“This is the oldest building still standing in the Hemel-en-Aarde, it’s even older than the town of Hermanus,” says Bartho coming inside and pulling up a chair at the table where I’m waiting for him. The thick walls retain a cool, ambient temperature, Bartho tells me they’re in the process of making it into a tasting room. Bartho Eksteen Wines are stacked up against one wall, the labels flashing pearlescent in the low light. There are some of his grandmother’s floral paintings against the rough hewn stone as well as an embroidered tiger piece that his mother created. The ceiling beams are burnt black, harking back to the days when the vineyard workers would light fires inside to keep warm on cold mornings.
Bartho has recently become a member of the prestigious Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG), yet another feather in a cap that’s already pretty weighted down by plumes.
“I’m very proud of becoming a member, but I’m not one of those guys that takes the front seats,” he says humbly. “I’m not shy, I just don’t like to show off. What I do like to do is share knowledge. One shouldn’t have secrets in winemaking. As a winemaker you learnt from other people, so why shouldn’t you pass it on?”
And for Bartho the love of winemaking has been passed down through generations going all the way back to the 1700s.
Heinrich Oostwald Eckstein settled in the Cape in 1702 (thanks to the Dutch influence of the time the surname was changed to Eksteen).
“He was the richest guy in the country, but he lost most of his money… he went through too many wives,” Bartho says laughing.
And since then the Eksteens have been involved in wine farming from Constantia to Loevenstein (Welgemoed). More recent history saw Bartho’s grandfather making wine at La Bri in Franschhoek, where Bartho also lived with his parents in a second, smaller house.
“My bedroom was next to the wine cellar. I was a real boerseuntjie [farm boy]. I would lie in bed and wait to crow back at the roosters in the morning.”
He was schooled at Boland Landbouskool, where he boarded. A real agricultural school they worked the farm most of the week, but on Sundays they could relax over the newspapers. It was on one of those days that the thought of becoming a winemaker first entered his head.
“I came across an advert for a winemaker in in the careers’ section of The Rapport, and I thought ‘I can do this’.”
Click HERE to read the full article.