Landau du Val: a vinous treasure

Friday, 22 June, 2012
Norman McFarlane
"When Jane and I bought the farm back in 1986, we had no idea that this vineyard existed," says Basil Landau. We're standing in the centre of an ancient vineyard of Semillon, 106 years old this year, on Basil and Jane Landau's farm La Brie, just off the Robertsvlei Road in the Franschhoek Valley.
It is an early June day, grey, bleak, with lowering clouds, a fine drizzle misting the dank air. The dry land bush vines crouch low, close to the poor soil, gnarled and twisted with age. They are all but asleep, a few retaining some vestige of yellowed leaves, as the cold of winter begins to bite and the sap stops flowing.

"We bought the place without even going inside the house. It took a year to get the place ready for us to move in". Basil reminisces, "It was only after we took a walk up here onto the hillside sometime after we'd bought the property, that we discovered the vineyard. It was in poor shape, and I almost had it uprooted, but after having it looked at by a viticulturist, I decided to keep it and make wine from it."

Careful viticultural attention resulted in the vineyard, some 4.8ha in extent, being brought into production, and the Landau du Val Semillon was born, with the maiden vintage being produced in 1995. Made in tiny quantities – the yield is parsimonious to say the least – Landau du Val Semillon is a truly boutique wine, which resonates with the thinking of heterodox economist EF Schumacher, who in his seminal 1973 book "Small is Beautiful: a study of economics as if people mattered" advanced the proposition that our future was dependent upon human-scale economic development.

The current release of the wine is the 2010 vintage, which is an intriguing story in and of itself. "The yield that year was tiny," says Basil, "and I'd planned to actually not make wine that year, to knock the crop down. The grapes were picked two weeks later than usual, all of 1.6 tons." That amounts to a miniscule 330kg per ha.

While it wasn't a noble late harvest, no botrytis in evidence, it most certainly was a late vintage, which is how it was bottled - Late Vintage Semillon Private Collection. The crop yielded a measly 1 500 bottles. But the yield is improving, with careful attention to viticulture - for example, the vineyard was deep-ripped between every alternate pair of rows this year - 2011 giving 3.3 tons (688kgs/ha) and 2012 a much healthier 9.2 tons (1.91 tons/ha).

Sitting over lunch with Basil and Jane later that day, in the charming manor house dining room, we taste in sequence the 2008, 2009 and 2010 vintages. Jane crafted a lovely mild chicken curry, richly flavoured with skilful use of spices, with an impressive array of sambals – onion/tomato salsa, sliced banana, desiccated coconut, and green mango atchar – and we sample each vintage with the meal. Unsurprisingly perhaps, all three wines worked well with the dish, the 2010 particularly so.

"Will you ever uproot these vines?" I ask Basil. "The yield is pretty low.". He sits for moment, lost in reverie. "No, not in my life time," he says. "Believe me making this wine is not a profitable venture. It costs me a lot to make it, but these vines are a part of our vinous heritage: they're 106 years old this year."

I turn to look interrogatively at Jane. She nods: "And as long as I'm around, we'll continue to make wine from these grapes."

Turning to the wine's retail price – R190 a bottle – Basil tells a delightful story of a friend who visited the estate and wanted to buy some of the wine after tasting it.

"How much?" asked the friend.

"R190," answered Basil.

"I'll take a case," says the friend. Basil computes the total due and says "That's R2 280."

"Oh, I thought that price was per case. Isn't there a special price for family and good friends, like the cost price per bottle?"

"Of course there is," says Basil. "I'll charge you what it cost me to make the wine, which is R1 000 per bottle!"

Needless to say, the friend took the wine at R190 per bottle.

A cheeseboard followed the main course, and the 2010 Late Vintage was once more poured, and again it paired remarkably well with the strong cheeses served.

Stylistically, the 2010 is a departure from previous vintages, with its much higher sugar – 32g/l – and overtly opulent fruit characteristics. It has rich tropical fruit notes, gooseberry and apricots and papaya. The palate renders flavours of candied orange and lemon peel, with nose of ginger and a hint of cloves. Fresh acidity balanced against the fruit and judicious oaking – French, 50% new – provides great freshness. Whilst it is drinking well now, it will age for up to 10 years according to the wine maker. And it is in later years that the classic secondary characteristics – lanolin and waxy notes - will develop.

After a refreshing double espresso and some reminiscing about the good old days – Basil was an executive director of Gencor Limited in the early 1980s, which owned Sappi, where I was an earnest young HR practitioner - I take my leave of Basil and Jane for the long drive back to Somerset West, secure in the knowledge, that an important part of our rich, yet bleakly small, vinous heritage is in good hands, and that it will be preserved.

The 2010 Landau du Val Late Vintage Semillon Private Collection was awarded Top 100 SA Wine status in the 2012/13 SA Top 100 Wines Competition.
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The gnarled trunk of a 106 year old Semillon vine
The gnarled trunk of a 106 year old Semillon vine

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