No tour buses, but a personal
touch at Avontuur
Avontuur is not your average wine-estate. The farm
is situated in a stunning part of the world: views over
False Bay, Table Mountain, Helderberg and miles and miles
over vines. But that’s not all. There’s a Stud
Farm with race-horses, and no big tour busses. Things are
handled in a personal way here.
By Gert-Jaap Hoekman
South African wines have been a big hit in the Netherlands
and across Europe. Everyone's drinking it. When I arrived
at the Avontuur Wine Estate, two wine merchants representing
Macro and Hanos, the two big Dutch retail giants, had just
left. “They are really costumers of us”, winemaker
Willie Malherbe says. “When guys like that show up,
I also try to give them a personal tour.” Back in
the office Cobie van Oort, marketing manager of the estate,
gives me the exact numbers: the Netherlands is the second
biggest export-market for Avontuur, just behind the United
Kingdom. And more and more Dutchies are coming to South
Africa to check out the wine farms. Well, at Avontuur, they’ll
welcome you with open arms, if you’re so kind to book
upfront.
When Willie Malherbe was asked to start as a winemaker
at the Avontuur Wine Estate, he didn’t hesitate .
“This farm has the potential to produce the best red
wine in South Africa”, he said. “It’s
close to the sea and the mountains, and the soil is just
great.” But Avontuur is actually recognized more for
their white wines. Flagships of the farm are Luna de Miel,
Above Royalty and Baccarat.
“The wines are all named after famous race-horses
that were born, raised and even died here”, Cobie
explains. That’s right, the Avontuur estate is not
just another wine farm, next to it, on the foot of the Helderberg,
there’s a stud farm where racehorses are bred. “Our
horses race all over the world”, Cobie says proudly.
But wines are still the core business at Avontuur, and
looking at the 50 hectares of vines, that’s no surprise.
Since 1999 this estate has won several awards, especially
for the three flagships. But Cobie is quite modest when
it comes down to the success of the farm. “The climate
is just great here, a lot of farms here in the Stellenbosch
area benefit from that.” That doesn’t mean Avontuur
is like any other farm though. “We are one the few
farms that make everything from Cape Classique (basically
like champagne, but they’re not allowed to use the
name) up to five year old Brandy, and everything in between”,
Coby says. “And we make our Cape Classique like the
French do. The wine makes its own bubbles when it’s
in the bottle, some estates put bubbles in the wine before
they bottle it.”
You won’t see any big tour busses at the Avontuur
estate. “Our farm, restaurant and cellar are just
too small for that”, Coby explains. But it gives the
farm a personal touch. “Our tours aren’t formal”,
Coby says. “Our winemaker Willie usually pitches up
as well and you get to taste the wine right out of the barrel.
That’s really unusual and makes our estate unique.”
But Coby doesn’t really have to say all of this.
You should take a look yourself. Drive down the N2 to Somerset-West,
and take the R44 turn-off. Avontuur is one of the first
estates you’ll see, and the atmospehere is great.
At the foot of the Heldenberg you get views of False Bay,
Table Mountain (if you’re lucky), the Indian Ocean
and the Cape Peninsula. You’re right: it’s not
called Avontuur (Afrikaans for adventure) for nothing!
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