The Tesselaarsdaller
“Why do people pay so much for wine?” - Berene Sauls.
If you had to write a dissertation on Tesselaarsdal Wines I think that would be the research question that kept nagging at Berene when she started work at Hamilton Russell Vineyards in 2001. Granted she started as an au pair, but it quickly became apparent that she had more business sense than anything else. She started to work in earnest in the office, moving to wine administration and certification, driving the forklift, helping to bottle and run a team of 6 ladies to do so, then moved to managing export logistics AND run the tasting room at the same time - all while attending various wine courses and tastings to expand her wine knowledge. She’s a self-confessed Pinot aficionado, able to sniff it out in any company, loyal to her roots.
Tesselaarsdal
Berene comes from Tesselaarsdal, a small village nestled in the heart of the Overberg, halfway between Caledon and Hermanus. In the 1800s it was given to Johannes Tesselaar, a general in the Dutch army, together with another property and eight Khoisan slaves. On his death, he freed the slaves and bequeathed the property to them, where they turned to subsistence farming and traded in the little town of Stanford, just across the mountain. Berene is a direct descendent of these slaves. She speaks animatedly about her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother specifically, Rebecca Swart, or Ouma Dot, as she was known, was the local midwife and a colourful character by all accounts. She brewed her own ‘Skofaan’, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented wheat grain, raisins (anything that would ferment Berene says) and kept it in a bucket under her bed. When the bucket stopped ‘talking’, it was ready and Ouma Dot didn’t waste any time in enjoying it, nor sharing it with anyone else. Ouma Dot and her mother Ree, used to walk over the mountain to Stanford every Sunday to trade their goats and coming back, would usually rest on a specific rock, they called it ‘Die Rus Klip’ (The Resting Stone). If you look closely at the label of Tesselaarsdal wine, you’ll see them, Ouma Dot and Tannie Ree, crossing the mountain. It was from this beer and mos (a kind of cheap wine that no-one seems to know, or WANT to know, what it is made of) drinking background that Berene could not understand why you’d pay more than R10 for an alcoholic beverage - until she met the Hamilton Russells.
The Grapevine
Now this part is ALL grapevine. The South African wine industry is a beautiful, collaborative place - if you have no fear of incredibly hard work, if you have passion (usually TOO much passion for one person), if you have PATIENCE, if you’re resilient enough to start and restart, if you don’t care about the money (but have enough sense to work with it) and if you can’t accept no for an answer - well then, you’d fit right in. I asked Berene what was the most important lesson she had learnt in her career and her answer was: Relationships are key. And she has many. In 2015 Anthony Hamilton Russell helped Berene establish Tesselaarsdal wines, buying in grapes from nearby Babylon Vineyards, set on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, and winemaker Emul Ross (then in his first vintage at Hamilton Russell) helped make the wine. Today Emul still makes the wine and is paid in a case of it every year - given the small quantities they produce (in 2015 they only produced 1202 bottles) even Berene’s mother has to pay for her case of wine every year. Of the 2015 vintage Greg Sherwood unwittingly threw Berene into a panic, labelling the wine “the next SA Pinot noir icon”, stimulating such a frenzy that the wine was sold out almost before it was released. Of the 2019 vintage they’ve produced 7000 bottles of Chardonnay (this particular varietal’s maiden vintage within the range), and 6500 bottles Pinot Noir. When I ask whether the goal is to keep on producing more and more wine each year, both Berene and Emul answer with an emphatic ‘NO’. You see the idea is to express the place - as Emul says. And if the PLACE has a limit to the amount of quality grapes it can produce, then that is the natural ceiling of their production. Up until now, Berene has been on a fixed contract with Babylon Vineyards on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, accepting 5 tons annually, sometimes topping it up with a ton or two from neighbouring farms. The plan however is to eventually grow her own grapes on the 16.5 ha property she purchased in Tesselaarsdal in October of 2019. They estimate that 9ha of the property will be planted to vine, with the same, beautiful iron-rich clay of the Ridge to retain the style of the wines made up until now. As with all things wine, they need TIME. The farm will only be planted to vine next year, 1ha Chardonnay and 1ha Pinot Noir - of which they’ll only be able to start using the grapes within 3 to 5 years’ time.
The Wine
Emul is an unassuming man, no airs, just this great sense of HUMILITY about him, belying his huge task of making wine, not just for Hamilton Russell, but Southern Right, Ashbourne, the Hamilton Russell’s new venture in Oregon Pinot, AND Tesselaarsdal wines. I ask him how he differentiates between them all, how the styles differ, and he says it’s easy, each terroir is naturally diverse and you make wine to reflect that. For instance the wine of the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, where Tesselaarsdal wine comes from (currently) has slightly more red fruit flavours, and brightness, holding on to its acidity; while Hamilton Russell’s wine from the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley is more structured and dark, with smaller berries. As one of their challenges he says the eventual switch to Tesselaarsdal grapes will be an interesting one. Another challenge, though Berene didn’t mention it as such, is bringing her son Darren into the business. He’ll be turning 16 next year and will then be able to come and work in the cellar, with Emul to teach him winemaking. As a true mother, Berene jokes that she’ll just force him into the business, but her natural awareness and obvious people skills will keep her from following through on that particular threat. Berene says that she really just wants to give someone the opportunity she has been given by people like Anthony and Emul, and that if Darren felt comfortable enough to take her up on the offer, even in a different capacity, she’d be happy.
The Non-Failure
Of challenges, the above only scratch the surface for Berene, while maintaining a full-time job as export & logistics manager at Hamilton Russell Vineyards, she is also a single-mother of two, on top of successfully running Tesselaarsdal wines. Since 2015 she has participated and won a number of entrepreneurial competitions and awards for her efforts, the winnings of which allowed her to eventually purchase the Tesselaarsdal property outright, having been unable to obtain a loan. She highlights her sense of achievement in the business, pouring the first wine from the bottle, winning the entrepreneurial competitions and the eventual buying of the property as the big milestones in her life. Her failure: “When I sucked at au pairing!” she laughs. And what a non-failure that was.
The Place
Of making wine in South Africa, and the challenges of lockdown. Emul says he thinks people will start drinking UP, meaning that while restaurants are still unable to serve wine, people are exploring their options and drinking better quality wines from more diverse producers, drinking UP (both literally and figuratively Berene jokes on the side). And South Africa? Berene contends that South Africa may very well be the second best - only because she HAS to concede - winemaking country in the world, second only to France - given our soils, climate, aspects and winemakers. From what I gather from both her and Emul there was never any question about just WHERE they were going to make wine. “South Africa is the country man.”
