Swartland reflections
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Years ago, when I was taking my baby steps in the SA wine writing fraternity, I was invited on a media jaunt to the Swartland. It was memorable for a number of things – being my first freebie to the Cape, meeting John Platter for the first time (I was in awe…), impressing my fellow hacks for knowing the Zulu words to Shosholoza, visiting the biggest producer in the southern hemisphere at the time, Swartland Co-op, and finally for the chairman of the Riebeek Co-op making a dramatic entrance to dinner by driving through a “wall”. The “wall” was of branded cardboard boxes but it was quite a stunt nonetheless.
Fast forward two decades or so and I was toasting Riebeek Cellars’ rejigged range this week. Their Riebeek Cellars Reserve Selection has made way for the premium Kasteelberg range. It was while sipping yet another glass of their delicious Kasteelberg Chardonnay bubbly that I ruminated on just how far the Swartland had come since then.
There is unqualified respect for the area’s terroir and the wines it produces. In its favour are ancient soils, old bush vines and interesting grapes – from Chenin Blanc, red and white Grenache to Clairette Blanche and Shiraz. And much of that respect is due to the efforts of two Swartland pioneers. No, I’m not talking about Eben Sadie and Adi Badenhorst… but rather about Neil Ellis and Charles Back. Neil Ellis this week threw open the doors of his new cellar on the slopes of the Helshoogte pass in Stellenbosch, having relocated from Jonkershoek where Stark-Condé has expanded substantially.
Sourcing grapes from different areas and blending them is so commonplace that folks forget this was unheard of – and officially unsanctioned – in the early nineties. Ellis was South Africa’s first negociant winemaker and a firm believer in the Swartland’s potential. The man has a lot of friends with surprisingly good pockets of fruit… in the Groenekloof area of Darling, for example, pioneering that area for cool climate Sauvignon Blanc. More recently it’s been the Piekenierskloof for Grenache that’s gone into his critically acclaimed Rodanos.
Similarly, the maverick Charles Back has added the new La Capra range to his string of wine labels. His daughter Bridget has joined the family business after studying marketing and this week could be found offering tastings of La Capra in a gaily-striped caravan, wearing gypsy skirts, with “fiddlers three”, meeting the wine press in typically unconventional and creatively inspired Back fashion in Cape Town.
Back had started Spice Route as a joint venture with John Platter, Gyles Webb of Thelema and Jabulani Ntshangase. He recalls that seeing and tasting the first trickles of juice from the maiden harvest of their Malmesbury fruit had him doing mental flic-flacs. “I got rid of my partners and took it all for myself…” he once quipped to me.
These guys put in the hard yards all those years ago and it’s fantastic to see a younger generation (yes, Sadie, Badenhorst, Mullineux et al) merely adding to the Swartland’s reputation.