The Other Side Of Wine

Having started out as a wine farm – much like the vinegar process itself – Rozendal Farm in Stellenbosch has slowly turned into a spectacular vinegar cellar

- Malu Lambert

“Every wine wants to become vinegar,” laughs Rozendal vinaigrier, Nathalie Ammann, as we’re walking along the curve of a dirt road leading to the vinegar cellar. Shod in boots with her auburn hair tied back, Nathalie looks every bit the Stellenbosch farmer.

It all started with a passion for wine. “My dad always dreamed of making wine; so, in the early ’80s, my parents sold their restaurant in Joburg and moved to Stellenbosch where they bought this farm and planted six hectares of vineyards,” Nathalie shares.

The farm was then, as it is now, called Rozendal. “It means something like ‘horses in the valley’ in Dutch. We used to have a lot of horses, now we only have five. We also have two alpacas, 20 chickens, one pig and two dogs,” Nathalie says as she takes me to meet the pig, Truffles. The alpacas flick their ears in the distance, grazing in the sun.

Nathalie’s father, Kurt Ammann, made his first vintage in 1983 – a Bordeaux blend (cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc). The path to vinegar occurred as naturally as anything does on this biodynamic farm: in 1988, Kurt discovered the vintage of that year had too much volatile acidity – a wine flaw that creates acetic acid, which is also the starting point for making vinegar. Another serendipitous moment sealed the farm’s vinegar-making fate. “In 1995, a Swiss gentleman came to visit my dad at the farm,” Nathalie explains. “He was looking for a red wine made without sulphur. He started talking to my dad about the healing potential of certain vinegars and taught him to make vinegar with the flawed 1988 vintage.”