And for Mike Bampfield-Duggan’s Wine of the week piece on iafrica, click here.
Friday’s Vertical Tasting
See What I Drank Last Night for what Christian Eedes thought of the Luddite Shiraz ’05 to ’09 tasted on Friday.
Filed under PRESS
Bottles and Barrels
The harvest party's over and it's back to work - bottling begins!
As harvest celebrations drew to a close the 2012 Luddite Shiraz was looking good and Niels was itching to get it into barrel – for some reason malolactic fermentation took its time this year. Now the waiting game is over; wines have been racked up and put into barrel and tank in their batches. ‘It’s put to bed safe and sound,’ said Niels. He’s busy bottling the 2009 vintage counting down the days before he leaves on a whistle-stop tour of Europe, Luddite Shiraz in hand.
Penny, on the other hand, is ticking off her own ‘To do’ list: Deliver pig’s head to George Jardine, leave cooler box under the second plum tree for Tannie Elreda to deliver butter, make home-made relish with tomatoes from the valley, sketch pigs for ‘wine&swine’ tasting notes – all in a day’s work for farmer’s wife!
Filed under LUDDITE SHIRAZ
The Morning After
With the contest for the biggest harvest beard behind him Niels stayed true to his annual Luddite tradition and got creative with the post-harvest growth. From what was described as reminiscent of van Gogh he fashioned ‘The Horseshoe’ – a ‘tache worthy of a Morning After Fry-up at the Bot River Hotel…
Barrels & Beards Harvest Festival
Niels offering up Luddite Shiraz 2005 and the very latest 2012 straight from the barrel
Peter (also with beard) of the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley's Bouchard Finlayson Wines and Daisy Verburg of Luddite, checking in guests and issuing glasses
A pink-rippled sky as the sun went under and festivities got into full swing
Pietie carving up succulent spit-roast Luddite pork
Harvest dinner: Happy pork, hot mustard, apple sauce, baby potatoes and salad sides
Last night the Bot River valley was filled with sounds of a merry shindig, organised by winemakers and their wives to celebrate the 2012 harvest drawing to a close.
After a cold beer or two on the veranda of the Bot River Hotel, punters were ferried to Anysbos farm where each wine maker offered a taste of their brand new vintage straight from the barrel.
‘Do you want it jong en rof?’ joked Niels as he filled glasses with his 2012 Luddite Shiraz – as one man retorted between sips, it may be young but it’s by no means rough. The Luddite 2005 was also on offer, smooth and velvety and showing aromatic notes such as clove that are characteristic of such a cool vintage.
Then it was time to feast and line tummies with fresh breads baked by Nikki Beaumont of Beaumont Wines, butter made by Tannie Elreda of Goedvertrouw Wines, chicken liver paté, preserved figs and apricot jam by Luddite’s own Penny and cheese from Anysbos.
According to Sebastian Beaumont, the only ingredient that didn’t come from the valley was the chickpeas! Two happy Luddite pigs were roasted on a spit, along with two sheep from the area, and in true South African form the women gathered in Penny’s kitchen that morning to make the salads: Aubergine, tomato and feta, greens with pomegranate seeds, chickpeas with baby tomatoes and red onion.
When it came to the all-important task of judging the harvest beards, reigning champion Niels Verburg was ousted by PJ Geyer of Barton Wines who sported a style influenced by Salvador Dali. But Niels remained unfazed, ‘As long as the trophy stays in Bot River,’ he said, smiling, ‘that’s the most important thing.’
As the strains of boereorkes The Stoepsitters faded into the night the Bot River community put the hard work of harvest behind them, thankful for the bounty they have to share.
To see The Stoepsitters in action, playing their final song, click here.
Filed under HARVEST, LUDDITE EVENTS
Irrigation Luddite-style
Niels giving Luddite's young Chenin vines some TLC
Niels nurturing Luddite’s recently planted Chenin block, watering every one of the 1200 vines ‘the Niels way’. (Notice the beard – a serious contender for Barrels & Beards next weekend!)
Filed under THE WINEMAKER
Penny’s Happy Pigs
Penny caught her first pig (Priscilla Queen of the Farm) in 1997 when a neighbouring farmer ‘Oom Willie Dimlights’ made her the offer of ‘As jy een kan vang dan kan jy een kry’ (if you can catch one you can have one).
Weary of how the words ‘free-range’ and ‘organic’ can be misused, Penny simply refers to her pigs as ‘happy’. ‘I don’t use the term organic or free-range because I have a penicillin jab and if it means saving my pigs I will use it. But they are healthy so I haven’t needed it,’ says Penny.
The pigs have a penchant for prawn shells and there’s a ‘pig bucket’ in the kitchen collecting veggie scraps for their dinner but otherwise it’s no meat, no slop. Only the vineyards are off limits for them – especially during harvest – lest they eat the grapes.
‘They get let out in the morning, spend the day wallowing around, sometimes going as far as 10km down the valley following the river,’ says Penny, ‘But at around 5pm they make their way home to bed.’
Penny makes her own pancetta and pork sausages (available from the farm) and supplies suckling pigs to local chefs.
A very happy Luddite piggy
Filed under HAPPY PIGS
Barrels and Beards
Join us for the Bot River Barrels and Beards on Saturday 21 April and vote for Niels’s harvest beard! As reward we will be roasting Penny’s ‘happy pigs’ on the spit (for the feast) and filling your glass with Luddite Shiraz.
Filed under LUDDITE EVENTS
Luddite’s ‘Young Gun’
Luddite got a little bit of shine earlier this year in a Decanter article by Matthew Jukes entitled ‘South Africa’s New Guard’.
In looking at the ‘young gun’ phenomenon in SA Jukes wrote:
‘Young guns are, by way of explanation, not necessarily young people, but they have a fresh, international view, and often a wide skillset, which is rare in the wine business. They also happen to be the people with their names or brands on the label. They usually operate out of smaller wineries, often having quit large, corporate wine companies, and they almost always enjoy mini-cult status on release of their own wines – assuming they stack up.’
And this is where Luddite got a mention:
‘Even tiny little Bot River has its own new group of musketeers led by Niels Verburg at Luddite, and including Sebastian Beaumont, Kobie Viljoen at Gabriëlskloof and a handful of other very small, new producers learning collectively as they go.’
On describing Luddite Shiraz 2007 Jukes says, ‘Niels Verburg’s wine captures real elegance and intricacy. An enjoyable pillaging, dusted down at the end by chirpy well-meaning, crunchy acidity.’
To read the full story click here and to see the pic of Luddite’s ‘young gun’ scroll down to page 48 below!
Drinking like a Fish
Tim James snappped this scene when visiting Luddite for a tasting last week, take a closer look at Drinking the dog under the table | Grape
Filed under PRESS
