As much as I love wine, I also enjoy seeing where the wines that I drink originate and, if possible, meet the people behind the scenes.

The next time I pick up a familiar bottle, its wine triggers my memories of that day, acting as a marker for me to remember my visit to a particular place.

It was a bit of a scorcher the day in late January when myself and my husband Thomas caught the R44 just before Paarl and, instead of taking the familiar route towards Stellenbosch, we turned the other way, discovering the world of Agter Paarl, an area we had not previously explored.

Our destination was Perdeberg Winery, named after the zebra that used to roam there. The area under cultivation spans approximately 3 000 hectares and is chiefly known for its red cultivars, as well as its chenin blanc. We were fortunate that viticulturist Callie Coetzee agreed to show us around and share his expertise.

The Perdeberg region is vaguely triangular in shape and is situated between Perdeberg Mountain, Malmesbury and Durbanville, behind Paarl Mountain - hence the name Agter Paarl. The area is predominantly rural and, beneath azure skies on this brilliant weekend in high summer, was quilted in the emerald shades of lush vineyards. These contrasted sharply with the dry, stubbled wheat fields.

What astounded me the most was the fact that, according to Callie, a large percentage of the vines cultivated there rely only on rain. When the rest of the Western Cape is dry and dusty, much of the Agter Paarl is still verdant.

'Oak-influenced wines of America and Australia'
Perdeberg Winery started as a co-operative between wine farmers of the Perdeberg region in 1941 when it was felt that farmers there were not achieving high enough prices for their grapes. Farmer Jan Rossouw set aside the land where the wine cellar stands today.

The 1942 harvest was hand-pressed and wines were produced using a traditional, hands-on method. The winery has stayed abreast of modern wine-making techniques, employing its own winemakers and viticulturist.

It currently has 46 member wine farms contributing to its wines. According to Callie, the wines that Perdeberg Winery produces reflect a combination of "old world" and "new world" styles.

The former favours a more subtle, complex wine that is less "oaky" and generally more vinous whereas the latter favours a "forward, bold and often uninhibitedly fruity and brazenly oak-influenced wines of America and Australia". Callie spoke about how the winery keeps track of the condition of its vines, going so far as to take infra-red photographs near harvest time using an aircraft, in order to establish which blocks of vines are doing well or not.

This gives them a pretty good indication of which sections to harvest in isolation and saves a lot of time when it comes to making these decisions. This was all new to us and we listened in rapt fascination. There's nothing hit-and-miss about the wine industry, it seems.

We had the opportunity to do a little sight-seeing before getting down to the "serious" business of wine-tasting and Callie drove us to have a look at a few of the cultivars in the ground.

One of the oldest buildings in the Western Cape
Of particular interest to me were the bush vines - in this case pinotage, that had been allowed to grow without the support of a trellis. Small, blue-black berries glistened beneath the leaves on branches that radiated from a central rootstock.

Conservation is also close to the local farmers' hearts, as we were to discover on the farm Eenzaamheid ("loneliness"). Here the farmer had had the forethought to set aside a section of land as a reserve for the critically endangered geometric tortoise species.

Established in 1972, the Jan Briers-Louw Reserve is under the stewardship of CapeNature and provides a valuable respite for the little tortoise that is under so much pressure due to loss of habitat and predation.

Another treat, as we drove from the gates of the reserve (unfortunately without seeing any plucky little tortoises) was when Callie pointed out some fallow deer that quickly dispersed as our vehicle approached.

Although my head tells me that these European deer, brought to SA courtesy of Cecil J Rhodes, are really a bit of a pest, they were still pretty to watch as they trotted away, pausing often to peer at us with their liquid black eyes.

According to Callie, the old farmhouse on Eenzaamheid was built in 1690, making it one of the oldest buildings in the Western Cape, if not South Africa. Although it has partially fallen into ruin, we were assured that the farmer is currently busy with renovations and that he'd taken great care to restore the building to its former glory on the advice of Dutch building experts, combining modern with old.

I was enthralled by the timbers in the roof, some of which have apparently been salvaged from old shipwrecks over the years when good timbers were still scarce in the old Cape Colony.

We were shown that the building had no windows in the direction that the rain approaches from and that the farmers would have had to lime-wash the structure's earthen walls every year in order to protect it from erosion. We could also clearly see where previous owners had patched up the walls when they'd been damaged.

Perdeberg Mountain itself is also of special note as it offers the last refuge for a number of fynbos habitats, such as Boland granite fynbos and Swartland renosterveld, that have largely disappeared beneath the plough and development.

Many remaining patches of land exist only on privately-owned farmland, making it vital that farmers co-operate to save what is left of our natural heritage. Perdeberg was proclaimed as a Natural Heritage Site in 1992 - forming the Perdeberg Conservancy and playing an important role in protecting rare plants.

Our brief tour over, we were only too glad to trade the sunlight for the cool confines of Perdeberg Winery and its air-conditioned rooms. Callie gave us a brief overview of some of the wines produced, namely the winery's sauvignon and chenin blancs, as well as another white cultivar I haven't experienced - a rather fruity viognier.

Of the reds, we tasted the merlot, pinotage and shiraz (including the reserves of the pinotage and shiraz). My overall impression was that I enjoyed the reserve wines the most although I'd quite happily pitch up at a braai with the winery's regular pinotage or shiraz in hand.

There's always an advantage to shopping for your favourite wine at its origin and, judging by the pricelist, I'd like to come back and give my debit card a bit more exercise, time willing. Of course living on the winelands' doorstep has its advantages.

We Capetonians are definitely spoilt for choice, but I reckon half the fun is getting in your car and making a day of it instead of browsing the wines at your local supermarket.

Source: News24.com - www.news24.com

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