Close links between France and the Cape Winelands
Tuesday, 29 June, 1999
Tessa de Kok
Their are historic connections from between the French Huguenots who came to the Cape in the 17th century and the modern industry of the 20th century.
South Africa owes its wine history and wine culture, now synonymous with the Cape Winelands, very largely to the French. It was the French Huguenots who settled at the Cape during the late 17th century, taking with them their viticultural expertise. They established the country’s first wine farms and in this way were able to make a significant contribution to the Cape region’s economic wellbeing.
When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, that
had permitted Protestants certain rights to practise their religion, there
was a mass exodus of the Huguenots from France. Governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel saw the wave of emigration from France as an opportunity not only to increase the number of settlers at the Cape, but also to bring in much needed agricultural, including viticultural skills. He had repeatedly requested more settlers from the Dutch East India Company, which controlled the spice route from Europe to the East Indies via the Cape. They were needed at this halfway stop established in 1652, to grow produce for passing ships.
Although there had been isolated cases of Huguenots arriving at the Cape prior to the official end to religious freedom for Protestants, (including Maria de la Quellerie who married Jan van Riebeeck, the man who founded the Cape’s first settlement), the first group of 21 settlers arrived on April 13, 1688. Subsequent groups arrived over the next 12 years, until there were some 200 Huguenot settlers. By 1720 this number had grown to 270.
Under Van der Stel’s immigration policy, the Huguenot settlers were
granted land in some of the most fertile areas in the Cape, at the foot of the Hottentots Holland Mountains, at Eerste River and Stellenbosch and in the Olifantshoek valley. They included three brothers, Pierre, Abraham and Jacques de Villiers who settled on three neighbouring farms in the Olifantshoek Valley, an area they called Coin de Francais, which, translated into Dutch, became known as Franchhoek.
Today Franchhoek is renowned as a wine and culinary centre surrounded by many centuries-old farms, which still bear such French names such as Mont Rochelle, La Bri and Le Bourgogne. Their first plantings were from rootstock brought to the Cape from France, wrapped in canvas for protection.
In a drive to entrench the French traditions of the village, the local
wine farmers established an association in 1984, they called the Vignerons de Franchhoek As a result, Franchhoek has become a focal point of the Cape Winelands, renowned for the excellence of its wines and French-inspired cuisine. It is visited by countless tourists who marvel at the extent of the legacy left by the French Huguenots, including the many French names of the local population, such as Du Toit, Malan, Roux, Blignaut and Malherbe.
Perhaps the best-known link between France and the Cape Winelands lies is Napoleon’s love of the famous Vin de Constance dessert wine grown from grapes on a farm closer to Cape Town itself, known as Groot Constantia. Bottles of this famous dessert wine were presented to many British and European heads of state. It was particularly favoured by Napoleon, whose household, exiled to the island of St Helena, is recorded as having consumed 30 bottles a month, in addition to claret and champagne.
While the French were encouraged to bring their expertise in wine making and brandy distilling, they were forced to learn Dutch once they settled, which is why few South Africans speak French today. This was the result of political tension between the Netherlands and France at the turn of the 18th century. Dutch replaced French in church and at school instruction was in Dutch. As a result the language was scarcely spoken by local descendants of the Huguenots from as early as 1750.
Today the relationship between Cape wine farmers and the French continues. Many seek training in France and much of the plant material now propagated in the Cape is of French origin. The majority of noble cultivars under cultivation at the Cape include such French varietals as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir.