Tim James: The last half-century of German contributions to Cape wine

By , 21 October 2024

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It was German vision and investment that brought Buitenverwachting, originally part of Simon van der Stel’s great Constantia estate, back to life from 1981, as I suggested in concluding my initial survey of German influence on Cape wine.

That was and is a good story; ultimately less satisfactory was the substantial German acquisition later in the 1980s of Stellenzicht and Neethlingshof by financier Hans Schreiber. More about money and less about vision, perhaps. There seemed to be ambition at first, but very little lustre survived the Lusan partnership with Distell in 2000 into which the two estates were thrown alongside some old Bergkelder properties, while a lower-end brand, Hill & Dale, was based at Stellenzicht. Little lustre and not enough lucrative return either, and the brand was dissolved in 2017. Schreiber took back Neethlingshof until he sold it to big French business in 2022; Alto and Stellenzicht kept the German connection – of which more later.

As to German winemaking influence – important in the 20th century but generally in decline here after the great political and wine-sphere changes of the 1990s – it did have a rather curious (and continuing) episode in Wellington. In this distinctly unGermanic terroir Mont du Toit was established in 1998 by Stephan du Toit (of French Huguenot descent himself, but with a German-born wife, Carolina), who brought in as consultants two famous German vintners, Bernhard Breuer of the Rheingau and Bernd Philippi of Pfalz (assisted by a youthful member of the eminent Haag family of Mosel), to make a warm-country red wine. Philippi remains an advisor, after Breuer’s untimely death in 2004.

Another well-known German winemaker, but one who’d specialised in red wine, became involved in Cape wine in the late ‘90s, when Neil Ellis teamed up with his eminent friend Werner Meyer-Näkel to make a brand featuring both their names and destined for export to Germany. For about ten years  from 2006 the wines did appear in the Platter Guide, reflecting a decision to also launch them here – but, although the brand continues, there seems to be no local presence any more.

Capaia, Philidelphia.

Back to big money investment, and the return of the German aristos…. If their large property in Philadelphia (Cape Town District) didn’t cost quite what it would have done in Stellenbosch, Alexander Baron von Essen (also a wine importer into Germany) and his baroness (an architect, and of the mega-rich Miehle family), spared no expense in establishing their wine estate, with, for example, all the black-grape vine material imported from Bordeaux and one of the world’s largest arrays of oak fermentation vessels. There was much public expectation of Capaia, but things never went particularly well – one suspects not least because of the owners’ rather feudal attitudes to their local winemakers while exercising a penchant for smart foreign consultants. (It was a local accountant, however, who defrauded them of R17 million before being found out.)

But certainly there seems to have been more bad lack involved. Famous Hungarian winemaker Tibor Gál advised until his tragic death on the Helshoogte Pass. Soon after, Count (or Graf, if you prefer) Stephan von Neipperg, whose family claims to have been involved with winegrowing since the 13th century and owns some rather grand properties in Bordeaux, came in as advisor. After the Essen marriage collapsed and the Baroness became sole owner, von Neipperg joined as a shareholder in 2015 – which he remains, though now with the von Essen’s daughter Mariella, after the Baroness’s death in 2021. Sadly, after a briefly splendid beginning, the wines have little profile or reputation locally, and it seems are most sold in German-speaking countries – or so the listings on wine-searcher.com indicate.

The Helderberg has made a home for some serious German investment, starting with that of Peter Falke. The Falke family has been doing business in South Africa since 1969, says the website of Peter Falke Wines. Peter was born in Germany and bought the Groenvlei farm in 1995, with the first wines under the eponymous label made in 2003. Most recently keeping up the baronial presence in Cape wine, Hans von Staff-Reitzenstein (perhaps more usefully a real-estate investor and industrialist) has acquired a handsome chunk of the Helderberg by purchasing and investing heavily in Ernie Els, Stellenzicht and Alto (see here), along with the former Bilton property adjoining Alto.

One can’t leave the aristocratic German connection to Cape wine without at least mentioning Achim von Arnims of Haute Cabrière and Mark Solms (brlliant neurosurgeon, brave visionary and terrible businessman), of Solms-Delta. Solms trumped the aristo game by being surely the only winery in the new world by appearing with a royal appointment notice and a princely coat of arms on his labels: “By appointment to H.S.H. [presumably “His Serene Highness” or some such nonsense] Friedrich 6th Prince of Solms-Baruth”. (The third Prince had come to South West Africa, and then to South Africa, after being exiled for his part in the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.) But these people were essentially South African when they turned to wine. As with the Clüvers of Elgin – who kept the umlaut on their family name but omitted it from the name of Paul Cluver wines until a few years back when the label name was properly Germanised again.

As far as I know, Peter Löw, the German lawyer and entrepreneur who purchased the rather run-down Stellenbosch estate Vergenoegd in 2015, is not aristocratic. He makes up for this, however, by signing himself “Professor Dr Dr Peter Löw”, which looks rather excessive, or a typo, according to standard practice in English; though he leaves off his MBA and maybe other stuff.  Löw, through his European Heritage Project, has an impressive history of restoring significant but neglected old properties in Europe, and making their future viable. He has now caused excellent work to be done at historic Vergenoegd (which also had a German owner for a while in the 18th century) making urgent and then further intensive restoration work on the old buildings – always according to rigorous standards of authenticity, replanting the vineyards and modernising the winery, greatly expanding the visitor amenities, and building a dicreetly placed boutique hotel and spa. The resurrection of what is now called Vergenoegd Löw amounts to a massive contribution to the Cape’s wine culture.

I suspect this brief survey has some significant omissions, but hope it has been persuasive enough. Occasionally there are grumbles about foreigners coming into the Cape winelands brandishing the power of their euros and dollars. I reckon, looking just at the great contributions made by Germans, going back to Jacobus Cloete and other early settlers, up to the recent wave of often really dedicated and intelligent investment, from the restoration of derelict Buitenverwachting to the respectful restoration of neglected Vergenoegd – well, we could well do with some more.

  • Tim James is one of South Africa’s leading wine commentators, contributing to various local and international wine publications. His book Wines of South Africa – Tradition and Revolution appeared in 2013.

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