We
had a really comfy night’s sleep and woke feeling very refreshed and
ready for our cellar tour. Philip is the fourth generation
of the Du Toit family to run the vineyard and he started off by
telling us some of the farm’s history. During the Second World War
Italian prisoners were captured in Abyssinia in Northern Africa. At
a loss to know what to do with them they ended up being sent down to
South Africa to come and work as labourers on the vineyards.
What today is the vineyard's tasting room was, in WWII the
home of Giovanni Salvadori, one of the POW’s. He painted a mural on
the wall that depicts the farm as it was during the war. The POW’s
were mainly housed in a tented camp surrounded by a barbed wire
fence. Giovanni, being an officer, older than the rest (who were
mostly 18 or 19) and from the educated north of Italy, was
recognised as a more senior POW so an old pig sty was turned over to
him as his home.
After the war the POWs were returned to Italy but finding
their country in ruins many returned to South Africa. The du Toit
family had treated the prisoners who worked for them well, even
taking them to the coast on holiday! That has now stood them in god
stead and strong links with the Cape’s Italian community continue to
this day. Philip told us many stories one of which stuck in my
memory. As well as grapes they also grow peaches on the farm and one
year had a very abundant harvest. The normal level of staff on the
farm were working flat out to try and bring in the harvest but were
facing an uphill task until the Italian community turned up en
masse, with picnic and entertainment in hand to help them out. The
connection still continues and in a week’s time, Philip and Almien
will be at the Good Food show in Cape Town promoting their wines as
part of the Italian stall at the show.
After explaining the history, and giving us a sample of their
wine to taste (not a bad start for 10:00am!) Philip then showed us
around the cellars and told us about their wine making process. It
is a small vineyard compared to other producing around 7,000 bottles
a year. Where they can they have tried to retain traditional wine
making techniques. For many years they had been linked to the local
wine cooperative which meant that all of their grapes were pooled
with those from other nearby farms and made into a blended wine.
Under the terms of the cooperative Philip was not allowed to
produce any wine at all. He decided a few years ago that this was
too restrictive and that he again wanted to produce du Toit family
wines. The local wines estates all helped out in various different
ways sharing technical expertise but also enabling him to use their
equipment for the first few years until he had his own production
capabilities fully established. It’s a strange concept in today’s
modern competitive world but this type of community spirited help
still seems to be alive and well here.
Philip still uses the original cellars but now for storing his
wine rather than making it. To keep the wine cool they were made
from concrete and were lined with wax to prevent any unwanted
elements from creeping into the wine. In the cellars below the wine
is stored in French and American oak barrels (South African oak
grows too quickly and is not dense enough to use) to age and
continue through its process until it is ready to be bottled. A
local company operate a portable bottling plant which tours the
local vineyards rather than each having to incur the cost of setting
up their own facilities.
I was left with a feeling that Philip has many plans for his
wines and how he would like to see them grow and develop. He has
though also got many challenges to face. A recently introduced
labour law, designed I suspect to improve the lot of the local black
community, is one example. If a black person is given accommodation
on a farm as part of their employment and they work on the farm for
ten years, then the accommodation automatically becomes their
property. If the farm owner wants the accommodation back they have
to buy an alternative property for the farm worker to move into.
Rather than securing employment this has just meant that farms have
reduced their permanent workforce so that they can retain control of
their property. Philip’s now only permanently employs one person,
the rest are casual labour often picked up in town on a daily basis
when needed. The law has had the opposite effect of what was
intended and frustratingly for farmers does not apply to any other
industry.
We went to settle up with Almien in their house which is laden
with beautiful pieces of furniture and decorative touches. It is the
type of home that you see in home and garden type magazines and her
immaculate gardens outside have won awards. It has been a really
picturesque place to spend a night and with the friendly reception
and tour we were given we have left with a warm glow inside and
promises to catch up at the Food and Wine show next week.
Our next destination for the day was Paarl, another town on
the wine route. It was only a short ride away through the wine
country and we were surrounding by autumn colours and cape Dutch
architecture en route. We made it to Paarl just in time to catch
tourist information before they closed for the weekend. We’re
finding that the accommodation guides we have with us haven’t really
been that helpful, especially for finding self catering
accommodation. The office in Paarl wasn’t really any different. The
lady behind the counter was polite but clearly a bit peeved that
we’d come in so close to her shutting up shop. Self catering was
soon revealed not be an option so we changed tack and asked for
B&B’s. There was no proactivity on her side at all and it was really
like dragging blood out of a stone to get her to do something for
us.
Eventually we were booked in to the Skinkikofi B&B a little
further along Main Street and we went off in search of our pad for
the night. Driving up I was slightly dubious as it was a green
building on the corner of the main road. It is an old historic house
with long links to the KWV Wine Company who have their offices and
production facilities just over the road. We were though given
another friendly wine country welcome by Marius who showed us a
couple of rooms that we could choose from.
Hanepoot Huisies had been very cosy in a rustic country sort
of way. Skinkikofi was equally cosy but totally different. The whole
place was full of old furniture and bits and bots giving you the
feeling that you had walked into someone’s home in the early part of
the twentieth century. There are so many interesting things to
look at there that its impossible to describe but if you are in the
Paarl area its well worth spending a night or two there. We chose
our room, unpacked and went to sit outside on a little patio to have
a late picnic lunch and a game of cards.
We whiled away the rest of afternoon before heading out in the
evening for dinner. In South Africa everyone seems to drive
everywhere. This seems to be partly due to security concerns but
even here in Paarl where security isn’t an issue no one seems to
walk. We were the only people out and about on foot. Marius had
recommended that we went to 42 on Main, a local bistro with a good
reputation (tourist information and Lonely Planet both also talked
about it). It was a good option and we had a very tasty meal. We
opted for fish, only wanting a light dinner, but were presented with
a huge plateful of food. Canadian portion sizes are definitely the
rule in South Africa.
With food and a little more wine inside us we headed back to
our cosy little room and crashed out at the end of what has been a
very enjoyable day.
