Cricket in England, croquettes in Brussels 6 July 2007

Chris Williams travels the world, and is pleased at frosty weather in Stellenbosch

The thermometer outside my cellar showed a frosty three degrees Celsius last week. This, and the steady, abundant rains over the last month have  warmed my viticulturist’s heart immeasurably. The cold, wet weather is reminiscent of the Cape winters I remember when I first arrived in the Cape in 1988. Rain set in for weeks and it was a soft, gentle and persistent rain which slaked the soil’s thirst and chilled all perennial plants into a deep and refreshing dormancy which re-awakened in spring with a cascade of fluorescent green shoots.

Admittedly the rain now seems to come in mini-fronts, lasting around 30 minutes each. We experience the cold in short, sharp snaps more reminiscent of the Highveld than the Cape of 20 years ago, but we are grateful all the same for the cold and wet.

I missed the stormiest weather. I was in  London,  ostensibly to make my first attempt at the Master of Wine exams, but also to visit our customers in the UK wine trade. Many producers, both here and in Australia are looking to the USA and the developing markets of China, India and Russia to pitch their products. For Meerlust, the UK remains a vibrant and growing market. I also spent time in Holland and Belgium – very different markets but still significant for the Meerlust wines. South Africa remains a destination for tourists from all three countries and I was amazed at the level of knowledge, not only of our wine and tourist industry, but also the politics and problems we face as a country.

Climate change remains a hot topic all over the world, although anyone familiar with the English know that the weather has always been a preferred subject, especially for those awkward silences around dinner tables or in elevators. It was forecast that the UK would have the hottest summer ever this year, but evidence of this was absent as mild weather and rain  persisted into June.  I was roped in to play cricket for the Wine Trade sports team and although I haven’t played for over 20 years, did not embarrass myself too badly. The game was rained on twice over about three hours, but I am sure  August will surprise everyone again this year, as it did in 2003, memorable by all those who found themselves in un-air-conditioned pre-fab buildings as at Vinexpo.

The wine growers of Sussex are delighted that finally they can ripen their pinot noir and Bacchus and I am sure they are anticipating offers on their Kimmeridgian limestone soils from the big Champagne houses who seem to be the only wine producers relishing the prospect of the much forecast global warming.

Winter at Meerlust 

Winter is a reflective time for the vigneron, vintner, winemaker or grower (we still do not have a suitable job title in English for what we do). Pruning is the big job, but we have to wait for the coldest weather. so that the vines are well and truly dormant. At Meerlust one of the annual chores is maintenance and upkeep of the historic buildings. The whole compound has to be re-painted annually – that’s right, every year all the outside walls have to be prepared, repaired and painted, and not with your average PVA. The walls are made with stones packed with clay, and have to ‘breathe’ to remain intact. That means they must take up moisture in winter to prevent drying out and crumbling in summer. Normal paint will seal the walls which would turn to powder and collapse. We use a lime-wash prepared from lime, linseed oil, beef fat and water, boiled up in oil drums and applied fresh. This is what makes those Cape Dutch houses so dazzling-white in the summer sun.

Winter is also a time for careful assessment and blending of the annual crop, to be returned to barrel for further maturation. We also bottle the previous vintages wine so that it can spend at least two years in bottle before release (in the case of red wines).

Kitchens in Belguim and at home

One of the advantages of travelling in Belgium is that country’s well deserved reputation for gastronomy. The French influence  over the country is huge, but the Belgians are not as parochial as the French in their preferences for cuisine. In most brasseries the diner will have a choice of dishes from around the world, including hams from Parma, Pata Negro from Spain and cured meats from all over France and even Britain, all prepared and presented with ultimate respect for the primary ingredients. On my being invited down into the wine cellar of a brasserie in Brussels, the chef was confounded to find me more interested in the various joints of smoked and dried pork than in his  bottles of famous wines. All the chefs are minutely interested in wine and how food and wine is paired and the restaurant wine prices were reasonable, if not cheap. What really impressed me about the Belgians’ philosophy of food is the primacy of ingredients over technique, and the chefs that I met had no need to prove their skills or ego by outlandish combinations or overly flamboyant presentation.

I returned home a little heavier than when I left, but inspired to seek out fresher, more flavourful ingredients for my own kitchen. Of course, along with that I have to cast my net a little wider too for suitable wines to go with the dishes.