December 2001
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Only in SA The animal that is most identified with Africa is of course the lion. King of the jungle and Master of all he surveys, he fears nothing. The Cape has no wild lions left but until the 1850's apparently boasted the most magnificent species of lion. It was the Cape Mountain Lion and was distinguished by its huge size and black mane. It roamed the mountainous coastal region and terrified the early settlers. Stories of huge lions scaling the walls of their settlements and chewing them up have been passed down father to son, perhaps embellished, perhaps not. Early Dutch settlers such as Jan van Riebeeck would probably not have seen a cat bigger than a tabby before they arrived, so they can be excused for taking the opportunity for a good story. Anyway it seem certain that the lions of the interior were pale shadows of these Cape monsters. There are stories of a family of these lions being presented to Queen Victoria who kept them in Dublin Zoo. Subsequently members of this group were presented to Emperor Haile Selassie. Could any examples have survived? Have they interbred with other species such as Barbary lions? It has been the wistful long held dream of people such as John Spence, Director and trustee of Tygerberg zoo, to find a living example of the Cape lion. In January 2000 he was alerted to a group of lions that fitted the description in a Siberian zoo. He traveled there and was amazed to see what could only be described as a group of Cape lions. In all his travels looking for a match he had never seen such a thrilling sight. Believing this was the closest he would ever get to the elusive beasts he took two cubs back to Tygerberg. The cubs were spotted brown and by 18 months old were already bigger than the other fully grown lions in the zoo. Bingo! Now he hopes to breed a population and reestablish the Cape stock. There only remains the small problem of where to put them. At roughly the same time a wine farmer acquired a 400 hectare wine estate backing onto a 4000 hectare Cape nature conservancy area. This guy's dream is to return the old estate to its former glory and build a beautiful house for his wife and young family. He is a man of great enterprise and not scared to do something new. He had his eye on some of the high slopes above the farm for Pinot Noir, until his wife, a veterinary surgeon and wildlife expert, pointed out the ban on agriculture inside the boundaries of the conservations area. "Well, what can we do with the mountain?" he remarked. In a blinding flash of light an idea was born. Now his wife is on a mission, raising money and canvassing the local farmers. With that the Cape Mountain Lion Project was born. Not exactly what they had in mind when they moved in. As long as the fences are high enough vineyards and lions would make a uniquely South African mix, maybe not as mad as it at first appears. Picking grapes at night may be interesting. Watch this space. Back to Tulbagh. The staff party was a great success, again, with huge quantities of meat and drink consumed. The staff certainly deserved it after their Herculean efforts of the past 12 months. As with the rest of the Cape the holidays started for us on 15th and would last past New Year. The weather was glorious with a cool breeze and warm sunshine. It was good to be alive.
Our main tasks were to go over the cellar plans, work out who would make our wine in our first vintage and taste a lot of wine. Among Tom G-W's pile of presents was a box of 6 of the best, red wines from SA selected on reputation alone. Also among his presents was the yellow Platter's Guide to South African Wine. There was an entry for TMV, reproduced here, which certainly throws down the challenge. We have a lot to live up to and the entry will concentrate our minds over the next 24 months or so, until we see the fruits of our labour. The best part of the holiday season is long lunches. Braais that start at noon with poolside beers and end at midnight with critiques of the assembled wines of the Cape. We are lucky that so many of the people we have come in contact with over the last 2 and a half years are interested enough in our venture to meet with us and discuss what we are doing. Our view is that you should always be open to advice from all quarters, as nobody can ever know everything about wine or the making of it. During the holiday period we had several
memorable meetings of minds. The first was with our nursery man who popped
up from Wellington to see how his vines were growing. After a long lunch
where he regaled us with stories of black goo and viral infections, swarms of
grasshoppers and "prawns" devouring whole hillsides of vines we were
getting very itchy to mount the Land Rover and see if ours were still
standing. Of course they were, and after all the horrific tales it was
hard to pin the fact that a few had not survived on him. His vineyard
manner was impeccable, eulogizing over the strength of the Cabernet and the
structure of the Shiraz. In fact, I would recommend any Another lunch was infinitely enhanced by the company of the Sadie family. More so because they brought a few bottles of Eben's superb "Family and Friends" Rose which was the perfect wine for a hot summers day. It made us realise how bad so much Rose is and how under developed it is as a style. A good one like Eben's ranks up there with the best of bubblies for al-fresco dining. A Syrah Rose in the Cote du Rhone image would be a great addition to the cellar, and if nobody bought it we could drink it all ourselves!
Eben is a great wine thinker. His search for knowledge and his love of the vine is second to none that we have met. He is uncompromising, an artist of the highest ideals. Someone like Eben will never be truly satisfied by what he does because he will be searching constantly for the Holy Grail of wine making, whatever that is. On the other hand his wine will bring great pleasure to those who drink it, and that is what we would call success. An afternoon discussing wine and the making of it, tasting Tom G-W's "six of the best", swimming, eating and eventually looking for shooting stars in the enormous night sky can only be described as a halcyon day. Those who are afraid of the risks of SA should try the rewards. After much debate as to whether the surf would be better here or there the next day, the Sadies went to bed and were heard leaving at an early hour to catch the first daylight wave. Only in SA. Christmas is a time for children. Our two families of kids were as ever running riot on the farm. Slipping off the shackles of their normally more constrained existences they were making the most of it. In the two years since we started the venture they have grown, and grown to love the farm. This is a part of the equation that cannot be valued too highly and was not even part of the original evaluation. Another dimension that pulls us deeper into the farm, Tulbagh and South Africa.
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