Safe haven for chameleons at Jordan winery
Tuesday provided one of those warm, still days that occasionally punctuate the Cape winter facilitating lunch outdoors at the restaurant run by celebrated chef George Jardine at Stellenbosch winery Jordan. I was dining with owner Gary Jordan and winemaker Sjaak Nelson and part of my brief was to interrogate the association of the farm with chameleons, the winery’s entry-level range famously named after the reptile.
So many marketing propositions are at least tenuous if not entirely bogus but no sooner had we broached the subject of chameleons than Jordan took great delight in providing first-hand evidence that these reptiles are a very real phenomenon on the property. Among the reeds that line the restaurant’s veranda were literally dozens of chameleons, from young to adult, no doubt enticed into the open by the warm weather.
It’s the Cape dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion pumilu) that occurs on Jordan, a species restricted to the area around Cape Town and while urban expansion increasingly encroaches on its natural habitat, it does seem that there’s a disproportionately large number in the vicinity of this farm. “I’ve never seen so many of them in my life,” say Jordan.
As for how the entry-level wine range came to bear the “Chameleon” name, Jordan relates that this dates back to 1993, the very first vintage completed on the farm. While he and his wife Kathy were settling on a white blend for everyday drinking, their son Alex was captivated by the chameleons he discovered on the farm and constantly brought them into the house. Gary and Kathy arrived at a combination of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, which proved to have broad appeal on account of avoiding straight Sauvignon’s high acidity and straight Chardonnay’s sometimes daunting richness. “A strange blend that works and the name stuck,” says Jordan.
With the introduction of machine harvesting in the late 1990s, concern arose about the impact this would have on chameleon populations in the winelands, and as owner of the “Chameleon” brand, Jordan was compelled to act. Studies were carried out by scientists working for the South African National Biodiversity Institute based at Kirstenbosch and the pleasing outcome for nature lovers was that chameleons were far more likely to be found in the indigenous shrubs and trees on the farm than in the vineyards.
The Jordans realised they had an opportunity to do something that was both brand building and would contribute to environmental sustainability and so initiated the Jordan Chameleon Research Bursary, whereby costs of a PhD student studying chameleons would be partially funded by a percentage of the proceeds from the worldwide sales of the Jordan chameleon range. For more on the Chameleon Research Group, which falls under the South African Reptile Speciation Project, see here.
There are three wines in the Chameleon range, currently available from the farm being the Sauvignon Blanc-Chardonnay 2010 at R49 a bottle and the Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 2008 at R59 while the Rosé 2011 will be released shortly. Buy some and give “verkleurmannejties” or just “mannetjies” as a young Alex Jordan used to call them a chance.
For more by Christian Eedes see www.whatIdranklastnight.co.za
