Debating the importance of Old Vines
It is mid-November and the vines are verdant with new growth, bright green leaves and berries just waving in the warm breeze flowing down the Du Toits Kloof. The fierce heat of summer has not yet gripped the valley, and the lush foliage is heavy with the promise of an abundant harvest.
Photographs by Norman McFarlane and Toby Murphy
“Last year we got about 4.5 tonnes from this block,” says Neels Boonzaaier. “The year before (2009) 5.6 tonnes and, in 2008, 11.5 tonnes.” We’re standing in the middle of a tiny block of Hanepoort vines, 0.8ha in extent, directly in front of the 300-year-old farmhouse on Gevonden, hard by the N1 motorway in the Du Toits Kloof. I’ve journeyed all the way out here from Somerset West at the behest of Rosa Kruger, L’Ormarins’ viticulturist, who is engaged in what is arguably one of the most important projects for sustaining of our vinous heritage: the identification and preservation of vines 40 years and older.
The Gevonden Hanepoot vines are around 128 years old, bushvines growing in rich alluvial soil on clay substrata, close to the stream – a tributary of the Moolenaars River – that traverses the farm.
The massively gnarled trunks are an expression of their venerable age, hinting at the complex and extensive root systems that would have developed over the years, reaching deep into the soil, through the well-drained alluvium, right down to the clay substrata which will hold the water eked out through the drip-irrigation system which feeds the vines.
This is what I have come to see and experience, and my sense of awe at being in the presence of these ancient vines – almost two-and-a-half times my age – is all but overwhelming.It is like standing in a living cathedral, a tribute to the rich history which presages the modern wine industry, with its inclination to tear out the old and plant the new, usually in pursuit of yield and the latest fad in grape varietal, suggested by an oft-fickle wine-drinking public.
The age of the vines is an estimate, garnered from Neels and wife Kobie, in whose family the farm has been since 1829, when her great-great grandfather, Hendrik Christoffel de Wet (Hennie) acquired the farm. Kobie says the family history suggests that the Hanepoort vines were planted by Hennie’s son, Jacobus Hendrik Stofberg de Wet (Koos), who inherited the farm from his father, in 1882.
But official records at SAWIS (SA Wine Industry Systems, that is also responsible for administrating the Wine of Origin system) tell a different story. With the registration of vineyards having commenced only in 1910, and SAWIS official records going back only as far as 1945, officialdom tells the Boonzaaiers that their venerable old vines are just 65 years old, a bitter pill to swallow when one wants to put the probable age of the vineyard on the label of the wine, a lovely fruity Hanepoot, made and bottled at the nearby Goudini Wines.
This is but one of the very old vineyards that tell the tale of our vinous history that Rosa, with the generous support of L’Ormarins owner Johann Rupert, is tracking down and documenting, fiercely determined to preserve as much of this fragile history as she can.
But she does not fight alone. Maverick winemaker Eben Sadie, from the Swartland, has worked closely with Rosa, to bring this threatened heritage to the attention of the wine-drinking public, and with the recent release of his Ouwingerdreeks, he has placed the matter of old vines, and their potential to produce remarkable wines, front and centre.
Eben and Rosa collaborated closely in the search for the vineyards which produced the grapes in the six wines that constitute Die Ouwingerdreeks. Lyrically seductive names like ‘T Voetpad (The Footpath in Dutch) a blend of red and white Semillon, Palomino and Chenin Blanc from vines that average 78 years in age, all on own roots, untroubled by phyloxera, roll off the tongue, capturing the simply elegant and traditional approach to winemaking from the very early days of our vinous heritage.
‘T Voetpad comes from a dry-land vineyard, 1.4ha in extent, on Dirk Brand’s rooibos tea and wheat farm up in the north of the huge Swartland close by the village of Aurora and Elands Bay, where the chill waters of the South Atlantic meet the fiercely hot mainland.
Eselshoek (Donkey Corner) is a sweet Hanepoot, one of the best-known wines of the old Cape. It is made from the Muscat d’Alexandrie vines in Dirk Brand’s tiny vineyard, and its massive sweetness makes it prone to bird predation. In 2009, the grape bunches were picked and hung under shade nets for three weeks to raise the sugar level. Pressed over two days, the juice extracted amounted to a mere 10% of the original grape volume, but with a substantial 285g/¡ of sugar and an alcohol level of just 11.5%.
It was fermented for a year in a 124- litre oak barrel then transferred into large glass jars, as the barrel was needed for the next harvest.
And so Pofadder, Mev Kirsten, Skuurfberg and Kokerboom follow, each with an intriguing tale of provenance and the respectful treatment of venerable old vines by, in some instances, generations of the same family.
All of the vines are dry-land bushvines, in itself an indication of the fortuitous matching of varietal with site all those years ago, before the science of viticulture had developed to the point where it told us what to plant where.
The winemaking is elegantly simple and as close to natural as possible. Fermentation is all by natural yeast, and it takes as long as it takes. Eben tells of his concern that the Eselshoek may not have completed fermentation in time for the launch of the Ouwingerdreeks early last August. It was – but only just! The wine is left to clarify in old casks – Eben is well-known for his cautiousness with oak, expressed in his oft-heard refrain: “Why do you want to taste a French forest in a South African wine?” – from which it is directly bottled, unfi ned and unfiltered, with the addition of the tiniest amount of sulphur.
Five hundred bottles of each of the Ouwingerdreeks are produced on average, but with Mev Kirsten’s tiny yield, only 280 bottles were eked out in 2009. Twohundred- and-fifty boxed sets were made, each of the six bottles bedecked with a beguiling label created by artist William Kentridge. Priced at R3 600 a box, it is a substantial amount of money by most people’s standards.
But Eben is unrepentant, recalling the brouhaha when he released the embryo of his Ouwingerdreeks in 2008, the groundbreaking 2006 Mev Kirsten Chenin Blanc, made from a block of 90-year-old vines growing on decomposed granite under the Botmanskop Mountain in the Jonkershoek Valley in Stellenbosch. He priced it at R825.04 a bottle, and with the yield being little more than 650kg from the hectare of vines, he only managed to squeeze out around 350 bottles. Clearly, the Gevonden vineyards substantial yield is atypical of older vines.
“To successfully and properly manage an old vineyard like this costs money. If you want to use the grapes from it, you must be prepared to pay the producer enough to justify keeping the vineyard,” he says. “It’s not just about a price per tonne. In 2010, the Mev Kirsten vineyard yielded just 550kg of fruit.”
He reckons by way of example that the annual viticultural cost of farming the Mev Kirsten vineyard is R30 000 per hectare, with much of the work being extremely labour intensive and requiring skill.
“When you’re pruning and suckering, you must know what you’re doing,” says Rosa, echoing Eben’s sentiment. “Each cut is carefully considered before it is made. The vines also tend to be planted much closer together, so you can’t get a tractor into the vineyard. Everything must be done manually.” Neels Boonzaaier’s Gevonden Hanepoot vineyard is no different. Each vine is sprayed individually using a knapsack pump, and the ground is worked by hand.
With labour and expertise inputs of this order, it is little wonder that the wines coming from these old vineyards are priced as they are. “Anybody who wants to can come and look at my books,” says Eben. “It costs a fortune to make these old wines, and what I make each year barely covers the costs of the following year.”
But it is what you get in the bottle that is the real test. The wines have a presence that is absent from wines made from younger vines. The natural acidity in all of them, for example, is substantial. It gives each and every one a remarkable freshness and liveliness, helps to avoid premature oxidation and aids longevity.
“Acidity is as much of a contributor to life in a wine, as is structure,” said Eben during the launch of the Ouwingerdreeks last year.
Fruit concentration, complexity and balance are all hallmarks of the wines, but there is another dimension, which Rosa dubs “togetherness”, which she says stands out like a beacon in the wilderness, so much so that even in a blind tasting, such wines will be identifiable. “They are more seamless, but not in the modern sense. The acidity and sugar seems to be more in harmony, and they have a depth and structure that you do not get as easily in wines from younger vines,” she explains.
And while there may well be more old vineyards out there still to be discovered – Rosa believes that there are many of them – it’s not easy. “SAWIS won’t release any information about these old vineyards,” says Rosa, “because the information is confidential. It belongs to the vineyard owner, and you’ve got to get their permission.” It’s the classic catch-22. And of course, some of the older vineyards are probably not even registered with SAWIS, so Rosa had to find another way.
She launched a programme earlier this year via email and word of mouth, in which she appeals to farmers across the Western Cape to contact her if they either have, or know of, vines that are 40 years old or more. Why 40 years? “It’s an arbitrary number,” she says, “but I had to pick a cut-off point.” So far, she has assembled a database of over 50 such vineyards and she is fielding one or two calls a week. Industry body SASEV (SA Society for Oenology and Viticulture) has agreed to send out an appeal to its members, as has Wines of South Africa (WOSA).
An open day is planned for March this year at L’Ormarins, at which the vineyards discovered thus far will be showcased, the potential for making great wines from them discussed, and the programme for uncovering more of the as yet undiscovered vinous jewels, exposed to a wider audience.
But that, of course, is only the first link in the chain which must be forged if this priceless heritage is to be preserved. Each vineyard must be visited and assessed, and its potential evaluated. “Not all old vineyards make good wine,” quips Eben, but there is undoubted potential. He and Rosa recently came upon a 65-year-old vineyard at Dwarskersbos on the West Coast, planted with amongst others, Chenin Blanc and Palomino. The soil type is pure sand with a limestone or calcaire layer at about two metres. “It’s going to have minerality that will cut like a sushi knife,” says Eben, in anticipation.
In some instances the vines have been preserved for sentimental reasons, having been planted generations before by an ancestor. They may not have been economically viable, with the grapes often going into bulk wine. Those that do have the potential must be managed carefully to maximise yield without compromising quality.
An important part of the programme is to match viable vineyards with winemakers who are prepared to put in the effort required, to treat the vineyard and its resulting fruit with the respect it deserves, and to realise the full potential of the grapes. Gevonden’s Hanepoot vineyard, for example, has been matched to two winemakers, as yet undisclosed, who are prepared to do so. This is also one of the objectives of the March open day. “All interested winemakers are invited to attend the open day and to meet the farmers and to talk to them about their old vines,” says Rosa.
The final link in the chain is persuading the wine-drinking public to pay the price required to support the continued preservation of our winemaking heritage, and that may prove to be the greatest challenge of all.
Wine from really venerable old vines
The island of Santorini in the Cyclades Aegean, southeast from Greece's mainland, boasts some of the oldest vines in the world. The sandy volcanic soils – Santorini is the exposed rim of an ancient submerged volcano – were planted by the Phoenicians 3 500 years ago, and today nourish some of the oldest-known varietals, long forgotten elsewhere.
Vintner Haridimos Hatzidakis (www.hatzidakiswines.gr) farms local varietal Assyrtiko vines between 100 and 400 years old. He makes three Assrytiko-led white blends, as well as two single varietals, Nikteri and Santorini Barrel, with the latter being particularly highly thought of by the mainstream British wine press.In 2009, he turned his attention to the French market, with his hand-crafted Santorini Cuvee No. 15 Hatzidakis, made that year by Apostolos Thimiopoulos, which was also very well received.
Wines from old vines
Note: This is not a comprehensive list of wines from old vines, but some worth sampling.
Bosman Family Wines Optenhorst
Chenin Blanc 2009, 58-year-old vines (formerly Old Vines Chenin Blanc)
Ex cellar: R135
Spier Private Collection Chenin Blanc
2009, 45-year-old vines
Ex cellar: R96
L’Avenir Grand Vin Chenin Blanc
2008, 34-year-old vines
Ex cellar: R120
Meerendal Heritage Block Pinotage
2007, 60-year-old vines
Ex cellar: R320
Woolworths Classic Chenin Blanc
2009 (Made for Woolworths by Spier), 42- to 45-year-old vines
Woolworths: R59.95
Gevonden Hanepoot 2006, 128-year-old bushvines Available from Neels Boonzaaier (tel 023 349 1564): R850 per one-litre barrel
Sterhuis Chenin Blanc 2008, 41-year-old vines
Ex cellar: R65
Botanica Wines Chenin Blanc 2009, 51-year-old dry-farmed bushvines
Ex cellar: R148
Sadie Family Wines
Die Ouwingerdreeks
Boxed set with Willian Kentridge labels containing the following:
‘T Voetpad: red and white Semillon, Palomino and Chenin Blanc field blend, average 87-year-old bushvines
Eselshoek: Muscat d’Alexandrie natural sweet white, approximately 110-year-old bushvines
Pofadder: Cinsaut, 48-year-old bushvines
Mev Kirsten: Chenin Blanc, over 90-year-old bushvines
Skurfberg: Chenin Blanc, 78-year-old bushvines
Kokerboom: white and red Semillon, 70-year-old bushvines
2009 sold out, 2010 to be launched this year. Interested parties should send an email to office@thesadiefamily.com in order to get onto the mailing list. South African buyers will be given preference.
