We’re standing on a knoll overlooking a
patchwork of orchards and vineyards in the fertile valley irrigated by the Cogmanskloof River. The de Wet family has farmed
ostriches, race horses, fruit and wine here for five generations. Freddie de
Wet, the custodian of Excelsior farm, points out the three farms his
great-grandfather left to three sons when he divided the original farm he
settled in 1869 - Excelsior, Prospect and Zandvliet. Winemaking runs in the
family’s blood - their forefather Jacobus De Wet came out to the Cape with the
Dutch East India Company in 1697 - and became the official cellar master and
one of the first winemakers in the southern hemisphere.
The valley runs from Arabella, Excelsior
and Zandvliet to De Wetshof, Van Loveren and Viljoensdrift - a handful of top
brands of Cape wine on domestic and export
markets. Freddie comments “This valley is a superb area for farming. I’ve made
forty-four vintages at Excelsior since 1970”. He points out the red alluvial
soils along the river banks and the limestone soils at higher elevations -
ideal terroir for growing Chardonnay and Shiraz.
“I think we make better red than white wine in this area - especially Cabernet
Sauvignon (the rows run for 1.3 km) and Merlot”. Land rarely changes hands
around here. Goudmyn next-door got its name when the owner paid a fortune for
the farm - and his wife asked, “How much? Did you buy a gold mine?!”
From our lookout on the Karoo koppie, we
can spot the Excelsior manor house, the feather palace his grandfather Jacobus
(“Kowie”) de Wet built in 1914 in the days when the value of a single ostrich
plume (£6) could buy you a passage on the Union
Castle line from Cape
Town to Southampton. A boom to
bust baron of ostriches, hackney horses and dairy cattle, his forefather
travelled to Europe to buy some of the
furniture which still sits in the grand manor, a luxury guesthouse which
celebrates its centenary in 2014 - with nine suites named after the thoroughbreds
of Excelsior.
Driving past the wine cellar built in 1914, we head up to the new tasting room with a view from a wooden deck floating on a farm dam. Blending wine is one of the most popular interactive tourist attractions at Excelsior - a unique blending bar where visitors draw wine from barrel, mix in test tube, taste, blend, bottle, “own creation” label, cork and seal three classic red varieties, and take home a souvenir. Watching otters swim in the dam, we tasted some of the wines exported to over twenty countries today - and make Excelsior one of the biggest SA wine export brands in the USA.
Every reserve wine tells a story of a
champion horse at Excelsior from Evanthius Cabernet Sauvignon (after a legendary
British hackney imported by his grandfather) - made from the oldest vines on
the farm - to Gondolier Merlot (which went on to win the Durban July in 1985)
and San Louis Shiraz (a stallion which won the Guineas in 1981). While staying
in the Agricola suite - after the yearling bred by Freddie’s mother sold for a record
price on the Rand Easter Show in 1964 - we were able to taste the wines at
dinner paired to Carin Visser’s country cuisine at the Excelsior manor
guesthouse (winner of Trip Advisor’s certificate of excellence in 2013). Agricola
gives his name to the reserve Sauvignon Blanc from one of Robertson’s coolest and
highest blocs. Freddie says, “We have a distinct wine style at Excelsior. We
handpick our grapes to get soft ripe tannins and juicy fruit - never tutti-frutti”.
In my own wine archives, I came across an
article entitled “The Home of the De Wets” near Ashton published in the Cape Times
on 28 April 1933. The author writes, “There are three farms, Excelsior,
Prospect and Zandvliet, the divided estate of the De Wets of Ashton, which no
money could buy ... Mr Paul de Wet, taking me to a high knoll on the further
side of the river, showed me where the original farm stood that had led to the
creation of this valley of the de Wets, from Excelsior down to Ashton”. I
wondered if I had stood on the same knoll with Freddie de Wet eighty years
later.
* Excelsior will celebrate the centenary of
its manor house with special dinners in the second half of 2014 which will
recreate the bygone feasts of the feather palaces.
Nearby in the Klaas Voogds ward, Rietvallei
wine estate is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2014, another
big milestone in the Robertson
Wine Valley.
Founded by Alewyn (a man with the right name) Burger in 1864, seven generations
of the Burger family have made wine here over the decades. On my last visit
during Robertson Slow, we tasted some of the legendary muscadels made on the
farm - the first wine bottled under the Rietvallei estate label back in 1975 -
as well as the maiden estate white wine, a wooded Chardonnay 1987. Twenty-five
vintages later, sixth generation winemaker Kobus Burger recently won fourth
place at Chardonnay du Monde.
I’ve walked among the venerable bush vines in the muscadel vineyard planted by Kobus Burger at the ripe age of seventy behind the Rietvallei cellar in 1908, the oldest Muscat de Frontignan vines in South Africa. The Muscadel 1908 has won many awards over the years - though its special select Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Shiraz and flagship Esteanna blends are also turning heads on top shows at home and abroad.
We headed home via Rooiberg Winery, the
gateway to the Robertson
Wine Valley,
strategically located between the N1 and Route62. Who could fail to miss the
arty giant billboards along the road and the big red chair which attract thirsty
travellers? The wine tastings, farm bakery, vintner’s platter and real country
pie at Bodega de Vinho, the winery’s restaurant and the country goodies farm
stall draw the crowds. Founded in 1964, Rooiberg (named after the red mountains),
this cutting-edge modern winery, owned by 34 local members, celebrates its
fiftieth anniversary in 2014.
Exported far and wide under many labels and
multiple retailer brands to over twenty foreign markets (China and Russia), CEO Johan du Preez says Rooiberg
is “bulk and bottle, multi-brand and multi-country”. A keen supporter of the
Biodiversity and Wine Initiative (BWI), Rooiberg also supplies an organic wine range
to Woolworths - and is a supporter of the leopard conservation work of the
Landmark Foundation.
* The Eleventh Robertson Wacky Wine Weekend
takes place at Excelsior, Rietvallei, Rooiberg and many other farms from 5-8
June 2014 - www.wackywineweekend.com