Thursday, 11 November, 2021
Wines of South Africa, Fiona McDonald
Nasa was on a roll with its Mariner 9 satellite the first to successfully orbit another planet, zooming around Mars, mapping the surface of the place where Elon Musk now wants to establish the first space colony. And Walt Disney really took the Mickey (Mouse) when he opened the world’s biggest play park – Disneyworld – in Florida, an attraction which millions still flock to today.
Just a few scant years on from partition, India and Pakistan went to war – for 13 days – in December. The net result was that East Pakistan gained independence and henceforth has been known as Bangladesh. Qatar also gained independence in 1971, having been a British protectorate since 1916. Switzerland magnanimously allowed women to vote for the first time while fashion designer Gabrielle Coco Chanel died at the age of 87.
And in Stellenbosch Oom Frans Malan of Simonsig, Niel Joubert of Spier and Spatz Sperling of Delheim banded together to form the fledgling Stellenbosch Wine Route. From the 2021 perspective it seems somewhat homespun and charming – especially since by 1992, when the route marked its 21st anniversary, its membership had grown to just 24 properties. Another 28 years later that membership roster now tallies 120. Obviously, the number of wine farms in Stellenbosch far exceeds that total but there are a host of brands which either don’t own land or have a physical venue for tourists and wine lovers to visit or they simply choose not to belong.
There have been significant milestones through the years – the first Stellenbosch food and wine festival in 1973, the role played by Stellenbosch Wine Route in the adoption of the Wine of Origin system in 1973, overcoming bureaucracy to have the first wine route signs erected alongside roads for tourists to self navigate their way through the winelands, hosting the first summertime street soirees in 2011 and in 2014 opening its dedicated visitor centre in the heart of Stellenbosch.
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