Out in the Wild West
published on: Wednesday, 12 January 2011
A flying wine writer surfs the new maritime terroir of the west coast
wine route, one of the newest tourism routes - formed by fifteen cellars
in the Olifantsriver winelands.
You’ve heard of flying winemakers. Well, a few fortunate flying wine writers took to the skies recently to do a tasting in situ at Strandfontein on the new west coast wine route. Talk about terroir. A low-flyover of the sea of vineyards planted along the fertile flood plains of the Olifants River is the best way to get a bird’s eye-view of a wine route stretching from 600 metres off the coast to thirty-five kilometres inland.
Landing at Vredendal, we headed down through a sea of green vineyards to the coast - where ten cellars had set up tasting stalls within spitting distance of the Atlantic Ocean. The west coast wine route is home to four of the largest wine producers in South Africa - Namaqua (9,3m cases), Stellar (8m litres of bulk wines and the biggest organic producer), Klawer and Lutzville - as well as some of the smallest boutique cellars in the country from Bellpost and Tierhoek to Fryer’s Cove and Sir Lambert.
Wine, wild flowers and the wild west coast are the big tourism attractions of Matzikama - a region meaning “place of water” after the Olifants River. The winelands stretch inland from Trawal in the south (home of Stellar, the biggest organic wine producer in SA to Lutzville in the north (home of Lutzville Cape Diamond Vineyards) - and on the coast from Lambert’s Bay to Bamboes Bay. The Olifantsriver was re-branded as the west coast wine route to market the unique aspects of landscape, cuisine and culture of one of the Cape’s best-kept secret destinations.
We sampled a new wave of maritime wines and cool-climate varieties from new wards like Bamboes Bay, Lamberts Bay and Piekenierskloof on the west coast wine route. Over the last decade, Sauvignon Blanc has led the way, winning acclaim for Sir Lambert (four stars in Wine’s 2010 Sauvignon Blanc Challenge) Fryers’ Cove (4,5 stars in Platter’s 2011), Bay to Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (4 stars) and Namaqua (Veritas gold). The luscious dessert wines also do well in these parts - Tierhoek Straw Wine and Stellar Heaven on Earth both won four stars in Platter 2011 - while Cabernet Sauvignon is a rising star with 4 Platter stars for Lutzville and Namaqua.
I started with wines from "Fryer’s Cove - die wingerd by die see - forged by the earth, tempered by the sea". After laying a thirty kilometre-long pipeline to irrigate his remote vineyards in Bamboes Bay, Jan Ponk van Zyl has built a boutique cellar in an old crayfish factory in Doring Bay harbour, offering tastings on the jetty and using natural sea water temperatures to cool the “green cellar”. Ponk says you can taste the salt in the grapes in Wynand Hamman’s cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir - while their new Bay to Bay Sauvignon Blanc (from Lamberts Bay grapes) offers a riper, more tropical twist to the variety. The 2009 Fryer’s Cove is aging beautifully.
While the west coast is the home of huge plantings of Chenin Blanc, Colombard, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage and Shiraz - the benchmark tasting showcased some of the newer exciting varieties and blends coming out of the region. I really enjoyed Namaqua’s maiden Verdelho 2010 - a limited release (1200 bottles) and national champion “other variety” at the SA Young Wine Show 2010 - grown by Herman Nel. Winemaker Dewald Huisamen explains, “Some places are just too hot to make Sauvignon Blanc. I wanted to find an alternative variety. I thought, ‘Let’s do Verdelho! I added Viognier for mouthfeel.” Namaqua’s premium Spencer Bay has five varietal wines and one of the few Bordeaux blends.
Winemaker Hermias Hugo of Klawer Cellar showed me his maiden barrel-fermented Viognier 2010 - an aromatic peach of a wine with delightful citrus flavours. “We were the first winery to plant Viognier in the region. It is not just a blending component” he emphasises. We also tasted Klawer Sauvignon Blanc 2010, the region’s young white wine champion, made from low yielding bushvines planted 10 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. The charming young winemaker from the thirstland of Kuruman adds, “The wines express the unique dryland terroir and bushvines of Olifantsriver”.
I tried a few of the area’s new white blends over a traditional west coast lunch al fresco - crumbed mussels, seafood potjie paella, fresh crayfish and smoked snoek. Koos Thiart, cellar master of Namaqua - one of the biggest red wine cellars in South Africa - makes his own wines under the Bellpost label on the family farm near Vredendal. His elegant C’est la Vie 2009 - an assemblage of barrel-fermented Chardonnay, Viognier and Nouvelle - is a quintessential west coast wine for kreef.
Savvy winemaker Thys Louw of Diemersdal, sauvignon.com and Sir Lambert’s Wines showed his maiden Admiral’s Shiraz 2009 - as well as the new 2010 Sauvignon Blanc - both from vineyards planted in Lamberts Bay 3 kilometres from the Atlantic. We headed further south to Piekenierskloof (near Citrusdal), the southernmost winery on the west coast wine route. Winemaker Roger Burton led a tasting of his quartet of four-star wines in Platter 2011 - Tierhoek Chenin Blanc 2009, Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Grenache Noir 2007 (60 year-old vines) and Chenin Straw Wine 2006 - and a stunning Shiraz/Grenache blend more Swartland than west coast.
Last but not least, there were the innovative organic wines of Stellar which have spread the west coast wine route’s fame around the world - and the wines of Napoleon Stoumann of Vredendal - made by Eric Schlunz who learned his trade under Dr Lazlo at the Bergkelder. We also enjoyed the big reds of Seal Breeze - made by celebrated maverick winemaker Joan Wiggins - who sells almost 1000 cases of wine directly from the family cellar outside Lutzville. She quips “I learned how to make wines over the telephone!” (consulting with helpful winemakers). Diamonds are a girl’s best friend - and six vintages on, she drops diamonds into fifty special magnums of wine in a clever marketing move to put the brand on the diamond coast on the map.
Those precious stones also inspired the reserve diamond collection of Lutzville Cape Diamond Vineyards, the first cellar to open a restaurant at the cellar-door in the region in an initiative to grow wine tourism. Lutzville, one of the biggest wineries in the Cape makes 1,4m litres of Sauvignon Blanc and many other high volume wines for buyers own brands, bulk wine exports and Constellation. Cellar master Gideon Theron is delighted that Lutzville’s Cool Climate Sauvignon Blanc 2010 came tops in the SB category in Wine’s Best Value Wine Guide 2011 - a feat which underscores the great value to quality ratio of the wines of the west coast. He says they can’t make enough of the Cape Elephant Natural Sweet Rose in 1,5m magnums for the local market - and would like to experiment with plantings of Rhine Riesling in the area.
I really liked the conservation themes of seals, tortoises and leopards on the wine labels. After a day of warm west coast hospitality, it was time to fly home all too soon. Next time, I’ll ramble around one of the Cape’s newest, most unexplored wine routes so I can savour the wines and landscapes at the pace of a west coast tortoise.
* For more information, tel (082) 611 3999 - or see www.westcoastwineroute.co.za and www.tourismmatzikama.co.za.
You’ve heard of flying winemakers. Well, a few fortunate flying wine writers took to the skies recently to do a tasting in situ at Strandfontein on the new west coast wine route. Talk about terroir. A low-flyover of the sea of vineyards planted along the fertile flood plains of the Olifants River is the best way to get a bird’s eye-view of a wine route stretching from 600 metres off the coast to thirty-five kilometres inland.
Landing at Vredendal, we headed down through a sea of green vineyards to the coast - where ten cellars had set up tasting stalls within spitting distance of the Atlantic Ocean. The west coast wine route is home to four of the largest wine producers in South Africa - Namaqua (9,3m cases), Stellar (8m litres of bulk wines and the biggest organic producer), Klawer and Lutzville - as well as some of the smallest boutique cellars in the country from Bellpost and Tierhoek to Fryer’s Cove and Sir Lambert.
Wine, wild flowers and the wild west coast are the big tourism attractions of Matzikama - a region meaning “place of water” after the Olifants River. The winelands stretch inland from Trawal in the south (home of Stellar, the biggest organic wine producer in SA to Lutzville in the north (home of Lutzville Cape Diamond Vineyards) - and on the coast from Lambert’s Bay to Bamboes Bay. The Olifantsriver was re-branded as the west coast wine route to market the unique aspects of landscape, cuisine and culture of one of the Cape’s best-kept secret destinations.
We sampled a new wave of maritime wines and cool-climate varieties from new wards like Bamboes Bay, Lamberts Bay and Piekenierskloof on the west coast wine route. Over the last decade, Sauvignon Blanc has led the way, winning acclaim for Sir Lambert (four stars in Wine’s 2010 Sauvignon Blanc Challenge) Fryers’ Cove (4,5 stars in Platter’s 2011), Bay to Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (4 stars) and Namaqua (Veritas gold). The luscious dessert wines also do well in these parts - Tierhoek Straw Wine and Stellar Heaven on Earth both won four stars in Platter 2011 - while Cabernet Sauvignon is a rising star with 4 Platter stars for Lutzville and Namaqua.
I started with wines from "Fryer’s Cove - die wingerd by die see - forged by the earth, tempered by the sea". After laying a thirty kilometre-long pipeline to irrigate his remote vineyards in Bamboes Bay, Jan Ponk van Zyl has built a boutique cellar in an old crayfish factory in Doring Bay harbour, offering tastings on the jetty and using natural sea water temperatures to cool the “green cellar”. Ponk says you can taste the salt in the grapes in Wynand Hamman’s cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir - while their new Bay to Bay Sauvignon Blanc (from Lamberts Bay grapes) offers a riper, more tropical twist to the variety. The 2009 Fryer’s Cove is aging beautifully.
While the west coast is the home of huge plantings of Chenin Blanc, Colombard, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage and Shiraz - the benchmark tasting showcased some of the newer exciting varieties and blends coming out of the region. I really enjoyed Namaqua’s maiden Verdelho 2010 - a limited release (1200 bottles) and national champion “other variety” at the SA Young Wine Show 2010 - grown by Herman Nel. Winemaker Dewald Huisamen explains, “Some places are just too hot to make Sauvignon Blanc. I wanted to find an alternative variety. I thought, ‘Let’s do Verdelho! I added Viognier for mouthfeel.” Namaqua’s premium Spencer Bay has five varietal wines and one of the few Bordeaux blends.
Winemaker Hermias Hugo of Klawer Cellar showed me his maiden barrel-fermented Viognier 2010 - an aromatic peach of a wine with delightful citrus flavours. “We were the first winery to plant Viognier in the region. It is not just a blending component” he emphasises. We also tasted Klawer Sauvignon Blanc 2010, the region’s young white wine champion, made from low yielding bushvines planted 10 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. The charming young winemaker from the thirstland of Kuruman adds, “The wines express the unique dryland terroir and bushvines of Olifantsriver”.
I tried a few of the area’s new white blends over a traditional west coast lunch al fresco - crumbed mussels, seafood potjie paella, fresh crayfish and smoked snoek. Koos Thiart, cellar master of Namaqua - one of the biggest red wine cellars in South Africa - makes his own wines under the Bellpost label on the family farm near Vredendal. His elegant C’est la Vie 2009 - an assemblage of barrel-fermented Chardonnay, Viognier and Nouvelle - is a quintessential west coast wine for kreef.
Savvy winemaker Thys Louw of Diemersdal, sauvignon.com and Sir Lambert’s Wines showed his maiden Admiral’s Shiraz 2009 - as well as the new 2010 Sauvignon Blanc - both from vineyards planted in Lamberts Bay 3 kilometres from the Atlantic. We headed further south to Piekenierskloof (near Citrusdal), the southernmost winery on the west coast wine route. Winemaker Roger Burton led a tasting of his quartet of four-star wines in Platter 2011 - Tierhoek Chenin Blanc 2009, Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Grenache Noir 2007 (60 year-old vines) and Chenin Straw Wine 2006 - and a stunning Shiraz/Grenache blend more Swartland than west coast.
Last but not least, there were the innovative organic wines of Stellar which have spread the west coast wine route’s fame around the world - and the wines of Napoleon Stoumann of Vredendal - made by Eric Schlunz who learned his trade under Dr Lazlo at the Bergkelder. We also enjoyed the big reds of Seal Breeze - made by celebrated maverick winemaker Joan Wiggins - who sells almost 1000 cases of wine directly from the family cellar outside Lutzville. She quips “I learned how to make wines over the telephone!” (consulting with helpful winemakers). Diamonds are a girl’s best friend - and six vintages on, she drops diamonds into fifty special magnums of wine in a clever marketing move to put the brand on the diamond coast on the map.
Those precious stones also inspired the reserve diamond collection of Lutzville Cape Diamond Vineyards, the first cellar to open a restaurant at the cellar-door in the region in an initiative to grow wine tourism. Lutzville, one of the biggest wineries in the Cape makes 1,4m litres of Sauvignon Blanc and many other high volume wines for buyers own brands, bulk wine exports and Constellation. Cellar master Gideon Theron is delighted that Lutzville’s Cool Climate Sauvignon Blanc 2010 came tops in the SB category in Wine’s Best Value Wine Guide 2011 - a feat which underscores the great value to quality ratio of the wines of the west coast. He says they can’t make enough of the Cape Elephant Natural Sweet Rose in 1,5m magnums for the local market - and would like to experiment with plantings of Rhine Riesling in the area.
I really liked the conservation themes of seals, tortoises and leopards on the wine labels. After a day of warm west coast hospitality, it was time to fly home all too soon. Next time, I’ll ramble around one of the Cape’s newest, most unexplored wine routes so I can savour the wines and landscapes at the pace of a west coast tortoise.
* For more information, tel (082) 611 3999 - or see www.westcoastwineroute.co.za and www.tourismmatzikama.co.za.
Birdfield Farm, N7 P.O. Box 8 , Klawer, 8145, South Africa
Not for sale to persons under the age of 18. Enjoy Responsibly.