Taking leave of life
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
The past two weeks has seen the deaths of two men who made significant impacts on the South African wine fraternity, albeit in markedly different ways. Dr Julius Laszlo died in Stellenbosch, aged 83, while Graham Beck died in London after a long battle with cancer, aged 80.
Laszlo is credited with injecting the SA wine industry with a huge amount of viticultural and oenological knowledge at a time when the country continued to be the political polecat of the world. He and his family made their way to South Africa after leaving Romania as political refugees. Dr Laszlo arrived armed with a PhD in soil microbiology and years of experience as the head of Romania’s research institute for viticulture and oenology. Cellarmaster of The Bergkelder for many years until his retirement in 1989, Dr Laszlo introduced more modern methods of viticulture, new vine varietals to South Africa and also pioneered the use of small oak barrels at a time when large format old oak was the order of the day.
By way of contrast Graham Beck came to wine relatively late in life. He made a substantial fortune, initially in coal mining and exporting, but in a variety of international business ventures too and he divided his time between homes in the Cape, London and America. His first wine farm purchase was Madeba in Robertson in 1983 which was initially bought to indulge his love of horses and horseracing. Graham Beck Wines was expanded to incorporate the Franschhoek cellar and eventually Steenberg winery in Constantia too.
Beck was both a visionary and a hard taskmaster. He provided the resources for his talented staff but they had to perform and produce results in exchange for it! It wasn’t just about business or wine for him: he was a lover and collector of modern art; social upliftment of the workforce and local community were important, as was environmental preservation.
The local wine fraternity is poorer for their passing but richer for their participation and the roles they played. Rest in peace, gentlemen.