While the procession of new brands and wine properties seems endless (notwithstanding recent evidence that lately the pace seems to have slowed), often it is the older, more established producers whose innovations and reinventions capture the imagination of consumers.
I could not escape this reflection as I tasted my way through some of the latest releases from Delheim, a family-owned Stellenbosch producer with an unbroken history of supplying the SA market since the middle of the last century.
The modern history of Delheim dates back to 1938 when Hans Hoheisen purchased the farm Driesprong (“triple jump”)on the northern slopes of Stellenbosch-Simonsberg. By the 1940s he was growing grapes and making, by his own admission, pretty ordinary wines. Then he was joined by his wife’s nephew, Michael “Spatz” Sperling, under whom the property was transformed, becoming one of the first estates to supply wine directly to consumers.
By the 1960s Sperling’s marketing efforts had secured a solid and loyal following. This meant less dependence on the bulk wine purchases of the wholesale merchants. At a time when there was very little wine culture in SA (beyond the Western Cape), the target market was small and connections to end-buyers were valuable. Sperling recognised the importance of developing a direct-to-consumer trade: together with Simonsig’s Frans Malan and Spier’s Niels Joubert, in 1971 he became a founder member of the Stellenbosch Wine Route.
Many of Sperling’s wines were unashamedly commercial: the wine market was anything but sophisticated and his labels, together with his brand names, were as blunt as they were showy. But he was also innovative: he sought out better sites (such as the vineyard on Klapmutskop which he named “Vera Cruz” after his wife) and this was where he began lifting the image of the Delheim brand.
“Spatz” died in 2017. His children continue his tradition, ensuring that there are fun entry-level wines for visitors who travel the Stellenbosch wine route, but also creating thoughtful high-end wines for the carriage trade. At a recent tasting two wines stood out: the 2022 Stay Alive Riesling, created in partnership with Christoph Hammel, a ninth-generation winemaker at the Hammel wine estate at Kirchbaum in Germany’s Pfalz region, and the 2020 Iconoclast Cabernet Franc
The Stay Alive Riesling, which retails for R375, is the tangible artefact of a four-decade friendship between the Hammel family and the Sperlings. Christoph Hammel began his career under “Spatz” in the 1980s. The 2022 is fresh, linear and more fragrant than most Cape examples, limy, savoury and zesty on the finish.
The 2020 Iconoclast Cabernet Franc, of which only three barrels were made (which goes some ways towards explaining the R800 price point), was the other standout wine. Spicy, savoury and pure it walks that fine line between fresh, but not green/herbal, and ripe/intense, but not plump or clunky. Refined and harmonious, with subtle, well-integrated oak, it delivers precision, fragrance and nuance.
At much the same time that I was tasting Delheim’s latest releases I had a chance to sample the first wines from a Franschhoek property which now goes under the name of Terre Paisible. Made by Adam Mason, whose career has spanned several of the Cape’s best-known cellars, the wines are unsurprisingly thoughtfully assembled, restrained and food-friendly, rather than in-your-face.
The Old Vine 2022 Sauvignon Blanc “Les Dames de 1987” comes from one of the Cape’s oldest sauvignon vineyards planted, as the name suggests, in 1987. Mason has managed to avoid the capsicum herbal notes of the zestier Cape examples without straying into clumsiness. Instead, he has produced a wine that is textured and layered. I was equally impressed with the 2021 Chardonnay, which is equally refined.
The most striking wine, however, is the Isabelle Rosé: Provençal pale in colour, it is anything but watery on the palate. Luminous and pleasingly intense, it has the presence of the fuller French Bandol style and is definitely worth chasing down (as indeed are the property’s olive oils).
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