Stellenbosch, Wine Capital of the Norway of the South
Thursday, 8 December, 2011
Neil Pendock
Neil Pendock asks whether Jean Engelbrecht is the successor to Cecil John Rhodes.
Cecil John Rhodes had a dream. To paint the map of Africa from Cape to Cairo colonial red. Rhodesia was step one. Jean Engelbrecht, Seigneur of Rust and Vrede on the Helderberg, seems to share that same vision, but prefers wine to water colours. Jean chose Namibia as his first stop – well he was born in Gobabis.
The inaugural Stellenbosch Wine Show, held at his Stellenbosch Wine Bar and Bistro in Klein Windhoek in mid-November, moved R80 000 worth of wine in its brief three hour lifespan. Run on a velskoen-string budget, it puts the 800 visitors at Cape Wine Europe and WOSA’s poorly attended Angola tasting in January, in cost-effective perspective as marketing strategy for SA wine exports.
Earlier this year, I’d wanted to call my Lemoenfontein Pinotage 2009, made by Donovan Rall (now winemaker at Vuurberg on the Simonsberg), Swapo. Which stands for SWArtland PinOtage. I was loudly shouted down by my friends, who claimed SA was not yet ready for a Swapo wine, the Swartland Revolution notwithstanding. Although they did admit it would likely sell out at the Soweto Wine Festival and in Gugulethu. But last month, Beyers Truter was pouring his Diesel Pinotage at 78 Sam Nujoma Drive, just off Robert Mugabe Avenue and Fidel Castro Street.
Namibia is a sitting duck for SA wine exports: a simple 15% import duty, less corruption than SA, daily two-hour flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg and a tourist industry that is pumping. A destination so hot, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt chose Swakopmund as the birthplace for their daughter, Shilo. And they’re not the only ones: the Chinese and Ovambo are collaborating on a new race: Ovambonese. With huge off-shore oil discoveries and a population of barely 2 million, Namibia will soon be the Norway of the South, with sand desserts replacing the icy wastelands of the north, and an even greater thirst for SA wine.
Stellenbosch was something of a misnomer for the show as Johann Rupert’s Anthonij Rupert operation in Franschhoek was there alongside Danie de Wet from Robertson, Righard Theron from De Grendel in Durbanville, Paul Cluver from Elgin and Schalk Burger of Welbedacht Wines in Wellington.
But then all the producers were private cellars and all subscribe to the Stellenbosch sybaritic state of mind. As Jean wrote on the back label of his Stellenbosch Ridge 2009 Bordeaux-style blend: “Stellenbosch is unique in that it is the centre of fine wine, academia and culture in South Africa… Stellenbosch is birthplace and home to many of South Africa’s greatest leaders, intellectuals, artists, scientists, sportsmen and winemakers.”
While the 2012 edition of the Platter sighted guide may give the impression that Franschhoek is Ground Zero for quality wine in SA, the sheer depth of talent in the city of oak trees argues strongly for Stellenbosch as the centre of gravity of quality wine – certainly for reds. The point is well made by this fruit-driven, rather than herbaceous, Bordeaux-style blend. Although fans of that more austere expression need look no further than Chris Keet’s First Verse 2009, another Stellenbosch red. A most remarkable wine which brings perfumed Cabernet Franc back into the frame pioneered by his Cordoba Crescendo. From a Helderberg farm owned by the late Grootfontein petrol baron, Jannie Jooste.
There are more world class Bordeaux-style blends in Stellenbosch than the president has wives: Paul Sauver, John X Merriman, Vergelegen, Glenelly, Thelema, Tokara, Muratie, Dalla Cia… Heck, Spar supermarkets, whose Tops at Spar chain now tops 500 outlets (making it the leading wine retail brand in SA) recently hired Jonkershoek magician Etienne le Riche to collaborate on a Bordeaux-style blend.
David Trafford was a hit with his liqueur-strength 2009 vintage Shiraz 393 while the Middlevlei Chardonnay 2011 makes the eloquent point that oak is an optional extra. But the most unexpected wine was Jean’s Donkiesbaai Steen 2011, made as a white antidote to Sauvignon Blanc-induced gout.
Kevin Arnold, who now makes wine at Waterford in partnership with the Steve Jobs of SA - Jeremy Ord – used to make the wine at R&V. He remembers camping on the beach of the Engelbrecht holiday farm at Donkin’s Bay (the Donkiesbaai of the Chenin Blanc brand) and listening to a mother killer whale calling forlornly to a calf drowned in a fisherman’s net. With wines and stories like these, the campaign further north should be a doddle.