Val De Vie Wine and Polo Estate appoints new winemaker
Wednesday, 25 August, 2010
Jess Webb
Val de Vie Wine and Polo Estate is proud to welcome its new winemaker, Harold Versfeld on board. Having honed most of his winemaking skills abroad, Harold will now oversee all winemaking processes at Val de Vie, with Bruwer Raats (from Raats Family Vineyards) acting as a consultant on some of the varietals.
Harold's well-rounded experience was gained from making wine at DAria Estate in Durbanville, then harvests in the Napa Valley, USA as well as harvests in Victoria, Australia. He is very excited to be working with Val de Vie's unusual Rhône varieties and building on the award winning wines produced by the estate to date.
Val de Vie started producing Rhône-style wines in 2006, and is now the most comprehensive grower of Rhône varietals outside of France, Currently, they grow 10 of the 14 traditional Rhône cultivars which is then supplemented with top grapes sourced within a 200 km radius of its vineyards to cover the other Rhône varietals. This enables Val de Vie to produce and sell the very best Rhône-style wines in South Africa.
The first wines were produced and bottled on the modern Val de Vie Estate in 2006, so it is early days for Val de Vie's wines, but these young wines are already winning awards and accolades. The Val de Vie Mourvèdre (2004) was awarded a Double Gold Medal at the Michelangelo International Awards in 2006, and the Val de Vie Shiraz (also 2004) won a Gold Medal at the SA Young Wine Show.
At only 27 years old, Harold is eager to introduce innovative new award-winning varieties to the estate. Wine making has always been in his blood from growing up on a wine farm in the Darling area and then going onto a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture (BSc Agric) specialising in Viticulture and Oenology. So taking up the challenge of making wine for this stunning award winning wine estate is a dream come true for the young winemaker.