A Day on the Farm
One of the joys of having a hobby is to be able to visit the "home" of whatever it is that stirs your passion. I suppose steam train fanatics dream about a pilgrimage to Crewe; car enthusiasts would love to visit the factory of their dream car, whether it's Ferrari in Modena or Porsche in Stuttgart (sorry for all you MG fans, but a trip to Longbridge is no longer an option!) I'm not sure if bankers have secret dreams to visit the Mint to worship their particular object of desire – I know that during my 32 years of banking, I could think of better ways to make my toes curl!
However, now that I'm a (trainee) wine connoisseur, I have literally hundreds of places to visit to satisfy my vinous desires – every wine farm in the country! Of course, there is still a handful of shrines where one can truly worship Bacchus, such as the five 1st Growth Chateaux in France, but for now those are distant dreams, unless the owners of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti happen to read this?
Anyway, one such opportunity came my way a couple of weeks ago, when I was invited to spend some time with some fellow wine scribes and fundis on Ridgeback Farm. Now as a fine wine retailer, I feel that it is my duty to sample as many fine wines as I can so that I can best advise my customers. (Yes, I know it's tough, but somebody has to do it.) So, leaving my wife and manager to hopefully manage the shop and restaurant in my absence, I reluctantly set off for distant Paarl, arriving safely half an hour later.
After such a long and arduous journey, I was more than ready for the welcoming and revitalising Vansha White, a delicious chenin-sauvignon blend that immediately restored my equilibrium, and prepared me for the next part of this exhausting day. This was to be an excursion, on foot nogal, to the vineyard, and not just to any vineyard, but to their 5-star rated Shiraz block. Talk about holy grails, or in this case, holy grapes! There, set up in the middle of this hallowed site, were umbrellas, straw bales upon which to rest, and of course, some more refreshing nectar, just to settle the dust on our parched palates, you understand.
Not so long ago, a wine farm consisted of 2 people – the owner, who had a vision of making a small fortune (from his previous big fortune!), and a winemaker whose function was to put grapes into barrels and tanks, and sell the resulting liquid as cheaply as possible. NOT ANY MORE!
Nowadays, there is the owner, whose role hasn't changed, plus the winemaker, whose role hasn't changed much either, plus the viniculturalist, the viticulturalist, the meteorologist, the agronomist, the soil expert, the chemist, the fertiliserist, etc, etc.
Fortunately, in Ridgeback's case, all of these experts combine, under winemaker Kathy Marshall's excellent guidance, to produce a stunning range of red and white wines. Still, I digress.
Having heard from most of the experts, you get a far greater appreciation of the amount of effort that goes into producing a 5-star wine. These things don't just happen!
After the theory in the vineyard, it was time for a spell in the laboratory (the winery) to more fully understand the metamorphosis from raw material to finished product, and then back to the classroom (tasting room) to write the practical exam – a tasting of the full range of Ridgeback wines.
Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, a wonderful array of award winning wines, some approaching adolescence, some still showing youthful exuberance, some barely able to stand yet, but all showing excellent potential, if properly nurtured and cared for, just as you would care for your Porsche, Ferrari, Steinway, Van Gogh, or whatever else it is that you want to reach its full potential.
My sincere thanks to Vernon and Lesley Cole, to Cathy Marshall, and to Chimani the Ridgeback for a splendid day on the farm. Ridgeback and Vansha wines are available at all Manuka Fine Wine boutiques.
Written by Stephen Digby - Manuka @ Southeys - Somerset West