Koelfontein

Koelfontein

Capetonians in the know may flock to Ceres to see snow in winter or to pick cherries in summer. But a fruit farm called Koelfontein has recently put Ceres on the wine map too, as Joanne Simon discovers.

 

Aptly named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres is known as the fruit juice capital of South Africa. What most people don't know is that it has also been a ward in South Africa's Wine of Origin appellation scheme for over a decade - not bad considering there is only one wine-growing farm in the area! But Koelfontein is no ordinary farm, as its remarkable success in 2006 has proved.

The highlight, undoubtedly, was being named as runner-up in last year's particularly fiercely contested WINE magazine Shiraz Challenge for the Koelfontein Shiraz 2004, whose 4½ Star rating matched that of the winning Saxenberg Private Collection 2003. The same wine achieved a double gold at Veritas soon afterwards, and then the Chardonnay 2004 was named the country's top Chardonnay in the inaugural South African Terroir Wine Awards.

"Within a month our bottles seemed to grow legs and walk out," marvels viticulturist Zulch Conradie, who owns Koel-fontein along with his brother Handri.

It was only four years ago that the brothers took over from their father, now retired and living in nearby Prince Alfred's Hamlet, and decided to find ways of "adding value" to the seventh-generation family fruit farm, which dates back to 1832. First and foremost, they started - @ source - a dried fruit business that is now the main supplier of dried fruit to Woolworths. "Demand has outstripped what the farm can supply so we have also started buying in fruit," says Handri.

Meanwhile, they also decided to give their vineyards a little more attention. "We had always made a bit of wine … for medicinal purposes," quips Zulch.

But there's more to the story than that, as Handri explains: "Our father and grandfather grew grapes on the slopes that were too steep for fruit trees. There was no water up there but the soils were too good to waste, so they planted mostly Chenin Blanc, Colombard and Riesling, which they sold to Romansrivier (now Mountain Ridge Wines), the local co-op in Wolseley."

In 1987, the winemaker at Romansri-vier persuaded Conradie Snr to plant Chardonnay ("Making us one of the first vineyards to have the good plant material legally," notes Zulch). The 1992 vintage, bottled under the Romansrivier label, was awarded Veritas gold, and the co-op deemed it special enough to be bottled as Koelfontein. "This would only be possible if Ceres had Wine of Origin status, so Romansrivier pushed for demarcation."

Merlot was also planted and, later, Shiraz. "And when we took over we decided to see if this was a ship we could make float," says Zulch.

There's a saying that "it takes a large fortune to make a small fortune in the wine business" but the Conradies have been sensible. They have not invested in a cellar but rather in some basic cellar equipment - stainless steel tanks; French oak barrels - and these were installed at Paarl estate Seidelberg, where Nicolaas Rust made their wine in 2002 and 2003, before moving to Saronsberg's new state-of-the-art cellar in Tulbagh, where winemaker Dewaldt Heyns has been their vini consultant since 2004.

"We don't have the quantities to justify our own cellar," says Handri, revealing that they only make about 1 500 cases of own-label wine from the 19ha they have under vine on their 1 000ha farm. "What's more, we don't ever plan to make wine too large a part of our business. As a boutique or niche product we can make a bit of money from it, but it would be foolish to expand ourselves beyond that."

Zulch explains: "There's much more profit in apples and pears. If our wine is only good, the money we make will be the same as the farm-gate income we get from our fruit. We have to make top wine or there's no point."

Ceres is in fact such a good fruit-growing area that the Conradies are confident that none of their neighbours will be following them into the wine industry. "This is the best apple and pear country in South Africa," says Handri. "The guys in Grabouw/Elgin might dispute this, but the fact is that their fruit industry is in decline and wine has been their saving grace. Here, no-one's pulling out orchards and planting vines because it wouldn't make economic sense. For us, making wine was never an economic decision but a practical one - and we've carried on with it because we like it."

Adds Zulch: "It was always a hobby and now it's a hobby that pays for itself!"

However, the brothers do believe that their farm is particularly well situated for winegrowing. It's nowhere near the ocean so doesn't benefit from cooling coastal breezes, but at 650-750m above sea level, the farm hugs the slopes below the Gydo Pass, which leads to the mountainous Koue Bokkeveld, famous for heavy winter snowfalls - the cold conditions perfect for red and bicolour apples and pears. "It's too cold to grow grapes up there," says Handri. "Meanwhile, Ceres is in the valley or 'Warm Bokkeveld', which is better for apricots, peaches and other stone fruits than it is for grapes. We're right in the middle - quite a unique spot within the greater Ceres area."

"It's just a piece of dirt," laughs Zulch. "But it happens to be a good piece of dirt!"

Likewise, it "just happened" that the right varieties were planted in the right place. "Now we are looking at it all a bit more scientifically," says Handri. "We've identified a few areas on the farm that are suitable for Sauvignon Blanc and maybe even Pinot Noir, plus we'd also like to play around with a few other niche varieties to see what works."

"But we'll never have a large range of wines," insists Zulch. "Our business is not structured around wine, so we want to specialise in what we do best. If any of our wine isn't top quality, we'd rather sell it in bulk than label it under our own name."

This is why they haven't released a Koel-fontein Merlot since the 2002 vintage. "Our Shiraz works. Our Chardonnay works. But our Merlot, I think, is not especially brilliant, although that may be due to the terrible drought we've had over the past three years."

Handri goes on: "We can only survive if we supply quality - and if we have a quality mindset for something as difficult as fruit, then we can do it with wine. Not that we want to make R300-a-bottle, inaccessible wines either!"

Weighing in at a tidy R35 and R60 respectively retail, the Chardonnay and Shiraz are available at specialist wine shops and restaurants, with tastings taking place by appointment at the @ source packhouse and offices two kilometres north of Prince Alfred's Hamlet. "We've always had passing traffic, mostly people heading to the Cederberg in winter or cherry-picking in summer. But now that our wines have done so well and we've had so much exposure, the plan is to convert the original farm cellar [later used as a blacksmith's workshop] into a tasting room."

The farm also boasts an old water mill powered by the spring from which Koelfontein gets its name, as well as one of the few remaining brandy stills in operation. "We still make brandy for ourselves," says Handri. "It's not very good but it's fun!"

Speaking of fun, the Koelfontein label hints at Zulch's favourite pastime: fly fishing. "I got the bug in 1997," he says. "I got quite badly infected, in fact - my brother says I'm obsessive!"

But Handri is the first to admit that the fly on the label - a pen sketch by South Africa's leading fly fishing author, Tom Sutcliffe (personally commissioned by Zulch) - works rather well: "Rather a fly than yet another coat of arms," he laughs. "And besides, we want to lure people to have a look at us!"

Given Koelfontein's recent competition success, perhaps it's hardly surprising that people are being hooked and reeled in too…