Vergelegen

On the Hills of the Helderberg

Helderberg winery Vergelegen keeps performing well in competition but winemaker André van Rensburg insists that he's not interested in awards. Fiona McDonald reports on the top performer at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show 2006.

 

"D' you know what car I drive? A Volvo. Want to know why? Because it's the safest car on the market - and it must keep me safe so that I can work for Vergelegen for the next 10 or 15 years!"

That's André van Rensburg for you. To say that he's focussed or passionate about Vergelegen would be a huge understatement. The man's obsessed! But that obsession has led to numerous accolades both local and international.

"It's not about the awards and honours. That's not the Vergelegen way. We'll celebrate it for five minutes and then it's over - life carries on. You can't trade on awards or past success."

He's not kidding either. After the December announcement that Vergelegen was adjudged the New World Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast in the USA, all the staff were called together in the farm's community centre. MD Don Tooth announced the achievement to loud applause - and then all the workers went on their way, continuing their daily work.

Vergelegen was once again the top performer at the 2006 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show by virtue of winning two trophies, one silver and no fewer than six bronze medals (see sidebar).

It's also important to note that in the five years of the competition, this is the fourth time Vergelegen has won this accolade - with 2005 being the only exception when Diemersfontein was king of the heap. No huge surprise then that WINE magazine readers have also selected it as South Africa's best winery in the annual reader poll - for the third year in succession. He acknowledged that WINE's reader's choice means a lot to the Vergelegen team. "Because they're the guys who spend money on our wines. Feedback from the consumer means more to me - to us - than any award, for that reason. It's his hard-earned cash that he's prepared to spend - and he chooses Vergelegen."

Vergelegen belongs to Anglo American, which a few years ago divested itself of its other wine interest, Boschendal. There's a tangible sense of responsibility - to not only preserve one of the jewels of South Africa's cultural history but to also be the standard bearer for South African wines.

"A lot of people think that Vergelegen is a huge success because Anglo's got deep pockets - or that Vergelegen is a luxury weekend retreat for the Anglo hierarchy," Van Rensburg says before asserting that that's not the case. "The farm is run like a business. It has to make money - and I admit that it does."

Vergelegen was the country's first bio-diversity champion because of all the work done in clearing alien vegetation and encouraging the retention of fynbos. This was a costly exercise (although no specific figure has been mentioned) and took years of effort to achieve. That money came out of winery profits - and it's money that Van Rensburg and the Vergelegen team believe was well spent. "It's nice to know that we are leaving things a little better than we found them."

An example of their commitment to this programme lies in the fact that a full time conservation officer is on the Vergelegen staff - and he's a year ahead of schedule! It's also led to the first release of game on the farm. "We have leopard, caracal and baboons, for example, already on the farm but the plan is to add bontebok and mountain zebra." One lone Bontebok ram was released - and decided to take up occupation in the field adjacent to the road and entrance to Vergelegen.

"We think it might be because he was from a game farm and became habituated to traffic. He wasn't released there - he just decided that's where he was happiest." The good news is that he'll be getting a mate or three as soon as suitable genetic candidates can be found.

Sourcing the right material is not unique to their game reintroduction programme. It's an essential part of the vineyard programme too. Van Rensburg took over control of the vineyards 18 months ago and tackled it with his usual enthusiasm. He is determined to rid the entire property of virused vines - and is confident that it can be done.

"Many people aren't aware of it but we have ripped out about half our vineyards in the past few years - many of them our best blocks too."

This has meant that grapes have had to be bought in in large quantities, but the winemaker is quick to point out that none of them have gone into the "black label" range. "Black label wines will only ever be Vergelegen fruit. We used the bought-in stuff for white label wines or for wines like Mill Race Red where we need the volume. It was about 20% for Sauvignon Blanc and 15% for Mill Race."

"We want Vergelegen to be virus free and to make sure that it stays that way - so the guy who takes over from me eventually will be guaranteed older plantings of healthy vines. That's a luxury our generation of winemakers haven't had. If everything goes as we hope and pray it does, these'll be the last plantings I do in my lifetime as a winemaker."

He's talking about 70ha of newly planted vineyard that will take them to a total of 180ha in all - and that's it for Vergelegen. He shows a graphic of one specific vineyard on which each vine in the Rooi-land vineyard is mapped with the incidence of virus charted in different colours. In 2003, for example, there were no virused vines. In 2004 just two, in 2005 that figure had risen to eight and this year that had leaped to 25. From zero to 25 in just three years provides an indication of why virus is the biggest problem facing South African viticulture.

Is it any surprise then to find that Vergelegen virus-tests every single vine?

Van Rensburg's solution is plain to see. Acres of vineyard that have been sprayed with herbicide and left to die before being ripped out. The land then lies fallow for three years before being replanted. The goal is, in 20 to 30 years' time, to have an infection rate of less than 1%.

That leads Van Rensburg onto the topic of site selection, since there is now an opportunity to ensure the right grapes are planted in the best possible places.

"It's really difficult to achieve 100% perfection with site selection. I must say that my predecessor Martin Meinert and Gerrie Wagenaar probably got it about 60% spot on and I have to give them credit for that. I mean, for 50 years before they pitched up there were no vines on Vergelegen - and they only had two years' weather data. That's nothing!

"We're basically using what they did as a blueprint. Even in those areas that weren't right, they've given us a pointer because we now know what doesn't work. It's unfortunate that virus stepped in and stuffed everything up when the vineyards were 18 years old. That's sad."

Van Rensburg and the Vergelegen team are happy to know that someone will benefit from all their hard work.

"In 20 years time the guy making wine here will say the wines used to be rubbish - 'cos it'll be the truth! The wines will be so much better in the future. We as South Africans have done incredibly well with bad material on all the wrong sites."

Van Rensburg pays tribute to managing director Don Tooth for much of Vergelegen's success and admits that they often don't see eye-to-eye. "He's an accountant and I'm impatient. He's often told me that if it had been any other wine farm I'd have been fired a long time ago! But I've become more patient and he's as passionate about Vergelegen as I am. I may want things done now - but Don will give me a good reason why it can't be. I might not get the "yes" that I want now, but I know he has listened to my plans - and maybe next time I propose it, or the time after that the answer will be yes … once we've worked on a mutually agreeable and workable solution together.

"I don't want Vergelegen to be measured on what we've won. I know there'll be a time when we almost have to rest on our laurels because for the last two or three years we've ripped out our top vineyards - but I'm OK with that because I know what's coming. It'll take time but it'll be better.

"I'm 100% confident in myself, in Vergelegen and in the team. The fact that I'm here 10 years in 2007 tells you my attitude and feelings for this place. My ideal is to see out my career here, not because it's a cosy job but because I know I'm the right person to steer Vergelegen's wines.

"I would hate to see that task in anyone else's hands because I don't believe there is anyone else capable of doing it."

The good news for consumers and bad news for competitors is that Van Rensburg is now looking to the future and charting Vergelegen's course for the next 20 to 30 years.

"It's the first time in my life I'm able to plan for that length of time. The guy who takes over will get the very best that we can give him - the best plantings on the best sites, the best material, the best clonal selection… And that's probably going to give the best insight into what Cape wine is capable of."And another thing is that it's going to force all other South African producers to do the best they can with regard to viticultural practices and overall standards."

"I asked myself: If I was offered a job anywhere in the world, would it be better than Vergelegen? And the answer was no. To be successful at Vergelegen is better than being successful anywhere else in the world."