The last farm we visited on the Friday was probably the single highlight of our entire journey. While it may not have had the best wines we've tasted, the quality was definitely very high, and all this considering the rather antique methods they use in producing the wine. From using old-basket presses to motor-driven destalkers (no electricity), this farm is nothing short of a working museum, and tries to return back to the old fashioned way of producing wine with minimal interference of modern technology.
As the story goes, the wine-maker, Pat Busch, is a collector of old machinery and has been slowly collecting odds and ends from nearby farms. One night, in a somewhat jovial and drunken state, he was having a conversation with a friend of his who happened to be an engineer, and in this conversation he mentioned that he'd just about collected every bit of machinery needed (and once used) to produce wine in the antique fashion. Needless to say, he was challenged to try make wine, and a steep challenge it was, as some of the machinery he had collected was not in working condition. This, however, was not a problem to his friend who was able to fix it with his skills as an engineer. Sure enough, once everything was working, Pat tried his hand at making wine, using the knowledge that he had gained from many of his friends in surrounding wine farms. And the rest is, as they say, history (or living history, as the case may be).
And the wines that are being produced here are nothing short of being special. Without a doubt this place is a must-visit if you are ever in the area. We started off with the Viognier (R70), which did have a bit of an alcholic punch to it, but once it opened up, it had a smell of fresh peachs, gooseberry and lanolin, with guava and buttered toast sensations on the tongue. Definite potential in their recently released and only white wine. Needless to say, this is quite amazing, especially if you begin to imagine the difficulty they must face in one of the warmer wine regions with keeping their white wine cool without the use of modern machinery.
As for the reds, the first one we tasted was the Tilled Earth Red blend (R55) of Cab Sauv, Merlot and Shiraz. Each component in this wine stood out as it was a complex blend of fresh meat, ceder, black currant, plum, dark berries with a heavy mocha/chocolate finish. We followed this with the Pinotage (R45) with green banana, plum, succulent mulberries and white pepper on the palate. This last two red wines were both Shiraz from two different vintages - the 2003 and the limited release 2004. And they were significantly different with the 03 (R45) showing more fruit and the barrel character of mocha, while the o4 (R65) had a very intense pepperiness on the palate, as well as the smell of roasted beef and a whiff of turkish delight to go alongside the dark berries and mocha that was also evident in the older vintage.
Needless to say, this farm left us on a high note for the rest of the evening, and it was a pleasant way to end of our week in Robertson, as the next morning had us travel to the nearby Worcester to set up our camping spot at Ramfest and visit a few other farms in the area.
More on that later,
Val.
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