Tukulu (Papkuilsfontein), Swartland

The winner of this year's WINE magazine TOPS at SPAR Pinotage Champion of the Year is Tukulu 2001, produced from grapes grown at Papkuilsfontein in the Swartland. Sara Steer gets the lowdown on this label's road to fame.Casually drop the word empowerment into a conversation and you're bound to get a few rather exasperated sighs from your audience. "Oh, no, here comes a long-winded PC diatribe," some will be muttering under their breath. But political posturing and disgruntled mumblings aside, the fact remains that to date some very successful empowerment projects have been launched in this country. One currently in the spotlight is Papkuilsfontein Vineyards.

Situated near Darling on the West Coast, this farm's rich soils and excellent growing conditions produced the fruit for the award-winning 2001 Tukulu Pinotage - this year's WINE magazine TOPS at SPAR Pinotage Champion of the Year.

Papkuilsfontein is a joint venture between Distell and a Gauteng based group of entrepreneurs, Leopont 98 Pro-perties. Its establishment in 1998 marked the first time black business people became involved in the country's wine production process.

In terms of this groundbreaking agreement, Distell holds a 49% share in the development, Leopont holds 36% and the remaining 15% is held by the Maluti Groenekloof Community Trust comprising Papkuilsfontein farm workers and disadvantaged members of the local Darling community. A part of the crop is earmarked for the premium Tukulu range (named after the distinctive deep red Tukulu soil on the farm), while the remainder is sold to Distell for various premium brands. The venture has been structured to ultimately become fully black-owned.

So now that we know where the grapes for the winning Pinotage came from, can we put a face to this stellar wine? The task of trying to track down the winemaker required a fair amount of sleuthing.

Carmen Stevens made the first two Tukulu vintages (1999 and 2000), but at the beginning of 2001 she joined Stellenbosch Vineyards. Stepping valiantly into the breach to vinify the 2001 crush was the red winemaking team of the Adam Tas cellar at Distell in Stellenbosch. Distell's Jan de Waal and Michael Bucholz nursed the 2001 Tukulu Pinotage through its initial teething period. Wellington Metshane took over the Tukulu winemaking reins in mid-2001. A rather confusing state of affairs, but one which ironically attests to the fact that winemaking is, and always will be, a team effort. As they say: 'n boer maak 'n plan!

Bucholz attributes Tukulu's success to the quality of the grapes and the blending process. "One can say it's 90% thanks to the grapes and 10% thanks to the winemaker," he smiles.

Tukulu Pinotage has an impressive track record. The maiden 1999 vintage and the 2000 vintage have both clinched places on the Pinotage Association's annual top ten list. The 2000 vintage also received double gold at the 2001 Veritas awards and was listed by SAA for First Class during 2001.

The grapes were harvested from unirrigated 30-year-old bush vines and seven-year-old trellised vines. The vineyard blocks were harvested in stages and went into separate tanks. To ensure optimal flavour and colour extraction, the cap was broken by regular mixing. "We used the gas pump-over method. It's like putting flat Coke into a soda stream machine," explains Bucholz. "Carbon dioxide goes in the bottom of the tank and the juice foams up and breaks the cap. This gives a very soft extraction, as there's no mechanical working of the skins."

Malolactic fermentation was induced in the tank. The wine spent 12 months in a combination of French (40%), American (45%) and Eastern European (15%) oak.

"Our Pinotage is a soft, yet full bodied wine with a slightly sweet vanilla taste from the American oak," comments Metshane. "The tannins are still very much there in the 2001 vintage. This is a wine that will keep for three to five years. But it's really coming into its own now."
This is Metshane's third year as Tukulu winemaker and assistant red winemaker at Nederburg in Paarl, where the Tukulu wines are now made as Papkuilsfontein does not yet have its own cellar.

Growing up at Engcobo near Umtata in the Eastern Cape, Metshane had no idea what wine was, let alone what a vineyard looked like.

"Where I lived people planted mielies and beans. When I was at school I wanted to be a teacher, then I realised agriculture was my favourite subject," says Metshane. Regular visits to his father (a cellar worker at Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery in Stellenbosch) during the school holidays provided Metshane with his initial exposure to wine. At the age of 21 he relocated to Stellenbosch and took up a position at Gilbeys. Seven years later he joined the SFW winemaking team.

"The thing that made me increasingly interested in wine was working at the experimental cellar. That's where I star-ted working with experimental yeasts and trying different things," he recalls. Metshane was the first recipient of the Patrick Grubb Scholarship and spent three months in Bordeaux. Juggling his duties at Nederburg with those of Tukulu is no mean feat, he agrees. "But if you like your job you don't get too stressed out. It helps a lot that I'm surrounded by good winemakers such as Razvan Macici (Nederburg cellarmaster) and red winemaker Elunda Basson."

This symbiotic relationship between Nederburg and Tukulu encourages cross-pollination of techniques and know- ledge. A key element of the Papkuilsfontein venture is the skills transfer programme spearheaded by Nederburg. While developing and managing the viticultural side of the project, the team provides on-the-job mentoring.

The Groenekloof ward of Darling was recently identified as a high potential wine production area. Papkuilsfontein is ideally situated, explains Metshane. The farm is just 25 km from the sea and enjoys cooling breezes, while a range of hillocks protects the vines from the damaging effects of the south-easter. The rainfall is above average for the West Coast and the deep red Tukulu soils have excellent water retention properties.

"The West Coast area is ideally suited to Pinotage, as it ripens very early there," explains Metshane. The 2001 Pinotage was not subject to summer heat waves and the moderate temperatures leading up to its late January harvest allowed for slow ripening and gradual sugar accumulation. The grapes were hand harvested at 26,5° Balling, with fully ripe tannins and concentrated, intense flavours.

The soft-spoken winemaker's face creases into a broad smile. "Just thinking about wine gets me excited. Even when I'm sleeping I'm dreaming about wine," he enthuses. "Wine-making is such a challenging job, it needs your full attention. You need to be confident and you need to give 100% all of the time."

He's pragmatic when discussing the merits of empowerment projects such as Papkuilsfontein. "This is the beginning. But I think in the long run we need more efforts like this. A project like Tukulu gives you something to build on," he says emphatically.

The future of Tukulu certainly appears bright, agrees Distell Group Brand Manager for Global Boutique Wines, Carina Gous. "Ten thousand litres of Tukulu Pinotage have just been shipped to the UK, where it is listed by Oddbins," she says. "Tukulu is treated like a top icon wine. From the beginning we selected the best grapes and treated them in the best way. Although we didn't register as an estate at the inception of the project, we treat Tukulu like a small estate brand."

A Sauvignon Blanc will almost certainly be added to the mix, while early indications are that the Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon promise to be blockbusters. "So, yes, we're getting there," she says. "What's been frustrating for shareholders in Papkuilsfontein is that with wine it's all so long term. They couldn't see immediate results."

Well, if results are anything to go by, those naysayers who continue to make disparaging remarks about empowerment may want to reconsider their stance over a bottle of Tukulu Pinotage.