Groene Cloof, Swartland

Eight years ago advocate Johan van der Berg went shopping for a sheep farm in the Swartland. This month he and erstwhile Groene Cloof winemaker Frikkie Botes take to the podium to receive the 2001 WINE magazine ABSA Private Bank Pinotage Champion award crown with the cellar's second vintage. Leonie Joubert speaks to the men who got a little more than they bargained for.

 

"I came out here looking for grazing," says advocate Johan van der Berg, explaining his purchase of Hillside farm, later renamed Groene Cloof, 9km from the Atlantic coastline near the Swartland town of Darling.

Van der Berg grew up on a sheep farm in the heart of the Great Karoo before moving to Cape Town to practice at the Bar.

"I was looking for a place to farm sheep near Cape Town because sheep have always been my passion," he says of a lifelong dream, now a reality as he enters his retirement years.

"I knew nothing about vineyards or wine - except that I like to drink it!"
When the lawyer took possession of the 1 395ha farm in July 1994, it included some well established vineyards.

It wasn't until the 1998 crop was ripening that the workmen packed their tools and the Groene Cloof cellar opened for business under the command of vintner Frikkie Botes.

The maiden vintage from the new cellar, a Cloof Cabernet and Pinotage '98 and a Chenin '99 were released in 1999.

"Frikkie entered the '98 Cloof Pinotage into the ABSA Pinotage Producers Association Top Ten competition that year and it was amongst the 20 finalists."

But while tasting their wine alongside others at the award ceremony prior to the announcement of the Top Ten, Botes predicted their wine wouldn't make it past the final elimination into the Top Ten listing.

"Frikkie said to me: 'you know, we won't make it… our wine hasn't got enough wood'," recalls Van der Berg.

"Most of the Top Ten wines were overwhelmed with wood," agrees Botes retrospectively, unaware that he's echoing the concern of WINE Magazine panellist Martin Moore.

Moore, on the first day of WINE's tasting in June, called for the panel "not to favour heavily oaked Pinotage" because of a trend (reflected often in competition results) to "push for Cabernet-style Pinotage" as the only serious style.

With the panel at WINE's 2001 competition aware of the current trend in the industry and wanting to send a message of its own (i.e. punting serious but accessible and not overly oaked wines), the Cloof Pinotage 1999 took its place in the Pinotage hall of fame.

Botes, who left Groene Cloof cellar in November 2000 to join Meerhof, a new venture in the Swartland near Kloovenburg, considers the style of wine he sought to achieve while at Groene Cloof Estate.

"I don't believe a Bordeaux-style should be used for Pinotage…

"I like to make a wine that's drinkable but is also able to mature... I like to make a different style of wine," Botes explains, "one which is unique (to an area).

"Groenekloof region gives different fruit to, say, Stellenbosch. There you get lots of banana flavours from your grapes. Here in the Swartland you get overwhelming fruit and an almost peppery, wild Karoo bush character."

Raw material for the Cloof Pinotage comes from two separate blocks of bush vines.

"The first is a 25-year-old block which gives much better flavour and colour intensity. It's on a type of Hutton soil - you know, reddish with some stones. The second is a block of 13-year-old vines on sandy soils above a gravelly layer… these grapes give a higher acid which is good for maturing."

While the 1998 was made solely from the older block, the 1999 was a blend of the two. Vindication for their belief in the 1998 Pinotage came with a four star rating in Decanter magazine, and a good review in WINE.
"This (the '99) spent 11 months in oak - 80% in first-fill Saury (French oak) and the rest in American oak."

Botes managed to balance this serious oak with a hint of residual sugar (2,5 to 3,5g/l) to round off the edges.

"I like high sugar in the grapes, it gives a full, big wine. The '99 has a resultant alcohol of 14,5% - it's very well structured."

Botes goes on to reveal a quirk in the wine's history:
"It went into the barrel with some sugar and began fermenting again! Yes, it was a stuck ferment… the extra fermentation in the barrel is what makes it different (from the '98)."

"Now the 2000 Pinotage will be almost the same as the '99 because it's from the same blocks."

Van der Berg is understandably thrilled with the news of the Cloof Pinotage's success… especially as he didn't even know it had been entered into the competition.

"Anneke (Burger, the current winemaker) must have entered it!"

This victory brings him alongside Pinotage giants such as previous winners of this competition - including Kaapzicht, Hidden Valley/Grangehurst, Uiterwyk - and ABSA Top Ten stalwarts such as Kanonkop, Bellingham Spitz and L'Avenir, just to mention a few.

"Next time I play golf with Beyers," chuckles Van der Berg good-naturedly, "I'll say 'kom kyk hoe 'n mens Pinotage maak'."

Fact File
Grapes from Hillside farm were, for many years, sold to Mamreweg Co-op (now Darling Cellars) where it was one of the winery's largest suppliers. Van der Berg ended this relationship after the 1995 harvest and sold most of the 1996 and 1997 grapes to Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (SFW) after SFW buying consultant, Paul Wallace (now Groene Cloof's viticulturist), recognised the potential of the area and brokered a deal with the advocate.

But Van der Berg wanted his own label.

"If we were going to do it, we were going to do it properly. It was senseless to schlepp 80km to SFW and back." While work began on the cellar in November 1997 and was completed in time for the '98 harvest, a small batch of Cabernet and Pinotage 1997 were launched from Groene Cloof grapes vinified at Rust en Vrede by vintner Kevin Arnold.

Today the Cloof range includes a Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon, a Cinsaut/Pinotage/Cab blend called Bush Vine and a Chenin Blanc. A second label, simply titled Van Der Berg, consists of an unwooded Pinotage and an unwooded Chardonnay (currently the 2000 vintage on sale) and is only available from the cellar at R24 and R20 each per bottle.

Cloof wines may not be widely available locally, except at the cellar door, after Van der Berg's initial focus mainly on the export market. However he says he's now going to start concentrating on the home market - so look out for the label at select retail outlets.

In the mean time Van der Berg says he has a good stock of the Cloof Pinotage 1999 available from the cellar at R55 per bottle. Get it while stocks last!

Groene Cloof is open for tasting and sales from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday and 10am to 1pm on Saturday.

Groenekloof is a ward which lies west of Malmesbury within the Swartland wine region. Johan van der Berg took this name, meaning "green gorge" for his farm with a slight spelling change to eliminate public confusion around the ward name and his own label.

Darling Cellars, neighbouring Groene Cloof, branded its premium range Groenekloof.

Négociant Neil Ellis also produces a Sauvignon Blanc with grapes sourced from his farm in the Groenekloof ward.