Winemakers moving from one producer to the next after a few harvests is quite common, and often necessary to gain enough experience. But sticking with the same wine producer for more than 10 harvests is a bit harder to find.
Wilhelm is of the opinion that getting to know the vineyards and learning which barrels your wines need, is a 10-year process, making it no surprise that he has spent more than a decade at Bellevue, this year marking his 20th year at the famed Stellenbosch Pinotage producer!
After starting out in the hunting and firearms industry, where he also spent nearly 20 years, Wilhelm made a bold move to change careers and found his way to the wine industry after completing his studies in Food Science.
Dirkie Morkel, viticulturist and fellow wine veteran, initially helped Wilhelm understand the spirit of Bellevue's winemaking. But you have to find your own feet, explains Wilhelm and there's a lot of fine-tuning to be done. Not too much fine-tuning left, as Bellevue's Platter's ratings reveal great growth and progress made by the Bellevue winemaking team over the last few years. With a 5-star rating for their flagship 1953 Bellevue Pinotage and three 4½ -star rated wines, they've cemented their reputation for quality-driven wines.
There's something special cooking in the cellar too, an old-vine Cinsaut, made from a 1952 block. "We're still experimenting," is all Wilhelm reveals at this stage, saying that he wants the block to perform and not just produce the wine as a novelty. The future of their 1953 block of Pinotage is looking bright, with Dirkie pruning each vine individually.
The Bottelary property is not just a place where vines can age gracefully, but wines have also proved their ageability. Just after the 2020 harvest, Wilhelm ventured into his own collection of wines at home and tasted through some older Bellevue vintages. Tasting through wines from 1999 through to 2003, Wilhelm says it is incredible how well the wines have aged, ascribing it to the Bellevue-winemaking style. They try to make wines in a natural way, not interfering too much. "We never try to make something of a wine, other than what the grapes show they want to be."
Along with Anneke Potgieter, assistant winemaker, who has been at Bellevue for nearly 18 years, Bellevue is a well-oiled machine, moving forward at a steady pace, ageing with grace.
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