A seasoned winemaker with over 25 vintages under her belt, Dr Marinda Kruger has transformed Elgin Vintners since settling in apple country four years ago. After spending twelve years at Namaqua Wines, working with two hundred growers on five thousand hectares of vineyards, the food scientist turned winemaker spent the next decade making wines for Paul Boutinot. She says there’s been no turning back since she discovered the cool climate terroir of Elgin – and joined Elgin Vintners in 2018.
Downsizing to boutique winemaking in the new dedicated cellar at Elgin Vintners has enabled this viticultural scientist to indulge in her creative side. I caught up with Marinda at the launch of her new site-specific series of limited release wines under a stylish new Elgin Vintners label in early July. She says the apple farmers who own the new winery launched in 2003 have given her complete freedom to pursue the expression of this unique terroir, using natural winemaking techniques.
“Winemaking is about combining science and creativity,” she says, “The sublime nectar has to be honest on the tongue. Winemaking has been an amazing journey for me. The chemistry of winemaking is a mystery, a Pandora’s box. Why does Pinot Noir suddenly stop during a natural fermentation using wild yeast? I love working with different components like the foudres, concrete eggs, open-top wooden fermenters, and amphorae in my cellar. I don’t like one-dimensional wines.”
Every wine tells a story at the tasting of the revamped site-specific wine series of Elgin Vintners – Sandstone Sauvignon Blanc 2021, Ponthuis Pinot Noir 2021, Oudebrug Merlot 2021, and Ironstone Syrah 2020. Each hand-drawn sketch of the landscape on the label depicts the vineyard contours – and historic landmarks like the original 1920s Ponthuis homestead and Oudebrug at a river crossing.
Mirra Semillon 2022
“The name and story of a wine is very personal for me,” adds Marinda, revealing the brand-new Mirra Semillon 2022, a stand-alone flagship, meaning admirable and wondered at in Latin, also the diminutive of her own name. The torn parchment labels shows a woman illuminated by the sun.
The maiden single cultivar Semillon from Elgin Vintners is sourced from a tiny single vineyard on the farm. Vinified naturally – half in clay amphora (one-third with whole berries left on the skin for three months), half in a single French oak barrel – this small batch wine of 900 bottles demonstrates the winemaker’s commitment to creative, slow winemaking, harnessing nature and building complexity through the subtle use of components.
“The wine must be predictive of the grapes and vintage – not express the commercial yeast,” she explains. The label reflects her meticulous approach to every stage of the winemaking process – depicting a novel amphora symbol called “clay pot technique”.
A master lesson in cool climate viticulture on a winter’s day. It's the first time I’ve been greeted anywhere in South Africa with, “Welcome to Utopia!” (the name of the restaurant, perhaps after Thomas More’s treatise Utopia of 1516). The five-course food and wine pairing at the stylish rooftop restaurant on the fifteenth floor of the Capital Mirage Hotel in De Waterkant affords spectacular views of the city bowl, the Bo-Kaap and Signal Hill. An appropriate setting for tasting high-altitude cool climate grapes grown at an elevation of 300 – 600 metres at Elgin Vintners “oor die berg”.
The new release Semillon is like a walk in an orchard, breathing in complex aromas of green apples and pears, a delicate wine with slaty minerality and lime acidity, expressive of cool climate terroir. “I like linearity and austerity (grip), especially on Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc,” adds Marinda.
Made from fifteen year-old vines in a young appellation like Elgin where the oldest vines are 22 years-old, grapes grown here have high natural acidity, low sugars and great ph levels due to the slow, long ripening period. These factors are essential for the aroma and flavour profile of Elgin wines says the scientist turned winemaker who completed her PhD on the subject of natural fermentation.
Sandstone Sauvignon Blanc 2021
Sauvignon Blanc is the hero variety of the Elgin Valley – a young appellation (or should that be apple-lation!) of some eighteen boutique wine farms where the first vines were pioneered by the likes of Paul Cluver in the 1990s. Today, some 270 hectares (37%) in Elgin area are planted to Sauvignon Blanc, followed by Chardonnay (112 ha), Pinot Noir (106 ha), Shiraz (60 ha) and Cabernet (42 ha).
“I make eighty tons of Sauvignon Blanc every vintage. There are a dozen different ways of making it, building layers” says Marinda. “I convert non-Sauvignon Blanc drinkers with this wine”.
The Sandstone Sauvignon Blanc 2021, naturally fermented and barrel-fermented with extended lees contact, is full-bodied with a creamy vanilla mouthfeel in the Blanc-fume style – with honeysuckle, yellow stone fruit and pear character, and a scintillating minerality. The influence of the apple orchards of Elgin come to the fore again as Marinda talks about “windfall –the apples which fall from the tree”, adding nitrogen to the soil and an orchard of aromatics to the grapes. She says she never has to add tartaric acid to her cool grapes.
Ponthuis Pinot Noir 2021
Moving onto Elgin Vintners Ponthuis Pinot Noir, one of the stars of the tasting, Marinda describes it as “a wine that tells a story of the morning mists that lie across the valley”.
Pinot Noir loves the temperature dip of the Elgin Valley. We get a 15-degree differentiation in temperature between day and night at these elevations. Pinot Noir is one of the stars of many Elgin cellars – inter alia from Paul Cluver, Paul Wallace, Richard Kershaw, Oak Valley and Shannon. Naturally fermented, foot-stomped, 80% whole bunch pressed on the stems, slow fermented in mostly second and third-fill 500l barrels.
“The wine is delicate as a ballerina with spice from the stems not the oak,” advises Marinda.
Ripe cherries, raspberry and a cranberry twist combine with savoury spice and svelte tannins in the Ponthuis Pinot Noir – a wine perfectly paired with an earthy wild mushroom risotto. “Purity of fruit”, “Honest winemaking” and “Natural expression of the grapes and terroir” are three of Marinda’s mantras – a constant refrain at the tasting.
The wines carry the golden thread of the delicacy and elegance of Elgin’s cool terroir – but also the finesse, poiseand nuance of the winemaker’s signature. She adds, “I see myself as a conductor, looking for harmony. Winemaking is a decision-making process. I question myself 1000 times a day – and trust my sense of feminine intuition.”
“Everyone interprets terroir differently. Elgin Vintners used to use different winemakers to make different varieties. You need one winemaker to get the golden thread – not competing voices”. Since taking over as winemaker and business manager at Elgin Vintners, Marinda has quadrupled production from 60 to 240 tons of grapes. But she admits “It is much easier to grow apples and more profitable. With wine, you have to start every harvest from scratch. Every vintage is different”.
Oudebrug Merlot 2020
We move onto the Oudebrug Merlot 2020, another in the new site-specific series of Eglin Vintners, one of the best expressions I have tried made from this under-performing variety in South Africa.
“Merlot is a real prima donna” says Marinda, “It’s very finicky and tends to be high in pyrazines. I don’t want green flavours in my Merlot. You have to pick Merlot when its ripe. I’m looking for softness, elegance and finesse.”
The delicate aromatics of red berry fruit with mocha and soft spice delivers an opulent mouthfeel with a lovely vibrant acidity. Like most of these wines, whole bunch grapes were crushed underfoot the natural way in open-top wooden fermenters, taking 28 days to ferment using wild indigenous yeast – allowing the natural microflora to express the true terroir.
Ironstone Syrah 2020
A sublime tasting ends with Ironstone Syrah 2020 paired to a molten chocolate fondant which oozes onto the plate as slowly and indulgently as the superb lunch.
“There’s a wild side to the Syrah – a stemminess. There’s no old man’s face (Ou man se gesiggie) in my Syrah to use an Ozzie expression,” laughs Dr Marinda Kruger, who, after thirty years in the cellar around the world, certainly knows what she wants and doesn’t want. Foot stomped in open-top wooden fermenters – yes, she climbs into the fermenter to press whole bunch grapes the traditional way – the Syrah is matured in mostly old barrels, allowing the terroir to speak with delicate cherry flavours and cool white pepper aromas.
Elgin Vintners sure live up their brand moniker, “Seriously cool climate wines”. Marinda concludes, “Our grapes ripen at a relaxed pace. Anything that takes longer is better I believe – more flavours form, tannins ripen and aren’t green, sugars are low – and all is in balance with the natural acidity.” Sounds like Utopia for winemakers. An apple never falls far from the tree – or terroir. A cool day out.