Winemaking on an old Cape Town farm

FEATURE De Grendel Wine Estate RO/1 2013 DEGRENDEL WINES Winemaking on an old Cape Town farm From politics to premium wines, the Graaff family continues to make its mark. Sir De Villiers Graaff, Fourth Baronet of the family and De Grendel Wine Estate, spoke to Brian Berkman about continuing the tradition.

- Brian Berkman

Sir De Villiers Graaff (De Villiers), Fourth Baronet of the Graaff family and De Grendel Wine Estate, is descended from three generations of impressive men: entrepreneurs, farmers, and statesmen - people who significantly shaped the Western Cape and South Africa as a whole.

De Grendel has 85,25ha under vines, which is the main production focus. The farm stretches over almost 330ha on the fynbos-covered slopes of Tygerberg Hills in Panorama, Cape Town.

"We can grow vine production to around 100ha, with pastures and grazing covering 150ha. We have 850 head of South African Meat Merino, 120 Angus cattle, and a herd of African goats.

Free-range turkeys are a recent addition. We lease our 550 Holsteins to a farmer in Darling.

"De Grendel has protected 120ha of critically endangered Renosterveld. Only about 2% of the Cape Floral Kingdom's Renosterveld remains.

Our solar farm, which provides electricity to the estate, is on 0,5ha," says De Villiers.

"From vines in production, we harvest a total of 783t from 73,25ha annually, which is almost at the cellar's maximum capacity.

Of this, 562t, or 72%, are processed in the De Grendel Cellar, while 221t (28%) are sold.

"Average production per productive hectare is 9,5t. Sauvignon Blanc (34,48ha) and Merlot (18,58ha) are the biggest contributors. We also grow Sémillon, "Petit Verdot, Viognier and Cabernet Franc for blending. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are for Cap Classique, while Shiraz and Pinotage are grown as single varieties.

"All of these are Wines of Origin Cape Town.

The cellar buys additional grapes from our familyowned farms in the Koue Bokkeveld (Wine of Ceres Plateau) for our Op Die Berg range.

These include Syrah, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.