The Helderberger

“I feel like I was born to crush grapes.” - Wade Metzer

Did you know that Somerset-West is a skateboarder’s haven? I didn’t. Wade Metzer says he’s the ‘ou-ballie’ at the skatepark on the corner of Hillcrest and Lourensford, but he loves it. His 8 year-old daughter made me a video of him skating down one of Somerset-West’s trademark long and winding roads, doing tricks. She clearly relished her role as videographer and got me a skateboard profile to boot. There’s something about the skateboarder’s lifestyle, very ‘Lords of Dogtown’, it’s about rebellion, no pain no gain, fortune favours the brave. These days Wade says he’s taken up surfing because his body is just too frail for the rigours of skating. Personally I told him, I don’t get it, I mean you SEE the danger, you avoid it. But then I guess, you’d be missing the point. Skateboarding, like winemaking is all about calculated risk, pushing boundaries and trying something until you get it right. When we talk about mistakes Wade says you only make them once. He says the emotional investment in making wine, and then making kak wine and having to pour it down the drain is such an expensive mistake, both emotionally and physically, that you only make it once. So like skateboarding, if you KNOW how much it's going to hurt, you do your absolute best to do it right. In retrospect skateboarding then doesn’t seem like such a strange hobby for a winemaker to have.

Ethereal Drinking Experiences

Wade makes wine from 12 sites in and around the Helderberg. In a previous conversation he said to me: “I am the Helderberg.” And since then, that phrase echoes in my mind when I think of him. Originally from Benoni, with a Swiss mother who manufactures make-up, two brothers, both living in Switzerland (Wade is the middle child - my sister always lamented her middle-child status, to such a degree, that I now just feel automatically sorry for them!), it is interesting to think that Wade’s love of wine started in Switzerland. Wade was part of the last generation of South African teenage boys to be called up for compulsory military duty, in keeping with his anti-establishment, skateboarder’s sentiments, it makes sense that he escaped the country to avoid it. In Switzerland he worked in a nightclub with an adjoining fine dining restaurant, and it was there that he had the pleasure of tasting a 1982 Rioja and 1988 Burgundy that was to set his course as winemaker. In fact he references these two wines as the key milestones in his career. He calls them Ethereal Drinking Experiences and says: “You just don’t know when they’re coming.” He says it was two of the purest moments of his life, and it made him UNDERSTAND his purpose as winemaker. I don’t think everyone experiences it, but I think the day you understand your purpose is the first day of the rest of your life. Like Wade says, in most things you need at least 10 000 hours to be good at it, but in winemaking you need at least double. And even then, that’s just your ticket to the concert, THEN only do you begin to perfect it. 

Heritage like Texture

Wade talks about making wine in his backyard. While he had initially intended to make wine in the Swartland, having been mentored by Eben Sadie, he echoes Eben in that he wanted to make authentic wines, and the only way he knew how was to make wines in a place that he KNEW. Helderberg. While Wade doesn’t own land, he has intriguing relationships with his growers, 6 in total, the growers themselves providing fascinating stories and a whole new dimension to his winemaking. It’s not only about the different sites, but the old vines and the people who have kept a hold of them. Two of his main growers, Rupert McNaught-Davis and Chris Steyn are farming and retaining land in Somerset-West despite incredible economic pressure. The last of the titans, preferring to grow grapes rather than become instant millionaires by selling up the land to developers. Theirs I think is a classic story of nostalgia, we South Africans are known for it, but in this case it’s a nostalgia that has somehow been justified by the quality of wines produced from it. With it comes a whole depth of meaning, like the textural complexity Wade looks for in a wine. Wade says he would have loved to have known Rupert’s father, he was apparently responsible for the liberal sprinkling of Chenin Blanc in the 1964 Cinsault vineyard Wade loves. Rupert tells the story of a ‘skoffel-contraption’ his father had constructed, in an effort to ‘skoffel’ / shovel the soil. He had tested it on this particular vineyard and instead of shovelling the soil, managed to remove (quite violently) a substantial number of vines. He THEN purchased replacement vines at auction, thinking them to be Cinsault, only to discover their distinct Cheniny characteristics later. Wade tells more stories of a well-known grower, maybe having slapped a well-known viticulturist on the bum, and some colourful personalities trying to sell him ruby Cabernet instead of Cabernet. They’re a vibrant bunch - and I hazard a theory here. With the growing trend of roving winemakers finding single sites and making wines from them, sharing cellars, their network of interaction has grown over the years, and may just be where the indomitable South African wine industry of today comes from - each person’s individual fire feeding that of the other. Finding and protecting winemaking heritage in the wines they make - Wade’s own a testament to this. 

The Perfect Rail-Slide

Of Wade’s wine, he makes six. We’re still waiting on the PetNat for labelling. His wines are a reflection of heritage South Africa. With a focus on historically, well-performing grapes such as Cinsault, Chenin Blanc, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, he says he doesn’t know why we should look further afield, given the quality of the wine. It’s refreshing really - none of his wines are based on an international example of what it should be, rather he proposes that we LITERALLY go back to our roots, that we find our own Burgundy or Bordeaux in Helderberg. He says he has Pinotage in the back of his mind, but that he has his hands full. While he is building his red wine offering, with the inclusion of the ‘Mantra’ this year, ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’, a blend of Shiraz and Cinsault, fortune having favoured it, his Chenin has proven extraordinary. Tim Atkin confesses to finding it difficult to choose between the Montane and Maritime Chenin, each one so beautifully showcasing a different aspect of Helderberg. Wade’s focus on the different sites, KEEPING them separate in the wine, his easy relationships and respect of his growers, his deeper understanding of THEIR motivation, his focus on old vines, and his love of the land is tangible in the wine. There’s none of the rebellion of the skateboarder in it, just the high I imagine they get flying down a slope, or perfectly executing a rail-slide.