Just Cruising, Robertson

Record numbers of visitors are expected to descend on Robertson for the fifth annual Wacky Wine Weekend, which takes place from 6 to 8 June. Joanne Gibson takes a look at what makes the “valley of wine and roses” so popular.

 

Nowhere is 16th century Italian scientist Galileo’s observation that “wine is sunlight held together by water” more apt than in the winegrowing district of Robertson, located in the Breede River Valley some 160km inland from Cape Town.

"Sun baked" is one way to describe the stretch incorporating the towns of Ashton, Bonnievale, McGregor, Montagu and Robertson, dotted between the Langeberg and Riviersonderend mountain ranges at the edge of the Karoo (“semi-desert” is how Bon Courage Estate winemaker Jacques Bruwer puts it…). With an annual rainfall of just 300mm in a good year, compared with 600 to 800mm in Stellenbosch, the district’s lifeblood has always been the Breede River – but it was only with the development of a canal system in the early 1900s that water could be channelled from the fertile alluvial banks to the more interesting soils further up the slopes. Enter drip irrigation in the 1960s, and there they were – the perfect (or at least perfectly controllable) conditions for making quality wine: “sunlight held together by water”.

However, while wine drinkers may have become familiar with names like De Wetshof, Graham Beck, Bon Courage and Van Loveren over the years, many would probably have been hard-pressed to specify where these fairly prominent producers were located. Until June 2004, that is, when the inaugural Wacky Wine Weekend took place.

Four years ago, some 1500 visitors made the trip to Robertson for a weekend of potjiekos and pétanque, boat trips and game drives, live music and dancing, not to mention “meet-the-winemaker” cellar tours and tastings at 18 participating wineries. They ate, they drank, they were very merry indeed – and they spread the word.

Last year some 250 activities at 47 participating wineries attracted over 14 000 people to the “valley of wine and roses”, making it almost indisputably the country’s largest wine tourism event. Not only is Robertson firmly on the map, but WINE magazine readers – a fairly discerning lot! – say that it is their second-favourite favourite wine area after Stellenbosch, despite it being a good two-hours from Cape Town (2008 Reader Poll, see p. 40).

So what makes Robertson special? Or is it all just clever marketing – giving bored wine enthusiasts something to do in the dead of winter?

Make no mistake, coming up with the Wacky Wine Weekend (and subsequently two other festivals, namely Robertson Slow and Robertson Wine on the River) was very clever indeed, although Robertson Wine Valley (RWV) manager Bonita Malherbe ascribes a great deal of it to good timing.

“We had a fair amount of luck in being the first wine route to come up with an alternative way of doing wine festivals,” she says of the move away from stalls in a hall to decentralised activities on the farms themselves. “It was a very foreign concept and we weren’t sure it would work but we gave it a shot anyway.”

She admits being “crucified” over the name in the first year. “But at least it stuck in people’s minds!” Other than that, the Wacky Wine Weekend was an undisputed success in many different ways, not the least of which was the revival of the town of Robertson.
“Even Voortrekker Road, the fairly industrial road that used to bypass Robertson, is suddenly full of galleries, shops and restaurants,” says Phillip Retief, chairman of the RWV board and marketing director at Van Loveren which alone gets 3 000 visitors a day during the festival.

But Malherbe points out that it’s not only the strong brands like Van Loveren that do well. “There’s so much collective marketing, and so much momentum generated, that the smaller brands get swept up too,” she says – a statement confirmed by Michelle du Preez of Bon Cap Organic Winery, some 6km off the beaten track, who says: “Over Wacky Wine Weekend, our little gravel road looks like the Dakar Rally! We sleep about eight hours between Thursday and Sunday…”

However, says Malherbe, “The real beauty of Wacky Wine Weekend is that people come with a list of things to tick off , rush through the valley, get sidetracked along the way… and run out of time. They immediately decide to come back, either to the next festival or when they can do things at their own pace.”

She insists that Robertson’s distance from Cape Town is an advantage. “It makes us a weekend destination, so people book in advance, put their money down, and make a commitment to come regardless of the weather (which, nine times out of ten, is better here than in Cape Town anyway).”

She believes another beauty of Wacky Wine Weekend is that it gives wineries an opportunity to “test drive” new ideas. “For example, some have tried serving food and subsequently opened a restaurant. Previously very few offered anything to do apart from wine tasting. Now almost all of them offer something extra all year round.”

It could be the guided horse rides at Burcon Wines, tractor terroir trips at Weltevrede, river cruises at Viljoensdrift, the Italian prisoner of war story at Wederom, lunch at Café Maude on Bon Courage Estate – or it could simply be an impassioned vineyard and cellar tour with Lourens van der Westhuizen of Arendsig Hand-Crafted Wines. “If you drive past, just call my cell number on the gate and I’ll meet you there!”

Van der Westhuizen may produce just 2 500 cases annually, compared with the 175 000 cases produced by the De Wets of Excelsior Estate who boast (or, rather, are exceedingly modest about producing) the biggest-selling SA Cabernet Sauvignon in the United States thanks to listings at major restaurant chains Uno’s and The Red Lobster. But what they have in common, along with the Retiefs at Van Loveren, the Bruwers at Bon Courage or Springfield, the Viljoens at Viljoensdrift or the various other De Wets (at Arabella, De Wetshof, Zandvliet etc), is family ownership.

“There hasn’t been much outside investment in the area, compared with Stellenbosch which I believe is only about 15% family-owned these days,” says Phillip Retief. “Outside investment is good to a point – I wouldn’t wish it away! – but there is the risk that you lose your soul. Here, we’re still very hands-on.”

Wine lovers who like to meet the people behind the scenes of their favourite tipple have a better-thanaverage chance of doing so in Robertson – for example, stay at Excelsior Manor Guesthouse, a former ostrich palace recently restored to its former glory, and you’ll almost certainly meet Freddie and Kathy de Wet or their son Peter, perhaps over a private tasting of their wines paired with chef Lisl du Plooy’s cooking.

And yes, they are related to the various other De Wets. “Most of us are somehow related,” laughs Malherbe. “ Or we at least went to school or played rugby together – we’re a pretty coherent, close-knit group.”

“The downside,” quips Philip Jonker of Weltevrede (whose sister is the Eza of Janéza Private Cellar and whose second cousin is Johnny Burger of Rietvallei Estate), “is that we have to look further and further away to find wives.” But there’s no doubt that a certain amount of like-mindedness facilitates decision-making and encourages cross-selling.

“Everyone talks positively about everyone else,” marvels Graham Beck winemaker Irene Waller, the self-described “new girl on the block” having only moved to Robertson in December 2004. “Everyone happily shares information and gives assistance – that’s what makes Robertson such an amazing place.”

Certainly I’m struck by how many winemakers recommend their competition’s wines. Waller talks about the “damn nice” Viognier made at Rusticus even as we’re sampling hers; at Bon Cap I’m told I must try Quando’s “incredible” Sauvignon Blanc (5 Stars in UK magazine Decanter last November); Arendsig’s Van der Westhuizen raves about Goedverwacht Estate’s Maxim Cab, “and have you heard that Fred at Viljoensdrift is launching a Méthode Cap Classique this year?” (I have, actually, over a creamy mouthful of Bon Cap’s maiden 2005 bubbly also due for release shortly – SA’s first organic MCC).

All of which suggests that exciting things are happening as far as the wine itself is concerned – and this, believes Van der Westhuizen, is also a result of Wacky Wine Weekend. “The first one, four years ago, was a wake-up call. Suddenly we had a market and suddenly we could also afford to spend money on new equipment or a better winemaker or a consultant. There’s definitely been a boost in quality over the past five years.”

The right ingredients (“just add water”) were always there. It can get hot but every afternoon the southeaster blows in from the coast – less than 100km away – and the nights are cool, so the average temperature is within a degree of Stellenbosch.
Above all, though, there are the well-drained soils – and most notably the limestone. “All that calcium, which is so good for the bone structure of racehorses, is also perfect for growing Chardonnay,” says Danie de Wet, owner/winemaker at De Wetshof Estate, producer of several different styles from different clones planted on different soils.

“It’s just amazing how easy it is to produce good Chardonnay here,” agrees Phillip Retief at Van Loveren, whose Reserve Chardonnay won a gold medal at last year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show.

Chardonnay is also key in the production of bubbly, with Robertson producers (Bon Courage, Graham Beck and Weltevrede) winning the WINE magazine Amorim Cork Cap Classique Challenge no fewer than three times in six years. “But what makes it so interesting and exciting for us to live and work in Robertson is the whole patchwork of terroir between the mountain ranges flanking us,” says Weltevrede’s Philip Jonker who specialises in different soil expressions of Chardonnay (the River’s Edge from alluvial soils; the Place of Rocks grown in brittle shale; the Rusted Soil from limestone) but says “the diversity of the soil makes it impossible not to make other wines too” – from The Travelling Stone Sauvignon Blanc, grown in sandstone and quartzite washed down river from Ceres, to the Bedrock Black Syrah.

Some wineries have an even wider array of wines on offer. “A wine for every palate and every occasion” is the dictum at Van Loveren, SA’s largest privately owned cellar, selling some 600 000 cases a year.

This includes the Four Cousins brand as well as Five’s Reserve, wines aimed at the tourist market for which grapes are sourced from a farm 52% owned by staff and pensioners – a broad-based BEE project that recently won the top empowerment award in SA agriculture. (Feel-good stories abound, incidentally, from Springfield making wine for the local orphanage to the unveiling of the Graham and Rhona Beck Skills Development Centre, or Biodiversity & Wine Initiative champion Graham Beck Wines working to register a formal conservancy with Rooiberg, the first co-operative to have become a BWI member).

Also taking immense pride in the variety of styles he produces is Jacques Bruwer at Bon Courage, which was named Best Value Cellar by WINE magazine last year – a first for a registered estate. “For me, creating three or four different ranges and styles and winning awards across the spectrum is a great achievement,” he says – and it’s not just talk.

His Jacques Bruère Brut Reserve 2000 won the Cap Classique Challenge in 2004; his Inkará Shiraz 2005 won the Shiraz Challenge in 2007; and he’s had no fewer than 10 wines scoring 4 Stars or better in WINE panel tastings over the past three years.

“Robertson disproves the idea that lower prices necessarily mean poorer quality,” he says. “Our secret is our semi-desert climate, because we can control yields and manipulate everything through irrigation.”

Even Arendsig’s Van der Westhuizen agrees with this, his family having long sold grapes to the local co-ops: “You can’t find better soils anywhere in SA, and through irrigation we can produce top quality fruit in greater quantities than other regions. We still get small berries but lots more of them – eight to 10 tons per hectare for Shiraz, and over 10t/ha for white varieties.”

Overall, Robertson’s price-quality ratio is very good, sometimes mind-bogglingly so – take Rooiberg Winery’s Reserve Chardonnay (SA Champion at the 2007 Young Wine Show) which sells for R35 a bottle at Bodega de Vinho, Rooiberg’s fabulous new deli-bakery-cum-restaurant run by Jackie Robinson. “In Cape Town you can hardly get a glass of wine for that price anymore,” she laughs.

Sure, it’s a co-op wine, but clearly Rooiberg isn’t any old co-op, from its commitment to sustainable winegrowing to its investment in wine tourism (the Bodega as well as regular exhibits by landscape artist Strijdom van der Merwe). “Rooiberg is such an example to the other co-ops,” says Malherbe.

Much like Robertson Wine Valley is an example to the other wine routes.