DELHEIM

Following a disastrous 2010 season with hardly any grapes, 2011 is looking a great deal more promising.  Most varietals are bearing well, and, barring a hurricane or severe hail, we can expect an average to large crop.   The weather has been mostly cool, with good rains in early December.  The vines are looking very healthy and in balance with the crop they carry.

We are using new spray heads of our own design which cut chemical and water use by a third and the use of tractor diesel by half, while saving a good deal of time into the bargain.  This is of course hugely advantageous for the environment, as is the subsequent reduced carbon footprint.

Today is 24 December and it is raining again.  So far it looks like it’s going to be a later vintage with the cooler conditions.  This will only help the vines to ripen the heavy crop slowly and without stress.  The Sauvignons are bearing very well in comparison to last year, when we only harvested only about 300kg per hectare rather than the norm of 6 tons!

We have only just started to irrigate a little and this is mostly just to prevent any stress as the winter rains were not enough to replenish the soil with enough water.  The rain we are having now will also help to slow down the drying out of the soil.

The concern at the moment is that, if we get too much rain now with a lot of heat, the vines will grow vigorously in the canopy and neglect the grapes.

We can only hope that Mother Nature will be kind to us and that this vintage will continue to develop favourably.

Flowers from the Jacaranda tree at the Delheim Garden Restaurant.

Vegetable garden at Delheim

Delheim is running a competition with the workers vying with each other for the award of “best garden” with great prizes to be won.  Enthusiastic workers also grow vegetables that are sold to the Garden Restaurant for some much-needed extra cash!

This little chap has a deformed beak; nevertheless he looks pretty fat and healthy!  We think it is the Common Fiscal (Lanius collaris), a member of the shrike family found through most of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is also sometimes named Fiscal Shrike, as well as Jackie Hangman or Butcher Bird due to its habit of impaling its prey on acacia thorns to store the food for later consumption.

Photographed at Delheim by Johan Mocke.

Photographer #ChrisHitchcock posted a couple of pics of riders at Delheim’s MTB Day on FB ~ http://ow.ly/3gGDY Spot yourself?!

Further to our blog report on the “mystery buzzard”  at Delheim (http://bit.ly/i7eF4z), we have the following update:

Pam Bruce-Brand had informed us that the latest Africa Birds and Birding Magazine October/November 2010 Vol 15 No 5 has an article on these mystery birds titled “Mixed Messages” pg 35 – see article here:  Mystery Buzzards.

The photographer, Johan Mocke, sent the photo and information to one of the authors of the article, Jessie Walton, who replied thusly:

 “Dear Johan, thank you so much for sending it on. Extremely helpful. And a pretty good photo, in spite of the head, as it shows the underside well. Yes, it is certainly one of our strange looking birds, and I think fairly close to where we had the one nest site last year (on Rustenberg farm, the Idas Valley side). If you get any further photos it would be very helpful. Any info, in fact.

With just two of us working on the project we have an enormous area to cover!

If you are prepared to keep a few notes of when and where you see buzzards, and any specific behaviour (hunting, displaying, calling), it would be very much appreciated.

These birds are very variable, from very pale to dark chocolate.  Most people will classify them as ‘Steppe’ or ‘Forest’, but Rob and I think one cannot differentiate that easily; hence we lump them all as ‘Mystery’ buzzards.

Once again, thank you ~ Jessie Walton”

The Woolworths “Taste” magazine of 1 December 2010 recommends the Delheim Pinotage Rosé 2010 to have with this delectable dessert:

BURST BLUEBERRY COMPOTE AND SOFT CHEESE

The spices in the compote punch up the flavours of the blueberries and the juices trickle beautifully over the creamy cheese in this decadent, yet deceptively easy, dessert.

Serves 6 ~ EASY ~ GREAT VALUE

Preparation: 5 minutes

Cooking: 15 to 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

3 x 125 g punnets blueberries

1 stick cinnamon

2 star anise

1 vanilla pod, split and seeds reserved

½ t fennel seeds

1 cup grenadine

3 x 200g Duetto Dolce with honey-infused dates & brazil nuts (an award-winning cheese exclusive to Woolworths)

METHOD 

Place a small saucepan over a medium to low heat. Add the blueberries, spices and grenadine and bring to a gentle simmer. Leave to bubble away until the berries become plump, absorbing all the flavours. Spoon over slabs of creamy Duetto and serve immediately.

 Cook’s note: Stack with savoury crackers for a free-form version of cheesecake.

 Per serving: 2595.9 kj, 1.6 g protein, 46.7 g fat, 507 g carbs

WINE: Delheim Pinotage Rosé 2010

Jan van Riebeeck (1619-1677)

JAN VAN RIEBEECK (1619-1677)

Vines have been growing in South Africa since the 17th century. For many, Jan van Riebeeck, a Dutch surgeon is often considered the founding father of the country’s wine industry. He was in no way a viticulturist, or a winemaking pioneer, simply a doctor looking for a way to reduce the risk of scurvy for sailors on long sea journeys between Europe and Asia. By planting vines, he hoped to create a cure for the men stopping over in the nearby ports along the Western Cape.

Like the Dutch doctor, Michael ‘Spatz’ Sperling was not a trained winemaker. Born and raised in what is now western Poland, Spatz fled to South Africa in 1951 at the age of 21. He was tired of the starvation years following the war and needed a change of scenery. Working on the communist state-run farms had fortunately kept him close to food and he often stole potatoes to get through the harsh winter months.

In South Africa, he went to work for his aunt and uncle. Hans Otto and Deli Hoheisen owned a 494-acre farm on Simonsberg Mountain just outside of Stellenbosch (both the mountain and city are named after Simon van der Stel, the colony’s first 17th century governor). Spatz’s relatives produced a variety of products including a bit of wine. The name Delheim is actually named after Spatz’s aunt – ‘Deli’s home’

SIMONSBERG AND A HUMBLE BEGINNING

If you were to go back in time, back to the late 17th century, you would fine a home on the southwestern slopes of Simonsberg Mountain. Inside the humble dwelling lived a Dutch East India Company servant. When ships were spotted arriving in Table Bay, the servant would fire a cannon, the third in a relay. From there, it was up to locals of Cape Town to welcome the new arrivals and offer their wares or defend their city.

The land passed through different hands, eventually a series of parcels forming the vineyard owned by the Hoheisen family. Before Spatz arrived, his aunt and uncle had a humble and basic set-up for wine making: a basket and continuous press, hand pumps and filter.

Now, the young emrigrée Spatz knew nothing about wine but as luck would have it, he became a student of traveling German wine experts who came to South Africa to teach the locals. Eager to learn, he absorbed what he could during the 1960s and made many mistakes at Delheim. One story goes that he was trying to impress a group of German tourists with a sweet-wine he had made. One of them remarked, “Spatz er ist noch dreck!” (The wine is really shitty…).

But Spatz was determined and improved the wine, calling it Spatzendreck. The name has a double meaning. Sperling is sparrow in German and Spatz is the diminutive. So it means both Spatz’s ‘shit’ or ‘Little Sparrow’s Shit’. (Fondly enough, in 1979 Decanter awarded Sperling the ‘worst label of the year’ for the winery’s label of a bird defecating into a wine barrel.)

DELHEIM – THE ROAD TO QUALITY AND TOURISM

In 1959, Spatz entered Delheim’s wines into the South African Wine Show in nearby Paar, winning a trophy for his Palomino in the best Dry White Table Wine category.

During the 1970s fellow wine producers, Franz Malan of Simonsig Estate, Niel Joubert of Spier winery and Spatz came together to work on promoting wine tourism in South Africa. Malan had been to Europe and returned impressed by the wine routes he had seen in France. With little support from both KWV and local road engineers, the three handed out maps showing tourists how to get to the participating wineries. First came the students from Stellenbosch University followed by their parents.

Eventually, the Stellenbosch wine route took off (today it is sponsored by American Express) and in 1976 Spatz with the help of his Dutch-born wife, Vera, opened up the Vintner’s Cheese Lunch Restaurant to cater to the arriving tourists. Serving home-made food to compliment their wines, the establishment became popular and complimented the available wine and cellar tours.

Spatz Sperling

DELHEIM TODAY

Delheim is still operating today with Spatz as vintner, his son, Victor as viticulturist and general farm manager, and daughter Nora responsible for marketing and sales.

From: http://wineq. blogspot.com/2010/06/more-south-africa-story-of-delheim.html