The history of Altydgedacht
The more things change...
Established in 1698, Durbanville estate Altydgedacht has now been in the Parker family for six generations. Joanne Gibson visits a farm with an extraordinary history, facing extraordinary challenges.
There's a Steppe Buzzard circling above Altydgedacht, its eyes no doubt peeled for possible prey in the small but dense pockets of renosterveld being conserved between the vineyards below.
It's a majestic sight, except for the crows trying to chase it away - a sight which almost mirrors what is happening at ground level. Surrounded by suburban sprawl, this historic Durbanville estate has three main roads cutting right through it. "We are the only farm in South Africa with its own set of robots," quips viticulturist John Parker.
The fact that Parker retains a sense of humour hopefully augurs well for the continuing survival and success of this farm, which oozes rural charm even in peak-hour traffic.
But he and his brother Oliver, the fifth-generation custodians of this land, find themselves, like their farm tractors, at a crossroads: wanting to find new ways to cater for the market literally on their doorstep; their mother Jean making a strong case against modernisation. Altydgedacht does, after all, boast an extraordinarily long and proud history...
THE EARLY YEARS
Within a few years of Jan van Riebeeck arriving at the Cape, soldiers were sent out by the Dutch East India Company to find land suitable for the production of meat, wheat and wine - preferably close enough to Table Bay so that when ships arrived, fresh produce could be transported by wagon to the harbour within a day or two.
The area now known as Durbanville was ideal, the proximity of water making it suitable to establish a cattle kraal.
Andries de Man was the high-ranking Company official appointed to supervise the kraal, which he named after his wife, Elsje van Suurwaarde (to this day, the suburb is called Elsies River).
He got first choice of the land but died in 1695 before it could be registered, so it was to Elsje that Simon van der Stel signed over the title deeds in 1698. "And it seems corruption had already set in," observes Mrs Parker, "because all farms were supposed to be 60 hectares but this one was 100, making it the biggest farm in the Cape at the time."
Altydgedacht was originally named De Tijgerbergen after the ‘tijgers' (i.e. leopards) which roamed the area. "Renosterveld is also so named because there were so many rhinos," says Mrs Parker.
It's hard to imagine big game roaming what is now suburbia, but wildlife is back on neighbouring Clara Anna Fontein, now a nature reserve, and animals are also free to graze in a corridor of renosterbos on Altydgedacht.
In the old days, though, it was all about taming the wildness and, after outliving her husbands (three in all), Elsje farmed alone (with 16 slaves).
It was she who commissioned the construction of the cellar in 1702: "Made from clay and plaster, it was perfectly designed to keep things cool, with both the southeaster and northwester providing a through-draft," says Mrs Parker. "It really does work," confirms winemaker Etienne Louw. "In winter you can almost get frostbite in here!"
After Elsje's death in 1713, aged 51, the farm went to her daughter. But Marie Elizabeth's husband, Jan de la Fontaine, had political aspirations (later becoming Cape governor) so he sold De Tijgerbergen to a man named Samuel Walters.
THE NAPOLEON CONNECTION
A number of owners followed, most notably the Schaborts from 1755 to 1812. But by 1816 it was one Franciskus Josephus Becker who owned the farm.
His second wife was Maria Leisching, the daughter of a prominent Cape doctor, and they were considered sufficiently ‘worthy' to host none other than Napoleon Bonaparte's secretary, the Baron Emmanuel-Augustin- Dieudonne-Joseph Compte De Las Cases.
"The count had been through all Napoleon's campaigns with him, and even followed him into voluntary exile on St Helena," reveals Mrs Parker. "Just imagine, being stuck on that rock, far from all the sophistication of the European courts!"
When De Las Cases was caught smuggling letters to Europe, describing the appalling conditions in which Napoleon was being held, he was summarily removed to the Cape to await a ship back to Europe. "And because Napoleon had previously escaped from Elba, the authorities were so paranoid about another plot to rescue him that they sent De Las Cases to this farm, a half-day's coach ride from Cape Town."
In his diary, De Las Cases wrote about being "removed to the very extremity of the civilised world", but he was nonetheless treated with "more than kindness" during his four months in "the desert of the Tygerberg".
He made the point that "Mr Baker [sic] was not my jailor, but merely my host" and was delighted to find that "the people here were neither ignorant nor indifferent to the events of Europe...
To my surprise, I found the name of Napoleon familiar in this desert. The most victorious game cock in the neighbourhood was called Napoleon! The swiftest racehorse was Napoleon! The most invincible bull in the country was Napoleon!"
To this day, Altydgedacht supplies wine to the Royal Mail Ship St Helena.
A BOY NAMED GEORGE
The story of the Parker family begins shortly after De Las Cases' visit, in 1819, when George Francis Parker (aged just 13) arrived at the Cape with his parents and two younger brothers. "His father kept a meticulous diary of the whole voyage, and it reveals that the rest of the family merely stopped at the Cape to take on stores, then continued to Australia, leaving George behind. He never saw his family again."
George was apprenticed to a merchant, eventually becoming one himself. "He very cleverly married the boss's daughter, and was able to purchase this farm [now known as Altoos Gedaght] in 1852."
Cattle, sheep, wheat and grapes continued to be farmed, with wine made the traditional way - "good old-fashioned stomping" - then matured in large old, German oak stukvate (the ones still in the cellar date back to 1903) and later on in concrete tanks.
"The biggest changes came about when my father-in-law, Ralph, took over in the 1930s," says Mrs Parker. "Most of the other farmers used tractors and pulleys for crushing and pumping - a real palaver - so he came up with the idea of extending the cellar into the hill so that the juice could feed down by gravity."
When Ralph died of pneumonia in the 1940s, his widow Daisy took over the farming. "She was amazing," says Mrs Parker. "She started the dairy and also introduced proper hygiene into the cellar."
Son Denis returned from the airforce at the end of World War II and took over running the farm, aged just 22, when Daisy passed away. He married Jean, an art teacher from the Eastern Cape, but tragedy struck in 1954 when he was killed in a shooting accident.
"He was hunting for dogs that were killing 40 sheep a night, and he slipped with a loaded firearm..." Widowed at 29, with sons John and Oliver aged just four and three respectively, Jean Parker hit the ground running.
"Until marrying Denis, I'd never even tasted dry wine - in fact I hated it at first! And I'd studied art, history and English, but certainly no chemistry. So I rushed off to Elsenburg to do some short courses, and the big guys wearing white coats sent a couple of students here to set up a little lab for me.
But I was lucky because of the gravity-fed cellar. I was also lucky that there had been a woman in charge before me - die ou missus." She also pays tribute to her right-hand man, Hennie Heydenrych, farm manager from 1956 until 1988. "I did the wine and the dairy, he did the rest."
Milking the cows every day at midday and midnight, Mrs Parker made wine in between - selling it in bulk to Castle Wines, then Monis (which became Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery). She worked closely with George Spies, the SFW winemaker whose initials adorn the wine widely regarded as South Africa's ‘one true classic': the GS Cabernet 1966.
Though she doesn't say so, it is quite possible that Mrs Parker actually made this great wine, indisputably sourced from Durbanville, with Spies having merely overseen its maturation and bottling. Fast forward to the 1980s, and sons John and Oliver were the first Parkers who actually studied oenology and viticulture.
"Then I sent them overseas to get some hands-on experience, and of course they came back from the stainless-steel cathedrals of the Napa Valley and said: ‘Good heavens, you can't expect us to make wine like this!' So we modified a couple of Alfa Laval stainless-steel milk tanks, because they were much cheaper than wine tanks...
"Although other tanks have been acquired over the years, winemaker Louw reveals that he still uses the smallest milk tank for Altydgedacht's Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.
He's also a great believer in traditional winemaking methods like délestage: "We do manual punchdowns every four hours, just like in the olden days, because it softens the tannins so beautifully - which is why more and more winemakers are going back to it."
"Isn't it interesting how winemaking has come full circle?" says Mrs Parker.
WHAT NEXT?
Oliver and John Parker say the biggest changes during their generation have taken place in the vineyards of this 416ha property, with only a small selection of fruit used for estate bottling, the rest sold to Nederburg.
The old bush vines are gone, replaced by neatly trellised vines planted according to data from strategically placed weather stations. But although the Parkers have the option to introduce mechanical harvesting, they feel handpicking is "the right thing to do in Africa.
A single machine harvester would replace about 90 people! Not to mention that hand harvesting enables us to make better selection of fruit..." Labour is, however, one of the biggest issues facing the modern Parkers.
"Our labour costs must be among the highest in the country because we're competing with industry," says Oliver. Another challenge is the locals who see Altydgedacht as some kind of public park. "They come here to jog, to walk their dogs, for recreation... And it's great - we certainly can't isolate ourselves from the adjoining suburbs - but we need to regulate it, get more people coming here on our terms, and start benefiting from bordering on the city."
The Parkers have recently started offering meals out of a small corner of the cellar, converted into a kitchen, served beneath the trees or a marquee. "I never thought I'd be involved in running a restaurant," says Oliver, adding that further development is on the cards.
But John stresses that Altydgedacht is all about simplicity. "So we'll try to keep a low profile in contrast to all the glitz and glamour around, with overseas money transforming so many places into something artificial."
The future of the estate seems a little uncertain. But as I leave, I notice that the crows have tired of the chase, and the Steppe Buzzard is soaring ever higher.
Altydgedacht Estate, Tygerberg Valley Road, Durbanville. Tel 021 976 1295, www.altydgedacht.co.za.
