Back in the Eighties, anti-apartheid
activists refused to buy Cape apples, though they might sometimes have
been thwarted. “I remember working in an apple-packing shed,” says
Anthony Hamilton Russell (AHR), a third-generation South African, “and
they were happily putting on 'Produce of Israel’ stickers…”
Wine lovers might have boycotted many South African wines on grounds of
taste as well as politics back then. With statutory power to control
production areas, prices and yields, the KWV (Koöperatieve Wijnbouwers
Vereniging van Suid-Afrika) imposed regulations favouring bulk wine
growers, effectively strangling the initiative of all but the most
determined small producer.
The story of wine is rarely just a
story of grapes and vines, and South Africa’s is in some ways
encapsulated by that of Hamilton Russell, a family estate making some of
the country’s finest chardonnay and pinot noir.
After 21 years of democracy, South Africa has come of age to become one
of the most thrilling wine countries in the world, planting in new
places, harnessing the flavour of forgotten old vineyards,
experimenting, discovering.
“There’s huge excitement at the top end, I guess more than
£15 a bottle,” says Anthony. “And esoteric small production as a result
of South Africa’s move away from large volumes.”
Tim
Hamilton Russell, Anthony’s father, was a pioneer of South Africa’s
modern wine industry. He bought land in Hemel-en-Aarde close to the
Atlantic coastline, in 1975, planted vines in 1976 and made his first
wine in 1981, supervising the operation from Johannesburg, where he
owned and ran the advertising agency J Walter Thompson South Africa.
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