Erica Wines, Stanford

Piet Dreyer has a parrot. It's still too young to talk, but when it does, Elna, Piet's wife, is convinced it will swear like a seafarer, spewing out salty local versions of "billions of blue blistering barnacles". Because when Dreyer's not busy producing award-winning wine at his winery (Erica Wines, on the road that winds from Stanford to Caledon), he's playing Captain Haddock out at sea, skippering one of the squid boats that helped him amass a good living over the past couple of decades.

 

The red blend that won Erica a coveted bronze medal at this year's Fairbairn Capital Trophy Wine Show is, in fact, named after his favourite vessel, the beautifully crafted, pitch-black Raka.

Like its namesake, Raka Red 2002 has proved it can weather setbacks. Despite extended skin contact and six to eight months in French oak (new as well as first and second fill), the first blended version Dreyer created was so disappointing he seriously considered selling off the whole lot in bulk to a wholesaler. But "I don't easily give up," he says. So he invited everybody from consultant Bartho Eksteen to his family, neighbours and Jack Russell to sniff, spit and comment, until he came up with the right recipe. As the Trophy Show results testify, it worked brilliantly, Like Dreyer, who says he "does everything different to the herd", the wine's unique, with fynbos elements harmonising smoothly with layers of cherries and dark chocolate.

Blends are Dreyer's passion, and just bottled is his flagship and the realisation of his big dream: a classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, made by Teresa Fourie, full-time winemaker since the beginning of this year.

Also recently bottled in Erica's state-of-the-art cellar: a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend and the Shiraz 2002.

The cellar processed 315 tonnes of fruit this year, of which 160 came from the second harvest of Erica's 38 hectares of young vineyards. In addition to the red

Bordeaux blend varietals, Erica also has plantings of Sangiovese, Pinotage, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Viognier.

So steadily on course is Erica that Elna could well be wrong about Dreyer's parrot. Its first utterance is far more likely to be a happily whistled tune.