruit flavor of Syrah in a hot climate.

We don’t have a formula, sometimes we have in one vintage, a bit more Cabernet and the next vintage more Syrah – five percent, up and down. Sometimes it feels more like we are in Napa Valley, and sometimes more Bordeaux – walking on this fine line is very interesting.

It’s like yin and yang, and that works very well together and gives the profile of South Africa as an international fine wine region.

Vanessa: We’re actually quite lucky here because the climate in South Africa is quite stable in comparison to areas like Napa Valley or France. So we don’t have crazy frost overnight, or rains in the summertime. Something can always happen like a fire – in dry areas, that’s always a risk – but generally, the climate here is very stable.

Where are your markets?

Vanessa: Our core markets, based on our personal connections and where we come from, are Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In South Africa, we’re in some of the best restaurants here in Cape Town and we’re starting to spread our wings. But we can only spread our wings so far because our production’s really small.

Our first wine, we only produce about 5-6000 bottles a year and the second wine, about 10,000 bottles. Our production is tiny, we can’t be everywhere.

Philipp: I think the US is still the biggest and most important market for fine wine. So that’s our strategically next target. So we’re looking at West Coast. We’re looking at East Coast. Basically, where you find Michelin-star restaurants is probably the right place for our wines to be.

Medium-term? Asia. Not the big Chinese market, but cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Taipei, Seoul. I know Japan a little bit, and I’ve been working there for a year. I think that is also very interesting, I think that can be a very good fan base.

How did Covid affect you?

Vanessa: It was really tough for a while. We had really strict lockdowns here in South Africa, which also came with four different alcohol bans. We weren’t allowed to sell any alcohol, anywhere you could get alcohol was shut down. There was a brief ban on the export of alcoholic beverages last year.

Harvest 2020, we didn’t know if we would be able to complete it because, at one point, the government said wine is not agriculture and everybody needs to stop harvesting because we’re having this pandemic, total shutdown of everything.

A lot of jobs were lost, a lot of families struggling because their employers went out of business. For a lot of people, it meant a lot of hardship. People had to resort to taking grapes or wines that only last for a year and make sanitizer out of it – crazy things like that.

There was absolutely no tourism here, and tourism is such an important part for South Africa. Unfortunately, the media is one of the culprits that always painted South Africa in a really bad light during the pandemic which didn’t help.

We’re just slowly coming back from that, finally now planes are full again. People are coming but the marks of Covid have been made and it’s going to take some time to come out of that for the wine industry, or any kind of industry here in South Africa.

So many South Africans leave, and yet you did the reverse. How do you feel about South Africa’s future?

Philipp: The grass is always greener on the other side. I know this country 20 years now and political situation – all in all – has improved, everything is going in the right direction. Obviously, you will always have problems. You have violence, you have poverty, you have corruptions, you have decisions from government that you don’t like – but that’s everywhere.

I’m very bullish for Africa, Africa as a whole and South Africa. For the next 20 – 30 years, people will in the end be amazed what is developing here.

Vanessa: We really believe in South Africa. It’s an amazing country, it’s a country of opportunity, it’s beautiful, the people are absolutely wonderful. We stand 100 percent behind South Africa because we know the huge potential that this country has. It can make so many great things happen in the future – but it just takes time.