Landsman is inspired by the vines and wines of Piedmont

I am back from Italy totally inspired to do better and more interesting viticulture than ever before.

My greatest experience though was not about viticulture per se but about realising that, for the Piedmontese, vines and vineyards are part of their lives. Really their life. Difficult to explain precisely.

One thing that has always bothered me about the South African wine industry is the very separate departments we have. Let me try to explain. In Barolo, the father of the family is the owner of the land who also makes the wine. He is also the guy that will present the winetasting at his cellar. Often he will be the man on the tractor ploughing the vineyards and smiling at the wine shows. His wife cooks for the team during harvest and sometimes is also the bookkeeper. The daughter is studying Winemaking and Viticulture at the local university and the son is assistant to his father. The grandmother looks after the grandchildren. The whole family is involved. Even with some of the top (and wealthy) producers – they are there, in the cellars, in the vineyards, working and building a dream.

In our country, the owner is often a rich guy from somewhere who wants either a good business (those days might be over) or has a winefarm because that is what the rich have. He is usually not involved in the farming, so hires a farm manager. Poor guy. I have seen this many times. Farm managers get hired and fired annually and the vineyards never come to their full potential.

It’s like having a new parent every year - any kid will have an identity crisis! I'm sure everybody respect outsiders (I also came from elsewhere once) who use their money to rebuild farms and believe in the SA wine industry. But, in admittedly an extreme case, a (new) owner I know has had ten managers and winemakers hired and fired over eight years – on a farm of 30 hectares.

Learning from experience

Knowledge acquired on a specific farm through years and years of working the land is invaluable. Book knowledge is only half the story. It’s like you've read the recipe but not baked the cake.... And it means working the land many years, not only one or two. Only then can a team hope to make the best wine from that farm. Farming is not a factory. We are not producing hamburgers or paint or furniture. Getting to know a winefarm takes a long time.

Ask a winegrower in France why he does something in his specific way viticulturally and his answer will often be ‘because my father did it like that and it works’. One can reply that this attitude is stale and does not allow for innovation. That might be true. But they have had hundreds of years of experience on just about every square metre of their land. Knowhow is passed on from one generation to the next and a wealth of knowledge is accumulated over the years. Replant programmes are strictly controlled by governmental authorities. (No one will be allowed to plant ie riesling in a very hot sandy area) 

Many of our farms are being planted now for the first time to vineyards. (How much apple land is planted to vineyards in Elgin now?)

I recently met the MD of a large winefarm in Stellenbosch (freshly appointed from overseas) who complained about the quality of their grapes. I asked who tends his vines. He said: ‘The guy who was Mr Fixit when I arrived here. He can fix anything. Doors, cars, plumbing. He is good with keeping attendance records of the labour force and well. I appointed him to do the vineyards.’ I rest my case.

An owner once asked me to hedge (cutting of one third of the canopy) the most wonderful block of sauvignon blanc in front of his house because .... he wanted it neat for a dinner party he was having. This was four weeks before harvest – hedging at that time is a disaster for flavour and the whole ripening process. I rest my case again. 

Leave the vineyard managers to do their jobs. Don't fire and hire every year. Our university and Elsenburg give us good students. Use them and respect them. Include them in the whole process – from the whole layout of the farm to the making of the wine and selling of it. Don't employ a plumber or an onion farmer to grow your wines. Respect the land that produces the grapes and the people that work it.