Keeping it in the family

Bosman Family Vineyards is an eighth-generation wine farm in Wellington

“Look,” says Neil Büchner, brand manager for Bosman Family Vineyards, pointing at the Hawequa Mountains. “Can you see the ‘W’ of Wellington carved into the mountain?”

We’re driving in the Bovlei Valley and the jagged mountain rises above us like a shark’s purple jaw.  “I love this valley,” he says as vineyards zip by. “It’s like a window to Wellington. A snapshot you could label the town by, all the beauty of the countryside condensed.

“Wellington is the cradle of South African wine. More than 85 percent of the country’s vineyards are planted from vines that are grafted here. The area is like a natural hot house, that, plus clear mountain water for irrigation and gravel soils make it ideal for vine nurseries.”

“You should see it in the spring,” he says, eyes getting dreamy, “it’s like the Provence of South Africa–all these rows of little green vines.”

The tour Neil’s taking us on is usually done on foot by Wellington Wine Walks. The valley is also famous for mountain bike trails, some of which can be done by moonlight.

 A family story of vine to wine

We pull to a stop under an oak tree; Neil wants to show us the crèche. Social responsibility is big news for the Bosman family. They employ over 260 people, and most of the families live on the farm. Collectively the farm workers own 33 percent of the business. “Helen Zille actually uses this farm as an example of land reform that works: the partnership model,” adds Neil.

But back to the crèche; here the workers’ children spend their days finger-painting and learning liedjies (songs). We’re treated to the latter just before we leave. The singing is melodic and in unison: my only complaint? They kept calling me tannie.

Hermanus Bosman arrived in South Africa in 1707 as a sieketrooster (consoler of the sick), and the old plantasie (plantation) site was at the Grande Roche in Paarl. Fast forward a few decades and grandson, Pieter Bosman came to Wellington to buy cart horses from famous breeder, ‘Lang Kootjie’ Malan of Lelienfontein in Wellington.

“The Bosman’s story is a love-story,” says Neil. He continues to tell us how Pieter followed the advice of ‘Lang Kootjie’ and bought the farm next to Lelienfontein. Pieter also fell in love and married ‘Lang Kootjie's’ daughter, Isabella, and on her father’s retirement, Pieter bought Lelienfontein. 

Where there’s a vineyard there’s a civilisation

Back at Lelienfontein, and we’re standing on a raised platform above steel wine fermenting tanks. The format of the cellar makes it easy for winemaker, Corlea Fourie, to access the batches of wine made from the best five percent of the harvest —from the top of the tank, as opposed to only using the tap at the bottom.

Neil leads us up an iron, spiral staircase, and soon we’re on the roof of the winery, blinking in the sunlight. The view is staggering; to our right is the ‘W’ of Wellington and down below, plump green vineyards stretch towards the horizon.

We exit the cellar through the barrel room; Neil shows us a wooden beam where the winery’s yield was written in chalk decades ago. “These days we have to file a hundred pink cards,” he says laughing wryly. “Back in the day you just wrote on a beam...”

The cellar was reopened in 2007; for 50 years the Bosmans didn’t make any wine. Neil attributes this to how cold fermentation revolutionised the industry; their cellar at the time had no electricity or pumps. So Petrus Bosman decided to invest rather in the vine nursery business.

Faith, hope and love

Like hints of the old city in Cape Town—a rush of cobblestones referencing settler times—the Bosmans keep their history alive. The tasting room is the old farm’s red wine cellar; evident from uneven cement walls stained crimson. Adjacent to this is the family museum; here a rusted iron gate bears the family crest ‘Fides spes at amor’ meaning: ‘Faith, hope and love’. Neil picks up a copper tool and says: “This was used to pump sulphur underground when the Cape’s vines were almost wiped out in 1886 by the phylloxera epidemic. That didn’t work. The Bosman family, since 1888, have created healthy vineyards by grafting vines on to resistant North American rootstock.”

Back in the tasting room, we settle down at a long wooden table. First, we try the rosé, made from 30 different varieties sourced from their vine garden in the upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley in Hermanus.

Next we try the Adama 2008, so named for vineyard worker, Adam Appollis, who was with Bosman Family Vineyards at inception. Descendants of his still farm the land. It’s a blend of shiraz, mouvèrdre, primitivo and viognier.

We taste through the rest of the range; my personal favourite is the Optenhorst Chenin Blanc. Made with bush vine chenin blanc from a 59-year-old vineyard. “Next year we’re going to have a sixtieth birthday celebration for it,” chimes in Neil.

The last wine is the Dolce Primitivo 2007. This naturally sweet wine has a bitter-sweet story of its own. Back in the day, an Italian prisoner of war, who worked in the vineyards, drowned in one of the farm’s dams. To commemorate him the Bosman family planted primitivo (an Italian cultivar) around the dam’s edge; the same vineyard from which the wine is made today. “We desiccate (pinch the stems of) the bunches, and because the skin of primitivo is so thin it also develops a bit of noble rot,” explains Neil.

Stokkies draai

Before we part ways, Neil is keen to show us where the grafting (stokkies draai) happens. In big farm sheds, about 60 workers clip, snip and graft vines. Their movements are swift and dexterous, clearly at home with the process. Once the vines have been joined they’re dipped in wax and packed.

“The Afrikaans phrase: stokkies draai,” says Neil, “which means to bunk or play truant, originates in Wellington.”

So next time I say I’m going to stokkies draai – you know where to find me.

By Malu Lambert

Tastings and tours are welcomed by appointment. Tastings cost R50 for the range. This fee is refundable upon purchase of wine.

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