Burnt rubber bubbly
Burnt rubber bubbly
Former F1 champ Jody Scheckter is now making sparkling wine in Blighty.
The unveiling of the man behind the UK's latest homegrown sparkling wine is a delicious irony.
In a country where SA reds are often accused of possessing "burnt rubber" aromatics, how appropriate that Kyalami Kid and former World Formula 1 champion Jody Scheckter has made application to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to build "a bespoke winery to produce a Champagne-style sparkling wine" on his Laverstoke Farm, 60km west of London.
In confirmation of global climate change, the SA motor racing phenomenon has already planted the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier vines he needs to provide fruit for his fizz at a density of 5 000 plants per hectare.
As Laverstoke marketing manager Sara Whittall told the Basingstoke Gazette, "Within each of these varieties, clones were selected for their suitability to produce quality organic sparkling wine in the often-difficult UK growing conditions.
Each was chosen to provide a different dimension for the winemaker to craft together a quality organic English sparkling wine. The site of the vineyard was chosen because of the slope, exposure to the sun and also to help manage the vigour of the vine and the impact of disease." Pieter Ferreira of Graham Beck could not have put it better.
Even more ironic is the news that Jody doesn't fund his farming from F1 proceeds but rather the R1 billion he made training the US police and military how to shoot straight. Today he's the largest biodynamic farmer in Blighty, supplying organic meat to Heston Blumenthal and Raymond Blanc and buffalo burgers to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen chain.
He's starting small in wine - the planned complex will include "a main barrel-vaulted structure with a roof covered in plants. There will also be a wine-storage area, tasting area with external terrace, yard and car park".
Three new jobs may be created, although Jody admits that "the proposed winery will have only a limited impact on the local economy". But a larger one on SA MCC exports, given the elegant carbon footprint of Jody's bubbles and the large number of Saffers living in Earl's Court.
On the subject of which, were you offended to be called a Saffer by UK bloggist Jamie Goode on a BA premium economy freebee the week after the Earl's Court Mega-Tasting of SA wines?
I always thought Saffer was an offensive whitening of the K-word. Now WikiAnswers enlightens me further. "Saffer is a derogatory, mildly racist short term for a South African. Etymology: Stemming from the German, combining the abbreviation for South Africa (or South African) (SA-) with the German word for ape (-Affe)." Bloody soutpiele (as crash-prone Jody might have said after causing "a monumental pile-up at the 1973 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, in which eight cars were totally destroyed").
Animosity between Boer and Brit makes for some good jokes and even better labels from a pair of Stellenbosch spiders, Rohan Etsebeth and Janneman Solms, who designed the joint-venture wine of Stefan Gerber, great-greatgrandson of Oom Paul Kruger and the great-grandson of Field Marshall Sir John French, Alexander Milner.
Called "Boer and Brit", the 2008 vintage is a 60:40 blend of Malbec and Tempranillo made by Stefan Gerber, whose day job is making champion Chenin for Wendy Appelbaum at De Morgenzon, and Alexander Milner who dittos at the family seat Natte Vallei on the Simonsberg.
The design is definitely not Anthony Lane. More Barberton baroque than Bantry Bay, it features a Baden Powell sepia image of a "Irooinek and a rockspider" alongside the mysterious motto: "With the body of a Boer and the nose of an Englishman, you can't go wrong." Something Jody may wish to appropriate for his own back label.
