Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

I have previously written about the new Babel Tea House and also about Babel Restaurant at Babylonstoren.  On each of these visits I did not fully comprehend the wealth of work that has gone into planning, developing and maintaining the extensive 3,5 ha fruit and vegetable garden, with 350 edible fruit and vegetable varieties.

Wishing to spoil my parents, I invited them for a visit to the wine estate, and we were taken around by head gardener Liesel van der Walt, a charming and passionate ambassador for the garden, providing lots of information, and picking edible flowers (Day lilies) and berries for us to eat, and vegetable flowers (carrot and onion) for us to keep.  Liesel was at Kirstenbosch for 20 years, and originally did some contract gardening on the estate before joining Babylonstoren a year ago, managing a team of 15 gardeners.  She showed us the Babylonstoren, a hill after which the estate has been named, and laughingly said that soon they too can have the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’! There are three ponds closest to the shop, and we started the garden tour here. A dam each contains waterblommetjies, tilapia fish, and rainbow trout.

Owners Koos Bekker and Karen Roos used plans and drawings of the original Company Gardens developed by Jan van Riebeeck for inspiration, and axes were planned, from the entrance off the R45, and then from the wine cellar and grain store, creating a linear divide, which guided the location of the canals, drawing water from the Berg River 10 km away via gravity, using flood irrigation for the citrus trees, for example, as one would in Spain and in the Middle East.  Trees were planted as windbreaks. The Bekkers bought the farm (very quietly) five years ago, and the garden was started in November 2007, using the services of Patrice Tarravella from France, whose garden at his erstwhile-monastery hotel south of Paris impressed the Bekkers. Characteristic of Tarravella’s work are the 49 rose pillars, big timber structures with climbing roses, providing shade.  I have written previously about my past work with Koos Bekker, and I know him as an extreme workaholic, who personifies excellence in everything he does (he started M-Net 25 years ago, and now is CEO of Naspers).  When I spoke to Koos on my visit to the Babel Tea House he graciously praised his wife Karen for the development of Babylonstoren,   Liesel told us that Koos was being very modest in this praise, as he is the life and soul of the garden, having giving it his energy and passion, and he still is her ‘garden boss’!  A guiding right hand is Anton Roux, who has 60 years of garden experience he told us proudly, and he looked fit and healthy at 72 years, saying that his recipe for good health is eating correctly, exercise which he gets from walking in the extensive garden, and sleeping well.

In planning the garden, they did not just buy young plants, but also transplanted older trees, to give the garden a head start.  Guava trees over 150 years old were transplanted from Dal Josephat two years ago, and have already delivered an excellent crop.  A special ‘Newton’s apple tree’ comes from a cutting of an apple tree at Sir Isaac Newton’s home in England, which Koos originally had in his garden in Cape Town, reflecting his love for interesting ’story trees’.  A Medlar tree, the first tree brought into the country by Jan van Riebeeck, has been planted, by grafting it onto four quince tree ‘legs’.

Spekboom (Elephants’ foot) is widely planted on the estate, to rehabilitate the areas in which the goats overgrazed the land, and is a very beneficial plant in that it absorbs carbon and releases oxygen. It is also used in salads and in pickles made at Babel.  We saw Carob trees (carob is a substitute for chocolate), Jerusalem artichoke, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries.  The Cactus garden of six prickly pear species is one of Koos’ special loves. We saw olive trees, and there are about 100 wild olives on the farm too, Liesel said.  We saw sweet potatoes, rosemary, thyme, lemons, kumquat trellises, persimmons, oranges, grapefruit, plums, lavender, peaches, pomegranates, nectarines, asparagus, artichokes, loquats, chamomile, indigenous geranium (used for medicinal tea), buchu, bay leaves, oregano, granadilla, Tamarillo tree tomatoes, wild gardenia, and delicious tasting day lilies. We were explained the principle of ‘companion planting’, with the flowers of the carrot and onion plants preventing bugs for each other, as an example. Inside the glass-walled Babel Tea House, which doubles up as a hothouse and as a tearoom on colder and wetter days, Liesel has plants which cannot take the winter cold outside, including basil, pineapples, English cucumbers, dragon fruit, tomatoes, orchids with vanilla pods, and ginger.  Inside the Tea House a selection of herbs from the garden, including pineapple sage, lavender, rose pelagia, lemon verbena, buchu, mint, peppermint, and elderflowers was ready for patrons wishing to use them for teas.  Karen’s decor touch showed again, when dresser drawers’ were filled with beetroots and radishes.  Outside the Tea House some younger oak trees are about 12 - 15 years old, and the bigger oak trees are 50 - 60 years old, Liesel estimated.  The only vegetables which Babylonstoren is not growing much of is potatoes and tomatoes, buying these in.

I loved the special hidden aspects of the garden, which one would not have known had one not gone on the tour. There is a meditation space, through a door which has mulberry trees.  There are bee hives, not only to produce honey, but also to get the bees to pollinate the flowers.  There is an amazing bird watching square, with a weeping mulberry and sunflowers, which attract birds.  Karen Roos has had the cutest bird cages made, to encourage the birds to nest there.  To do birdwatching in the greatest comfort, she had two massive woven bird watching pods made by Porky Heifer, with comfortable cushions inside, facing the plants the birds love and the cages.   There are cages for the chickens, and for Pekin ducks with pecan nut trees in their cage.

Grapes from the vineyards were sold to the co-operative in the past, but since last year the first wines are being made, and the Babylonstoren Rosé and Viognier have been bottled already, while the sparkling wine is still on the lees.  When we were on the garden tour earlier this week, Chardonnay grapes were being harvested.   What impressed us when we arrived, was that things are so fresh at Babylonstoren, that even the straw and oregano which is used to create the Babel logo is replenished regularly!

We were lucky to have been able to book a table inside at the very busy Babel.  I have written about my lunch at Babel about three weeks ago, but must mention the strikingly beautiful Red Salad we shared as a starter, with a chilled slice of watermelon, tomatoes, plums, radish, blueberries, and green leaves, all from the garden, excellent value at R50.   My father had the beef fillet with olives, which was served on a bull’s head plate, picking up the decor theme from the menu wall in the restaurant.  The plates are for sale in the shop as well.

A special touch was that Terry de Waal, Babylonstoren GM, came to greet us as we left, to make sure that we were happy with the garden tour.  My parents were delighted with the special treat, and once again I had learnt a whole lot more about the very special Babylonstoren.

Babylonstoren, R45 road between Klapmuts and Simondium, between Backsberg and Nobel Hill. Tel (021) 863-1804. www.babylonstoren.com. Twitter: @Babylonstoren. Garden Tours Wednesday - Sunday 10h00 - 12h30.  R10 entrance fee per person at entrance. No reservation required.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

A most beautiful as well as informative coffee table book about South Africa’s sparkling wine industry has just been published.  ‘Celebrating Méthode Cap Classique’ has been written by Di Burger, and is the first complete bubbly book.

The book traces the history of champagne to South Africa’s sparkling wine industry, which innovated with Cap Classique forty years ago, being a bottle-fermented bubbly made in the traditional French style.  Kaapse Vonkel was made for the first time by pioneer winefarmer Frans Malan at Simonsig in 1971, while ‘Cap Classique’ wines were made for the first time in 1992.  Chairman of the Cap Classique Association, Pieter ‘Bubbles’ Ferreira of Graham Beck Wines, writes in the introduction to the book that ‘South Africa has the oldest grape growing soils in the world’.  Combined with its bountiful sunshine, the Western Cape is a perfect location for growing grapes of excellent quality for the production of Cap Classique. 

Méthode Cap Classique (MCC) is the term which describes the South African bottle-fermented production of sparkling wines in the French méthode Champenoise style.  They are dry, with less than 12 grams of sugar per litre.

The book includes profiles of the major sparkling wine producers (Simonsig, Boschendal, Graham Beck, JC le Roux, Pongrácz, Villiera, Haute Cabrière, The House of Krone, Laborie, Backsberg Estate, Avondale, Bon Courage Estate, Van Loveren, De Wetshof, High Constantia Wine Cellar, Steenberg Vineyards, La Motte, Morena MCC, Saronsberg, Colmant, Veenwouden Private Cellar,  Mooiplaas, Quoin Rock Winery, Chabivin, Klasiek by Catherine, Namaqua Wines, MC Square, Domaine des Dieux, Lourensford, Old Vines Wine Cellars, Neil Joubert, Teddy Hall, Welteverede Wine Estate, Charles Fox, Francois La Garde, Longridge, Silverthorn Wines, Genevieve, LovanE Boutique Wine Estate, Saltare Wines, Tanzanite Wines, Ros Gower Wines, Wonderfontein, Cederberg Private Cellar, Riebeek Cellars, Groot Constantia, Dieu Donné Vineyards, Roodezandt, Aurelia MCC, Bramon, Viljoensdrift Wines,  Sterhuis, Perdeberg Winery, Véraison MCC, and Allée Bleue Estate). 

The book describes four styles of making sparkling wines: the ‘impregnation method’ (injecting carbon dioxide into vats of still wine); the ‘tank method’ (second fermentation in tank instead of in the bottle); the ‘transfer method’ (second fermentation in bottles, the cloudy wine is sucked out of the bottle through a filter to remove the sediment); and ‘Méthode Cap Classique’ (second fermentation in the bottle, with a solution of sugar syrup, yeast and aged wine added to create carbon dioxide and alcohol in the bottle, aged on the lees for 18 months - 5 years).  In total, there are 90 sparkling wine producers in South Africa, of which 53 are featured in the book.  Grape cultivars used most often in the production of sparkling wines are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  Beautiful photographs by Riehan Bakkes reflect the vineyards, cellars, and products of the wine estates producing sparkling wines. 

Woolworths’ Allan Mullins recommends serving a glass of bubbly at the start of a function, to ‘awaken the taste buds’.  Food and Cap Classique pairings for breakfast, lunch and dinner are included in the book, and recipes by TASTE and Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly are featured, as are recipes from Simonsig’s Cuvée restaurant, The Salmon Bar, David Grier, and Terra Mare Restaurant.  Pairings with Lindt chocolate desserts, and cheese are also featured, as are cocktail recipes with sparkling wine, created by the Cape Grace Hotel.

‘Celebrating Méthode Cape Classique’,  Stacked Publications, www.stackedpublications.co.za. Tel (021) 685-2146.   R300. 

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com   Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Last week Allée Bleue launched its first sparkling wine, the Brut Rosé 2009, and dressed up its lunch venue in pink, in contrast to its blue corporate colour.  Flowers on the tables were pink, pink and white balloons decorated the entrance to the venue, and GM Wolfgang Leyrer wore a pink jersey in honour of the event.

The new Brut Rosé is made from 53% chenin blanc and 47% pinotage, and has “delicate flavours of strawberries, rose petals and candy floss”, according to the tasting notes.  The wine spent 10 months on the lees.  Only 6000 bottles have been made. 

Using the colour and flavour descriptions as a cue, the food and wine journalists and bloggers invited to the celebration of the new bubbly were treated to a most wonderful lunch:

*  The starter was a Trio of Salmon, with wasabi cream, beautifully presented.

*  The main course was Chicken Supreme and prawns in a saffron sauce

*   The most beautiful of the three courses was the strawberry dessert, a strawberry pannacotta surrounded by fresh strawberry slices

For the past 18 months Allée Bleue GM Wolfgang Leyrer has been driving the development of the wine estate, now the largest venue in Franschhoek as far as weddings go, and he was proud to announce that 50 weddings have been booked for the season ahead already, held in their new Grand Hall, which was launched in March and can seat 300 guests.  The new Brut Rosé will largely be used for wedding events, and will only be sold on the estate, at R89,50.

Winemaker Van Zyl Du Toit introduced his new Chenin Blanc 2010, made from Walker Bay and Franschhoek grapes, which was also served to the guests, costing R39.  It is so new that it still has to be labelled.   A Rosé 2010 was also served with the lunch, with a distinctive deep pink colour, and a dry taste.  It costs R32. 

A new chef Glen Ferris has been appointed for the Bistro, and he is currently doing an exchange at Schwarzer Adler, a Michelin two-star restaurant in the Black Forest in Germany.

Allée Bleue is a wine estate to watch, as it is constantly moving ahead with new developments, within a culture of German excellence.  The owners of the wine estate are the Dauphin family from Germany.

Allée Bleue, R45, Franschhoek. Tel (021) 874-1021 www.alleebleue.com Twitter: @AlleeBleue

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.comTwitter: @WhaleCottage

A new guided tour of the wine farms, focusing on those wine estates that are ‘green’, organic, support biodiversity and generally care for nature, has been launched.  Eco Wine Tours is a joint venture between Charles Lourens of BottlePillowPlate and Pieter Geldenhuys of PG TOPS, and drives to the Winelands every Wednesday.   The tour raised the question amongst its participants as to how each one of us can make a difference too, and recycling is the first obvious step.

The tour highlighted how much work is being done by individual wine estates to give something back to nature, and how each of them do something (often more than one action) to ensure that their farming practices do not add to the carbon overload the world already faces.   It is clear that this good work is being done out of a genuine interest in and love for the environment, rather than for marketing purposes.  It also indicated what diversity there is in being a ‘green’ wine estate, with the wide range of different actions wine estates undertake to be environmentally friendly, each following their own way.  The highlights of our tour, on a grey wintry day yesterday, were the following:

Avondale  is outside Paarl, and attracted attention with its ads featuring naked persons in the vineyards, as well as their famous ducks.  Due to a fire in 1999, the wine farming practices of the estate were turned on their head, and the new cellar that was built, the grape farming as well as all aspects of production were changed to meet an environmentally friendly and non-mass production philosophy.  The welcome we received from Jonathan, the warm crackling fireplace in the tasting room, and the enthusiasm shown to our group was impressive.   Avondale focuses on the natural balance of the environment, and believes in feeding the soil, and not the vines.  No herbicides, pesticides and fungicides are used at all, and its workforce of more than 100 ducks is employed to eat snails and other pests, to maintain the ecological balance.  They apply natural farming methods, and focus on premium quality wine production, of which organic wine is an end-result, and not the other way round. 

They have branded their work as “BioLogic”, reflecting that they use organic and biodynamic farming methods and with that want to restore the land to what it would have been centuries ago, and want to keep in balance what nature has given the wine estate.  We drank their wonderful spring water, tasting as fresh as water can.  Using gravity, Avondale irrigates its vines from its six natural dams.   Grey water is re-used, not by adding chemicals but by adding yeast.  A minimum 40mm of sulphur is added to the wine just before bottling.   Weeds are used positively, to control the soil.  They indicate what is needed to improve the quality of the soil.  Wasps are hooked up in the vineyards, where they hatch, and they take care of the mieliebugs.   Special owl houses have been made from wine barrels to house the collection of owls, who take care of rodents and snakes on the estate.  Increasingly, Avondale  is seeing small buck and lynx coming back to the estate.  Gravity is used in the cellar to reduce the usage of electricity as much as possible.  A natural riverbed runs alongside the cellar, and its clay bottom ensures that the cellar is naturally cold without any airconditioning, even on 45 C days in Paarl.  Avondale only uses pumps for its bottling.   Salt water is brought in, and the salt extracted from it, to add to the soil, salt containing 90 nutrients.  Cover-crops, such as lupins, are planted to create an eco-system, adding nitrogen to the soil.  On good weather days guests are driven into the vineyard, and one tastes the wine in the vineyard block from which it is made.

The Avondale MCC Brut is the only organic sparking wine in South Africa.   Other wines in the Avondale range are Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc (organic), The Weir Chardonnay, Rosé (organic), Jonty’s Ducks (organic), Julia, Camissa Syrah, The Owl House Cabernet Sauvignon, Graham, Muscat Blanc, Les Pleurs Chenin Blanc and Les Pleurs Merlot.  Prices start at R58 for the Rosé and Chenin Blanc, up to over R 200 for the Les Pleurs range.  A new advertising campaign is to be launched, and the naked ladies will no longer feature, but the ducks will.  The wine estate impressed in being the only one to provide a folder of information, summarising its wine farming philosophy (”Wines approved by Mother Nature”), combining natural farming with 21st century science, technology and research.  The organic certification comes from the Dutch Control Union, and is accredited by Bio Nach EG-Öko Verordnung( Germany), Soil Association (UK) and USDA (USA). 

The Avondale building is mock Cape Dutch and its interior is too.  It is a very spacious building, and its interior is functional but not as attractive as that of many other wine estates.  It probably demonstrates that the wines, the farming methods and wine production are the heroes at Avondale.   A most impressively green wine estate.

Backsberg is well-known for its work in enhancing its carbon footprint, but until my visit I was not sure what it was doing, other than that it had recently launched its “Tread Lightly” range of wines in a plastic bottle.  Simon Back traced the history of the farm, to 1916, when his grandfather CL Back had bought the farm, first farming fruit before switching to grapes.  All grapes were sent to the KWV in early days, and it was Simon’s grandfather Sydney who made the first wines at Backsberg in the Sixties.   Michael Back, Simon’s father, studied viticulture and winemaking, and is the passionate owner who is driving the environmentally friendly approach of Backsberg.  He is currently attending a conference in Rio de Janeiro on renewable energy.  Backsberg became so passionate about being environmentally responsible about its wine farming, production and sales that it started by measuring the impact its operation has on the environment, in terms of fuel usage, water and electricity, and many more factors that they could quantify.  The CO2 emissions caused by their operation is offset by a dedicated program to restore their carbon footprint by tree planting, and by changing how they do things.  Energy-saving light bulbs are used; holes were cut in the roof to let in natural light; Michael drives a Ford Bantam bakkie because it is less environmentally damaging and lighter on fuel than a heavy-weight one; fresh dam water is used to cut out on refrigeration costs; smaller tractors are used; barrelwood is re-used and furniture made from it, which is for sale;  a massive counter was made from barrelwood; light-weight glass bottles are used, now weighing 450g compared to the previous 650g; the 50g plastic bottle is a huge step forward, and all indications are that the market is accepting the new ‘Tread Lightly’ range, the first wine brand to use plastic bottles in South Africa, and follows France and Australia as countries that are using such bottles with success.  The long-term goal is to become completely energy self-sufficient in future.  Simon says that the debate that may have been generated about the advisability of using plastic bottles is similar to the one five years ago of using screw caps on wine bottles.   The plastic bottles can be recycled.  A glass-blowing pair of brothers re-uses Backsberg bottles in its glass art. 

The Tread Lightly brand is exactly the same wine as is in the glass bottles, with a shelf life of two years.   Its range consists of Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc, and is only sold through Pick ‘n Pay, at R49,99 and R39,99, respectively.  The Backsberg range is extensive, and consists of the Backsberg Family Reserve Range, a Kosher range, Sydney Back brandy range, Hanepoot, Port, a Mediterranean Range (Aldorina, Bella Rosa and Elbar),   Black label Range (Sparkling Brut MCC, John Martin, Pumphouse Shiraz, Klein Babylonstoren) and the Premium Range (Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Rosé, Dry Red, Pinotage, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon).  Wine prices start at R31 for the Chenin Blanc, Rosé and Dry Red, up to R 161 for the Backsberg Family Reserve Red Blend.

We were surprised at how old-fashioned things appear at Backsberg in terms of its building and interior, but perhaps it is environmentally friendly to leave the buildings in the way they have always been.  The dedication to the environment is clear and they are saluted for this.   No written information was supplied proactively, and the pricelist does not contain any contact details, should one wish to order or have queries.

Mooiplaas  needs perseverance to get to in terms of its bumpy road, but again this may be a sign of the environmental orientation of this wine estate.  Tielman Roos is a passionate co-owner of the farm, and says that there is a lot of confusion about environmentally-friendly farming. One can farm organically, follow the guidelines of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative launched by Wines of South Africa, and/or follow the Integrated Production of Wines of the University of Stellenbosch.   The challenge is to use farming methods that harm the environment (like spraying) and then to offset this with environmentally friendly actions.  He explained that there was no point in farming in a purely organic way and then lose one’s crop in not having sprayed.  It is the carbon footprint that counts.  Mooiplaas does this in having created a private nature reserve of Renosterveld on the farm, which can never be used for wine farming.  He said: “We must be responsible to keep our business in business”.  South Africa has the oldest soils in the world, and this makes its biodiversity so special.   Tielman challenged every wine farmer to dedicate 5-10 % of the farm to indigenous plants, to so contribute to the environment.   The Mooiplaas wines carry the ‘Integrity and Sustainability’ seal on the neck of its bottles, and gives traceability to that particular wine. 

The wine estate has a beautiful historic manor house, built in 1833, hidden from the tasting room.  The tasting room feels environmentally friendly, its floor made from rocks and cement (making for a very uneven walk) and walls that show the original building style, only partly plastered.   It is a “plaas” winefarm, with little that shows modernity, except for a good brochure lying in the Tasting Room, and for Tielman’s dedication to the environment.   He organises walks through the nature reserve.  The Mooiplaas range consists of Langtafel Wit, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Langtafel Rosé, Pinotage, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Rosalind and Duel MCC, ranging in price from R32 - R 127.

Signal Hill Winery is in the middle of the city, in Heritage Square, and our guide Kyle Zulch clearly loves his job, demonstrated by his enthusiasm and generosity in the tasting.  He took the group to the pavement, where he disgorged a bottle of their MCC, the process that bubbly producers use to take the lees off the MCC before labelling and corking the bottle.  The grapes for their wines come from vines on pockets of land in Cape Town (Camps Bay, Kalk Bay and Oranjezicht), leading to a small quantity of only 6 barrels produced.  In addition, grapes are bought in from Stellenbosch, Constantia and Somerset West.  Kyle and Signal Hill Winery founder Jean-Vincent Ridon are passionate about ‘fighting urbanisation’, and are looking for more pockets of land in the city on which they can plant vines.   The Premier’s residence Leeuwenhof may become a mini-wine farm soon too. They clean up weeds by hand, rather than the quick and easy spraying method, have an earthworm farm, and they plant lavender and basil in-between the vines.       

The range of 25 Signal Hill wines consists of Tutuka Shiraz (R39), The Threesome, Petit Verdot, Grenache Noir, Cabernet Franc, Shiraz/Syrah Helderberg, Pinot Noir, Clos D’Oranje Shiraz/Syrah R750), Grenache Blanc, Rosé de Saignée (R38), Empereur Rouge, Vin de L’emperuer, Straw Wine, Creme de Tete, Eszencia (R2000), Red Le Signal, White Le Signal and Muscat de Rivesaltes.

It was a most impressive day, seeing wine estates from a completely different angle.  The wine tastings were generous, and one must pace oneself and spit more than swallow, with an average of five wines tasted per wine estate, making about 20 in total!   The wonderful lunch we had at Towerbosch on the Knorhoek wine estate will be featured in a restaurant review next week.

Eco Wine Tours: Charles Lourens, Bottle Plate Pillow Tel 082 375 2884 and Pieter Geldenhuys, PG Tops Tel 083 288 4944.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com