Hillcrest's Metamorphosis
Hillcrest Estate winemaker Dr Graeme ‘Curly’ Read has never studied viticulture or oenology. A scientist with a PhD in marine biology from Rhodes University, he spent most of his working life in KwaZulu-Natal. But at the age of 65, he is arguably South Africa’s top Merlot producer, having won the trophy for this notoriously difficult variety not once but twice at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show (in 2007 and again this year). And now his Hornfels 2009 has emerged as the top performer in Wine magazine’s annual review of Bordeaux-style blends.
How on earth has he done it?
“Anybody can make wine,” he laughs. “It’s simple as hell. But you can never make good wine from bad grapes, and you can never make good wine if you’re not passionate. That’s what it boils down to: good grapes and passion.”
There’s no question that he always had the passion. A dog-eared A4 scrapbook dating back to the 1970s is filled with labels of wines he drank as a young man, tasting notes, and fascinating correspondence with the likes of Overgaauw’s ‘Oom David’ van Velden and Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee, then at Kanonkop, whose personally handwritten letter of 13 March 1977 explains the difference between alcohol levels in the 1973 and 1974 vintages.
“I was probably the only chap drinking wine in Zululand in those days,” says Graeme, revealing that it was his ex-wife’s father who introduced him to wine when he was 28. “We drank a bottle of French wine together one evening, and by the next I was hooked.”
A red wine drinker ever since, he moved to Cape Town in the late 1990s, just as the garagiste movement was starting, and enthusiastically (if naively) set about planting 130 Shiraz vines in the backyard of his new home – in Pinelands! “Then I bumped into some old mates who told me that their fathers’ construction firm Haw & Inglis was now headquartered on a property in Durbanville, and that they’d planted vines there.”
Apparently co-owners Richard Haw, Peter Inglis and Gerrie du Toit (now viticulturist at Hillcrest) had recognised that the shale-rich soils they were using for cement and road construction also had the potential to yield quality grapes – grapes that they were already selling to nearby Durbanville Hills. Graeme leapt into his car and drove over to have a look.
“I was immediately impressed by the terroir – the soils, the elevation, the slopes – especially when compared to my flat piece of land in Pinelands. In fact, I got really excited! I think if you’ve had biological training and are used to working in nature, you get a feel for things. When they told me they were planning to make their own wine but didn’t have a winemaker yet, I asked if they’d let me have a shot at it – and they agreed.”
Like so many wannabe winemakers, his first stop was Main Street Winery in Paarl (tel 021872 3006) where Marais de Villiers told him what he needed to get started. “I’d felt rather daunted by those 100 000-litre tanks that you see in all the bigger wineries, but Marais showed me these 1 000 tanks in which you could ferment and press wine too. They were small and experimental, exactly the sort of thing I was used to as a scientist.”
He bought two, installed them in an old farm shed, and duly made one tank of Cabernet Sauvignon and one tank of Merlot. “I was so excited!” he recalls. “I mean, I’d always been passionate about wine, I’d been drinking it forever, and I’d read all about it, but for me, as an experimental biologist, to make it, to have it bubbling away in a tank and be able to control it myself, was just amazing. I then literally threw the Cab and Merlot together, and that was my maiden vintage – 2002.”
The wine went on to receive a 4 Star Platter’s rating, with Graeme appointed full-time winemaker at Hillcrest in 2003. “We started with eight barrels of wine and it has just grown and grown from there,” he says, although he stresses that most of Hillcrest’s 160-tonne production is still sold off. “We only process about 40 to 50 tonnes a year – I think Razvan Macici does that in a morning at Nederburg! But we’ve never pretended to be anything that we’re not.”
Similarly, Graeme doesn’t pretend to be a white wine drinker: “The acidity gets to me.” And although he has had success with the grape variety for which Durbanville is best known – Sauvignon Blanc – his real focus has always been red wine, and it was with the ultimate dream of making a Bordeaux-style blend that he planted 1 000 vines each of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec seven years ago. “Only a small number of vines so that I can give them all the attention they need,” he says. “Although they’re still relatively young, they’re already producing great stuff.”
In 2008, with five vintages behind him and the young grapes “coming along nicely”, he felt confident enough to bottle his first five-way blend alongside his already highly acclaimed Merlot in a new flagship range, named Metamorphic to draw attention to Hillcrest’s unique geological topography. As Graeme explains: “Millions of years ago, deposited shale soils were baked by hot volcanic lava and metamorphosed into rock, geologically known as hornfels.
This metamorphic rock can be seen in the abandoned quarry and is also highly visible in the vineyards.”
The Merlot was duly named Quarry and the blend Hornfels, with Graeme revealing that the latter’s composition will change every year. “If my Malbec is particularly good one year, it could make up 50% of the blend, likewise the Petit Verdot or Cabernet Franc. I’ll use whatever wines come out tops in greater percentages with the others just added for extra complexity or colour. The nice thing about this wine is that I can really play around. The important thing is that it must be distinctly different from the Quarry, which is at least 85% Merlot.”
Only eight barrels of each flagship wine are made each year, and Graeme says he is increasingly using new French oak. “The wines seem to have enough fruit to handle it.”
The fruit concentration, he believes, is a result of an extended ripening period: “By letting the grapes hang a little longer, the flavour ripeness has a chance to catch up with the sugar ripeness. Even so, our acidity is always much higher than the industry norm, giving our wines noticeable freshness and liveliness.”
He’s a great believer in judicious use of irrigation. “If the weather forecast says there won’t be any rain for a week, you have a reasonably good indication of how much water to give your vines for an extra bit of oomph, just to keep them ticking along.”
While his biologist background might give him a meticulous, scientific approach to his winemaking, he says he has learnt not to act on analysis alone but according to taste as well. He also admits that he might have been a little heavy-handed in his use of sulphur dioxide in the early days because he was so worried about oxidisation and losing colour. “Now I know not to overdo it.”
What does he think of the Hornfels 2009 in particular? “It’s a bloody nice wine, and it’s already drinking well because all of its components are well integrated. It’s been a harmonious whole right from the beginning. Will it win awards? I don’t know. You win some, you lose some.”
Either way, he is confident that his Metamorphic wines are the best he’s made, joking that maybe he should hand in his notice: “I might as well retire at the top!” But with plans to launch a flagship white blend to join the Metamorphic range in 2012, made from Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, it seems Graeme has a few experiments in him yet.
HILLCREST ESTATE
Race Course Road (M13), Durbanville
S33° 49’ 38.2” • E018° 35’ 25.9”
Tel 021976 1110
cellardoor@hillcrestfarm.co.za
www.hillcrestfarm.co.za
Tasting and sales daily from 9:00 to 17:00
Restaurant open for breakfast 9:00 to 11:00, lunch 12:00 to 15:00 and confectionary 15:00 to 16:00
(tel 021875 2346)
Also: Hiking trail, cycle track and trout-fishing
WHAT TO EAT WITH THE HORNFELS 2009
Graeme Read is reluctant to suggest a food and wine pairing: “I cook a lot but I’m not a big spice man. A small leg of lamb with a bit of parsley and thyme, served with potatoes and pumpkin, not butternut... For me that’s a jolly nice meal.”
When pressed further, he says: “It’s an elegant wine, so you don’t want the food to be too overpowering. Perhaps some seared tuna.” Asked for a suggestion from Hillcrest’s restaurant menu, head chef Debbie Bothma says: “Our tapas are a favourite, and we’re most famous for our chicken pie. But the Hornfels calls for something special, like the Greek lamb phyllo parcels I make occasionally.”
The good news is that the restaurant sells Hillcrest’s wines at cellar-door prices. “But at R250 a bottle, most people won’t order the Hornfels 2009 for lunch in a hurry,” says Graeme. “It’s a Christmas wine, a special-occasion wine.”
BUY IT HERE
In the Western Cape, the wines are available at specialist wine shop Wine Concepts in Kloof St (021 426 4401), Tops at Spar (0860 313 141), Ultra Liquors in Green Point (021 434 4847) and Wine Cellar in Observatory (021 448 4105).
In Gauteng, you can find Hillcrest’s wines in some Liquor City outlets (011 306 9999), Tops at Spar (0860 313 141) and Norman Goodfellows (011 788 4814). “Some Lowveld game lodges also stock our wine,” says Graeme.
WHERE ELSE TO GO IN DURBANVILLE
Graeme Read recommends a visit (by appointment) to Klein Roosboom, a family owned farm down the road from Hillcrest. “Karin de Villiers is making exceptional wines from pockets of land farmed by her husband for a long time. Plus she has a bit of marketing flair, which helps! Tel 082 784 5102; www.kleinroosboom.co.za
Just up the road from Hillcrest is Nitida: “It’s really put this area on the map for Semillon, and I also like its Merlot-based blend, Calligraphy. Plus the Cassia restaurant is very good.” Tel 021 976 1467; www.nitida.co.za
Also worth a visit is Altydgedacht: “The cellar has a nice, cosy atmosphere with a real sense of history, and I like the rustic daytime restaurant Eat@Altydgedacht.” Tel 021 976 1295; www.altydgedacht.co.za
