Around the Cape in 144 days - There be wine in the Valley

Wine in this Valley wasn't always as ubiquitous as it is today. A strange statement to make? We are after all talking about the extended Hemel-en-Aarde Valley? Walker Bay, maybe?

If one takes the liberty of extending the valley to its logical extremities, i.e. Grabouw on one end and Stanford on the other, there's a lorra lorra wine producers there these days. Richard Kershaw, Oak Valley, Paul Cluver, Elgin Vintners, Shannon, Lothian, Almenkerk, Paul Wallance, Ross Gower, Charles Fox, Highlands Road, Spioenkop, Iona, Rivendell, Luddite, Beaumont, Gabrielskloof, Wildekrans, Benguela Cove, Whalehaven, Southern Right, Bartho Eksteen, Hamilton Russell, Bouchard Finlayson, La Vierge, Bosman, Cap Maritime, Newton Johnson, Restless River, Storm, Spookfontein, Alheit, Ataraxia, Creation, Kat se Snor, Domaine des Dieux, Seven Springs, Tesselaarsdal, Boschrivier, Raka, Stanford Hills and Springfontain comprise an (finger in the air) incomplete list of the wineries gracing this strip of the Western Cape.

Some might argue that the valley can be shortened to the strip from Hamilton Russell to Tesselaarsdal (the bit that looks like a pukka valley on the map, below). That would deny the unifying factor of this region i.e. the cool and often wet climate, induced mainly by the breezes blowing up from the Antarctic-influenced Atlantic and also by the altitude of many of the vines.

​There are certainly dynasties developing in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley itself and the makings of an epic novel cannot be denied. Tomorrow's Gone With the Wind, maybe? Well, perhaps, but it wasn't always thus. And Walker Bay wine is not going, it's coming. I suspect that two of the people to interview on the subject would be Berene Sauls of Tesselaarsdal and Carolyn Martin of Creation. I started to scratch the surface with both of them but I probably left it too late for our most recent trip. They were both eager to help but are extraordinarily busy people. 

A follow up (and more diligently organised) visit awaits before justice can be done to Came with the South-Easterly c'est ne pas?.

Borrowed from © Google Maps

A wine journey

My own wine journey started in my parents' dining room, probably about 55 years ago. A brief summary of things that progressed from there is in an earlier blog. The first time I formally visited a wine estate was in 1974 when things were most informal indeed when Sydney Back came out to greet a strange yellow car in his driveway.

Enough of that, though. Having visited quite a few European wineries, and at least one Australian one, I was amazed to discover, while on a visit to Hermanus a few decades back, that wine was being made in the Walker Bay Area. I believe this was in the last gasp of the 20th century. A colleague and I were doing some work at Sanlam in Bellville and slipped out early on a Friday afternoon to visit my outlaws, Billy and Judy Bosch, in Hermanus. I refer to my in-laws as outlaws as they were constantly up for a prank (Judy still is, aged 92). Sadly I cannot find the picture of Judy blocking out the M in HERMANUS at the town's entrance while Billy and she drove us on a whistle-stop tour of the town. It had to be quick as the sun was just about to drop below the yardarm and there was wine and biltong to be consumed. Ross and I had stopped at a butcher, probably in Kleinmond, to forage for sundowner snacks en route. We couldn't resist some lurid orange shark biltong, much to Billy's disgust. That was when he informed us that they were making some posh wine at Hamilton Russell, which was more-or-less at the entrance to the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley proper.

It must've been Anthony Hamilton who welcomed Ross and me to the picturesque little whitewashed building beside the dam the next morning.  We sipped happily in the sun before buying a couple of cases of Chardonnay. It had seemed expensive for South African wine at the time but it was delicious and we had spare luggage allowances on our Business Class tickets back to the UK that evening ...

We did notice the Bouchard winery next door as we were leaving but we had a plane to catch and a couple more wineries to go before we did that, namely Boschendal and Spier. Boschendal's house and grounds are the stuff Cape Dutch legends are made of but neither of the wines were to Hamilton Russell's standard. We had chosen wisely.

Richard Kershaw MW

Between then and now and thanks to Angela Lloyd (recommended to me by Erica Platter, an ex-colleague and friend), we discovered the wonders of Richard Kershaw at the Western end of the extended valley. My initial inquiry was about Syrah but Erica, not that fond of red wine, chimed in that Richard's Chardonnay was a bit special, too. After managing to source a pretty decent range of Richard's wines in the UK, including Syrahs, Chardonnays and a Pinot Noir, Shan and I had been taken by the similarity of his top range Chards to the Meursaults we occasionally treated ourselves to. Restless River and Kat se Snor (both pure Hemel-en-Aarde) have recently joined that club but more of that later.

We were therefore delighted when Richard invited us for a winery tour (after the Cape Town Cycle Tour in 2018) and then back to his house to try some of his more esoteric, limited-run, single-block wines. Those who know him will nod in agreement when conversation taps into his knowledge of oenology that has brought him the Master of Wine (MW) title. His enthusiasm and sincerity are awe-inspiring. Happily our daughter, Kate, had selflessly volunteered to drive us back to Hermanus.

That WAS an afternoon. A Belgian couple had joined us, earnest post grad oenology students who asked detailed questions that wouldn't have occurred to our little family group. Richard's answers not only satisfied them  but went above and way beyond. Our heads were spinning with knowledge and the effects of a generous few millilitres of world class wines dispensed via a Coravin. Perfect use for such a beast, which inspired my family's birthday gift to me that year.

Pictured above: (top row, Backsberg 1974) The iconic Arch on the road from Klapmuts to Franschhoek as it was in 1974; me being embarrassing for a candid snap outside the cellar/tasting room; (middle row and bottom rows, Grabouw 2018) Me being starstruck - we'd tasted generous samples from the lined-up bottles; Shan persuaded Richard to put his arm around me for a picture; the vines in the valley below; a last look at Shan's Fauvist rendition thereof.

La Vierge

La Vierge's Peter Clarke and I had been close friends at school and beyond when wine became something to drink and Tassenberg was the only intoxicating (legal) beverage we could afford. Now I was encountering fine wines with saucy names (christened, allegedly, by his quietly spoken, genteel wife, Rose) such as Jezebelle, Original Sin, Satyricon, Seduction, The Affair, The Last Temptation, Nymphomane and (of course there had to be) Redemption. The restaurant is also festooned with magnificent artwork, a few examples of which match the risque naming enjoyed by the wines.

We went there to celebrate Shan's (virtual) 60th birthday. Her actual 60th had been in lockdown but we managed to make up for it with a splendid lunch and a most pleasant Jezebelle Chardonnay. We weren't aware at the time of the  Apogée Chardonnay, which received 94% from Tim Atkin but remains untested by madame's palate. This will be rectified. In the mean time we quaffed a lot of Jezebelle with our delightful "landlady", Emma Hayter, after a few cases found their way to her wonderful abode opposite Shan's Mum's cottage in Mitchell Street. Little had we realised that La Vierge had been a favourite haunt of Emma's late husband, John.

​As soon as we found this out, we booked to take Emma there to thank her for putting up with us. No sooner had everything been organised than Pete (Peter) phoned, announced he was in town (he is not often there) and invited Shan and me and another couple of school friends, Campbell and Sally, for lunch on the same day. It was a strange dilemma that ended up with Pete inviting Emma to join us. We all got on like a house on fire, discussing the panoramic toilets from whence you could gaze out at the traffic on the Hemel-en-Aarde road while performing appropriate ablutions. The trick was that drivers on the road below seldom, if ever, glanced up to spot the diners using the lavatories.

Peter was drinking the excellent 2017 Last Temptation Riesling, which became a favourite of my stay in SA along with Leon Coetzee and Margaux Nel's award-winning The Fledge & Co Elgin cool climate Riesling. The Fledge sort of qualifies for Walker Bay Status because the grapes came from there although the wine was marketed through their Calitzdorp operation.

Pete and Emma certainly livened up the gathering but where could Shan and I now entertain our delightful host? All will be revealed a little further into this blog (and a few others to follow). 

A tale of two wine emporia 

Every time I'd been to Hermanus on many previous occasions, the Wine Village was always one of the first places I would visit. And so it was in October last year. I wasn't disappointed and nothing would have changed had Daryl Balfour not suggested I try Wine & Co in the town centre.

Wine & Co had two advantages: it was a reasonable walk from where I was staying in Mitchell Street, sure, but the primary reason was Gary ... the level of personal service was (is) extraordinary. The shop is small and doesn't have the sheer volume on the shelves but, unless you want 5 cases of Columella that evening, I would not bet against Gary sourcing it for you.

There was one wine I wanted (a six-pack of) and it was apparently only available via an awkward distributor. As I knew the winemaker, I went direct. But Gary doesn't give up. Without me knowing it, he sourced the wine, god knows how. I felt dreadful having made my own arrangements.

Then there were the obscure wines he is sent to try. I lost count of the times he shared those with me. I guess Wine & Co is Hermanus's old-fashioned adult sweetie shop, where there are hidden gems and personal service second to none​. Maybe a little discreet gossip to those customers he has learned to trust.

Restless River

How did we first come across Restless River? To be honest, I think I bought a mixed case of tempting wines, perhaps from Ben at VinoSA. I am always on the lookout for a top notch Chardonnay and habitually browse Ben's tempting array. Happens I'm also a fan of Swig in London so it might also have been there, too. Being at the top end of SA Chardonnays, Ava Marie can be not as easy to find as one may think. Probably down to the small volumes produced ... you see, Craig Wessels is a bit of a perfectionist when it come to his wines. In this, he is aided and abetted by his gracious wife, Anne. He is notorious for having poured a whole year's production of red down the drain once because, in his view, it didn't come up to scratch. That's dedication. Especially when you only make one white and one or two reds (give or take three or four experimental wines on the side, if that's what the Wanderlust labels are?). Two of their flagship wines are named after their daughter and son (Ava Marie and Le Luc {Pinot Noir}) and the third after the two small vineyards (Main Road and Dignity) on which its Cabernet Sauvignon is grown. I think there are less than 4,000 bottles of Le Luc produced in a year and maybe double that for the Ava Marie and the Main Rd.

Although we have some of each of the non-Wanderlust wines (and the reds have not yet been touched, waiting for what I know not?), the Ava Marie has tended to be our focus. Why is that then? Because it blew me away from the first sip. And there was a bit left over for the following day and it tasted even better.

This came as no surprise to Angela (Lloyd) when I "published" my notes (WSET-based) and since then we have both nodded knowingly when holding wine back for the second and maybe even a third day1. I'm sure Angela, being the consummate expert, had known this for decades but was happy for me that I'd discovered the same thing.

I had, at the time, taken to Twitter and Anne Wessels had kindly thanked me for loving their wine (this was approximately two years ago). It turned out that we were from similar backgrounds in Durban, KZN, and that Craig had been at school with my laat-lammetjie2 brother Paul. Also turns out the Wessels had a good knowledge of Montrachet in Burgundy (details in an earlier blog). 

In December last year we finally met Craig face-to-face at their scenic homestead in the Hemel-en-Aarde. Truly Heaven and Earth. We were treated to a vertical tasting of a number of their wines, including a very early Ava Marie. I would have noticed the precise year (and should have found out later if I was a proper journalist) had Craig not been keen to show those who wished to see it around the winery. Happily for Shan and me there were only a few takers as the rest of the gathering was happily tucking into the fabulous spread of food and wine. As you can see from the photos below, this gave us ample opportunity to interrogate our host in detail.

Readers will see from the pictures that the winery is spotless. This is not always a prerequisite for excellent wine but is was very quickly clear that Craig has a scrupulously ordered mind. Second best is not tolerated ...

Above: (Top) Craig in his element; Posh amphorae that were specially imported from Florence to give an unwooded component to their Ava Marie and thus one of the added dimensions that makes this a unique wine. The juice in the vats (when there is some) has a dark colour as a result of exposure to oxygen during pressing. This is an intentional process carried out to stabilise the colour (without using any chemicals) and protect the wine from oxidation further down the line. Craig described it as a kind of like a "flu shot" for wine; The middle two pictures are more indicative Craig's recent experiences in modern art. In the right hand picture his is explaining how carefully he drilled the holes, evenly spaced and in straight lines. He then had to delegate the job because he had more important business and various other patterns emerged. These resulted in Restless River's submission for the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town's prestige waterfront district3 As you can see he was pretty earnest in his presentation; (Bottom) Serious playground in the background where wine and pukka coffee are consumed until the early hours, accompanied by a notably credible album collection. I was jealous; Evidence that the Wessels invest in their winery rather than their Lambo (a disproportionate number of those flash supercars can be seen elsewhere in the Winelands).

Bosman Hermanus

It is appropriate that Bosman follows Restless River here because it was Anne Wessels that recommended the place to us as a dining venue and as a winery. The first person we wanted to take there was Emma, having been gazumped by Peter Clarke on our initial attempt to take her to la Vierge.

Serendipity was on hand. The day turned out spectacularly, even the clouds waving happily to us when we arrived. I was a tad nervous to whether as Emma would enjoy it, especially as I had taken a punt on kicking off with the Bosman Pét Nat Chenin Blanc. This was a bit of a risk as I'm not necessarily as enthusiastic about Champagne as some and, besides, I doubt Bosman had any of the latter on the wine list. Shan doesn't generally do drinking at lunchtime and had valiantly offered to drive so Emma and I had quite a bit of Method Ancestral to get through before ordering something else, which we did. Happily, Emma seems to be enjoying the aperitif in the picture below.

Bosman does what we always appreciate at lunch time; a series of smaller plates that are delicious and convenient to share. We were all happy with our choice and the fizz was eventually replaced with the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Chardonnay, which did the trick accompanying a series of delicious shared small bites. 

Emma was brought up to be gracious so the fact that she kept going back there with her friends was a particularly gratifying endorsement, even though she had enthused all the way in the car journey back to Hermanus.

We enjoyed it so much we took our extended family there for lunch a month later. I ended up having to eat about three Pastéis de Nata because they were running out and I didn't want our table to go short  ... it happens to me all the time. S'why I need to shift a stone or three.

Above: (Top) is sort of self-explanatory except it might take a bit of imagination to see the fifth finger in the hand of god creating the Hemel-en-Aarde; (2nd row) Pet Nat is a great start for lunch with Emma; A couple of wild swimmers head across the dam for fresh supplies, maybe. Babilonstoring in the background; (3rd row) l-r Max, Kate, Bennie, Crone, Andrew, Kinkles, Tim, Shan, Michael, Janine and Mia; (Bottom) the Pastéis de Nata that Bosman does so well; Caption this ... .

​Spookfontein, Tesselaarsdal and Creation

My excuse is that we ran out of time. It is a bad one and I certainly need to return for in depth chats with Berene Sauls and Carolyn Martin in which we can allocate time for a bigger picture story about where the valley is going. I think Anne Wessels has some ideas about Tesselaarsdal, too. Heaven forbid that it should end up under the mooted giant power lines transmitting nuclear generated energy from Banmtamsklip near Pearly Beach to the West Coast of South Africa.

The pandemic didn't particularly help in the early part of our "tour", leaving many venues temporarily (and sadly, in come cases even permanently) shut. Also, during the second half we were somewhat distracted by how unexpectedly long-winded our visa extension would become. When we'd investigated from the UK it seemed as if it would be a simple formality. That's enough moaning [ed].

I would dearly have loved to have had a face to face meeting with Berene to expand on her wine and the future of Tesselaarsdal village but her time was pretty much dominated by her day job at Hamilton Russell. It is at the latter winery that Berene makes her Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Pinot has been greeted with world-wine acclaim and no doubt the Chardonnay will, too, when it has time to rest awhile in the bottle. The first picture below is of the 2021 Chardonnay that was showing promise when we quaffed it in Hermanus, courtesy of Wine & Co.

I you follow my blogs you will by now have discovered that I have a bit of a thing about Tesselaarsdal, its past and its future. I'm not the only one4 but there is more to be played out. I do know for sure that Berene and the Wessels (and probably more besides) would dearly love to be part of that.

In the mean time it was rosé in the sun at the impressive building at Spookfontein.
"You must go there, if only to see the building," we were advised when we inquired from others in the know if it was open for lunches. 
We eventually made it by the skins of our teeth and enjoyed the food and wine, too: 

Above: (2nd row) Spookfontein's architecture is assuredly modern and built to blend in with the spectacular terrain; (3rd row) The detailing is lovingly carried through the interconnected buildings and there are substantial outside areas to sit and absorb the winelands and their surrounding mountains; (4th row) There was an engagingly cute Schnauzer frequenting the dining room. He was well-behaved. See if you can confirm if his name was Marmite (now gold-dust in SA having disappeared from the supermarket shelves)? (Bottom row) Inexcusable pun, I know, but the Spookfontein architecture graces every corner of hospitality and production.

Now, what about Creation? I have to hang my head in shame as a retired IT Architect. I dearly wanted to have lunch there but was having difficulty navigating the web site. It seemed to me on initial inspection that plain old lunch wasn't an option.

My Twitter friend (something good came out of lockdown), Lisa Harlow, was too polite to point out my cerebral shortcomings but did demand: "Have you been to Creation?" I mumbled something in response to which Lisa, a UK resident and specialist tour organiser, interjected: "I'll contact Carolyn Martin."

Which she did and before long Carolyn was contacting me. Sadly it was too late for Shan and me to properly visit by that point but we did drop by briefly to say hello and to be treated royally by Creation's co-owner (with her husband Jean-Claude).

Hopefully around the time that this blog goes out, Shan will be enjoying a full tasting experience there and will tell me all about it when she gets home to the UK.

Lunch with Angela Lloyd

​Now, last, but heaven forbid it should be least: lunch at Chez Lloyd. Without Angela's input, our Wineland perorations would certainly have been much diminished. We may never have become acquainted with Richard Kershaw for a start. Perhaps more importantly, though, Angela brought wine deliberations to life for me throughout lockdown. Tweeting throughout the pandemic was the closest we'd been able to come to a fireside chat.

Now all that was to change. Shan and I were headed to Kenilworth bearing coals for Newcastle (i.e. wine) and needed to complement it with some fresh flowers. We set off from Viv's place in Muizenberg, satnav (TomTom) primed with the coordinates and with plenty of time to spare to find suitable flowers. Now, it has been my experience with TomTom that it's great when you know where you're going and don't really need help but the wheels can come off (TomTom, thankfully not the car) when one most needs it. Such was the case on our way to Angela's. We saw parts of Mitchell's Plain we'll hopefully not see again. 

We did actually arrive on time but only with seconds to spare. We were warmly welcomed by our host and helped pick herbs while Angela set about the finishing touches to a delicious lunch. 

We also had a tour of her accurately temperature controlled and expertly stocked wine cellar. Green with envy, I could imagine soirees with the great and the good of the Cape Wine Community. And just in case you think that Cape wines dominate, there's also a cornucopia of exotic wines of various vintages that are either just ripe or still waiting to be. I may be a chav but I can spot a Chave out of the smallest corner of my eye..

Above: We focus on two very different and venerable Rieslings of completely different character. I think Angela managed to convert Chardonnay Shan to the virtues of well-kept Rieslings. And finishing off our scrumptious lunch with fresh Stollen did NOT go unnoticed alongside the Mosel.

Salut and thank you again for your gracious hospitality, Angela. Hopefully we'll be able to reciprocate soon up this end of the globe. Maybe fish out some ancient Badenhorst Chenin to share with the redoubtable Mr and Mrs Jones.

Coming next

We head back North East towards Kwa Zulu Natal and beyond to commune with friends and relations and for me to commence another road trip with my darling daughter, Kate.
​
[Endnotes]:

1. Actually I had first noticed this when trying my first bottle of Ryan Mostert's Smiley V2. My benefactor, Daryl, had given it to me noting that it was a bit controversial.  We'd been discussing El Bandito at his house and he had been undecided about the style of wine then classified as "Natural". I was, too after consuming a couple of glasses when I got home. And then something made me try it again the next evening and I was hooked. A salinity had materialised from somewhere and introduced a sublime balance to the drink. I relayed this info back to Daryl, who was delighted I'd enjoyed his gift.
2. ​Late lamb. He was 14 years younger than me.
3. If you really want to know what it is, it came out of a brainwave of Craig's. He wanted to recycle these  boards that been a component of some packaging and thought they'd make a handy sieve when eliminating detritus from bunches of grapes destined for whole-bunch maturation. He didn't do a demo for us so we had no guarantee of their efficacy nor whether the uniform holes or the more arty random ones worked best.
4. Quite some heartwarming detail in this article​