Winemaker hobbies
Hartenberg Estate cellarmaster CARL SCHULTZ goes whitewater kayaking in his spare time.
Water sport has always interested me and I surfed for most of my schooling years. In 1994, my wife Carin and I did a multiday whitewater river trip on the Doring River near Citrusdal. We were in inflatable rafts but the guides paddled plastic kayaks, so I tried my hand at this on a lunch stop. I bought my first kayak shortly thereafter. Whitewater kayaking is the ultimate rush, mostly leaving you weak from adrenaline. It demands your full concentration, which completely erases and puts into perspective any winemaking challenges or issues you thought you had.
I kayak pretty much each weekend of the Cape winter – sometimes more than one river per weekend. If there are no rivers flowing I look for some good surf – the correct river kayak is able to perform like a paddle-ski. Kayaking in the Drakensberg in summer provides some of the best paddling experiences around and the water is warm to boot!
My best experience was kayaking 19 rivers in 21 days in the Chilean Andes, travelling over 3 500km from the Atacama Desert in the north, all the way down to Puerto Arenas in Patagonia. A blur of fantastic, big, beautiful, humbling, .and often scary, white water.
In winter, conditions are generally bleak when paddling, so my post-action tipple of choice is a dessert wine like Nuy White Muscadel (if I can get it) or, more often, Aan de Doorns Rooi Muscadel. In summer, any good imported beer suffices.
PIETER DU TOIT, owner/winemaker of Kloovenburg Wine & Olive Estate in the Riebeek Valley, is a keen hunter.
I have liked guns since I was a little boy. I got one as a gift from my grandpa and used it to shoot the birds eating the table grapes. Hunting became a real passion when I shot my first springbok. I was only eight years old and had to eat a piece of the liver – tradition when you shoot your first buck.
The best place to hunt is on my good friend Jan’s farm at Ellisras, about a two-hour drive from Johannesburg. He concentrates on trophy animals, which is an attraction for a lot of foreign visitors. He invites me often and I feel very honoured.
As a winemaker, you only have one chance a year to make good wine. It’s the same with hunting – you only have one chance. It’s very relaxing, especially when I get the chance to walk in the mountain; it takes my thoughts away from my business. After hunting, the best thing to drink is a cold Peroni. But my Kloovenburg Shiraz 2005 will go perfectly with the kudu I shot earlier on.
The wine which best sums up this side of my personality is my Eight Feet blend (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Merlot). I am a family man. Hunting is a chance to spend some time with my four sons and it’s of high importance to me that we do something exciting together each year. Likewise, this wine originated as something for my sons, and there is something of each one of them and me in a bottle.
Adoro Wines owner/winemaker IAN NAUDÉ is passionate about diving.
The sea, and underwater life, has always been a fascination for me. By letting you breathe underwater, diving opens the door to another world. I learnt to dive when I was about 25, at a diving school in Hermanus with friends. It immediately became a passion.
Mozambique and Sodwana are my two favourite sites; I try to visit Sodwana at least twice a year. I recently did the Sardine Run at Port St Johns in the Transkei – to be completely surrounded by dolphins had been a lifelong dream and it was everything I expected.
On one dive in Sodwana, we were surrounded by about 20 female raggedtooth sharks. I have never had a real fear of sharks, and this confirmed my belief that if you respect them, they will respect you. I lay back on my tank and one of the sharks hovered right on top of my chest. There was nothing I could do – but to be honest I wouldn’t have changed a thing!
As a winemaker, diving offers me complete stress release. In any other situation it takes me three or four days to unwind; after just one dive it is as though I have been on holiday for a week. I always try to go just after harvest to recharge my batteries. After a dive, the best thing to drink is Appletiser. Really!
Diemersfontein winemaker BRETT RIGHTFORD takes mountainbiking to new heights.
I have always loved mountaineering, but as I got busier it became harder to rock-climb regularly. Needing to fuel my mountain craving, I started mountain-biking. Now, within a couple of hundred metres of home, I can be on some great trails. In a good week, I head out four or five times.
A friend and I are developing the single-track trails around Wellington. We started following the trails made by Wellington’s population of Razorback pigs (think Asterix and Obelix). Reaching 190kg, they’re like small bulldozers, making the paths hard and compact. My family and some of the locals thought I was mad – in fact, I have had a couple of run-ins with charging boars! But I enjoy the nature aspect. One year we were walking one of the newly built trails in preparation for Gravel Travel, the race we started for raising funds to carry on building trails. It was raining lightly.
When we got to the end, we turned around and started backtracking – and noticed neat paw prints in our footprints. A leopard had followed us for a couple of hundred metres! The race is now in its third year and attracts large crowds.
Mountain-biking complements my career because I have got to know the area intimately, and found some choice blocks of vineyard. But the best thing to drink after mountain-biking is Milo!
Obikwa (Distell) winemaker MICHAEL BUCHOLZ enjoys heading for the hills on his 1996 BMW GS Adventure motorbike.
started riding motorbikes when I was at school but stopped once I got married. After suffering a midlife crisis in my 40s, I started adventure riding about two years ago. I enjoy the isolation of being on a bike, and the fact that you are not insulated from nature. The bugs hit you on the forehead instead of getting splattered on the windscreen. Unfortunately, time is a limiting factor – I have ridden only about 8 500km in two years.
Last year I did a trip to Middelpos with two friends. We left Stellenbosch in the rain, and when we got to Ceres I was the only one with dry feet because my old army boots were more waterproof than my friends’ fancy motorcycle boots. We spent the night at the Middelpos Hotel (three-course dinner, bed and two-course breakfast for R300 – an absolute bargain). Next morning, the 30km stretch of soggy clay between Middelpos and the top of Gannaga Pass was ‘exciting’ – at one stage my 250kg bike was travelling sideways! Fortunately I did not fall, but all the wine from the previous evening was sweated out...
The best thing to drink after a ride is a glass of good red wine around the fire, sharing the day’s experiences. The wine most like my bike is Tassenberg – it can be enjoyed on any occasion!
Elgin Valley Vineyards owner/marketing manager IAN CORDER has a number of hobbies, ranging from clocks through old cars to flying a gyrocopter!
Alas, it is true; I do have other interests besides wine! Like wine, my hobbies are a form of relaxation. Unfortunately, they cannot be enjoyed simultaneously...
I'd always dreamt of flying a helicopter and finally managed to get my licence two years ago. Because it became so expensive to fly, I was introduced to gyrocopters, a smaller, affordable, more fun way to fulfil my passion. I absolutely love flying and try to get up at least once a week. I am very lucky to share a hangar at a neighbouring farm with six other pilots in the valley. It is literally 10 minutes from our house so I can be airborne in half-anhour.
My kids have also taken to it in a big way, and my best experiences were taking my son (10) and daughter (8) on their maiden flights over the Koegelberg to Hermanus and back.
Elgin is so beautiful, and there is no better way to unwind than to take a leisurely flight over the mountain to Theewaterskloof dam on a Saturday morning. My wife, kids and I love to go on drives in my collection of classic cars. I bought my fi rst Sunbeam Alpine 20 years ago. Since then I have acquired a 1964 Jaguar Mk2, E-Type Jag, MGA and Mercedes 280SL. So the wine which best expresses my personality is my Yellow Lorry Sauvignon Blanc. It has a classic 1938 Chevy on the label, has taken time to make, and is a really laid-back wine.
