Stellenbosch and Delheim
Saturday. July 22 |
| I have not yet seen the "real" South Africa yet, not the one that Americans think of as South Africa, but it has been a fascinating sojourn into a corner of South Africa which so far has been dedicated to celebrating the 70th birthday of my host, Spatz Sperling. |
| Spatz was born in Germany and came to South Africa as a young man, with little money and no experience in the wine business. He made his way to Stellenbosch, a charming town outside of Capetown, where he helped a farmer develop a vineyard known as Delheim. For more details on the history of the vineyard, you can check out the website (originally designed by Guy Livingston) at delheim.com. |
| My flight from London via Amsterdam was crowded, but otherwise uneventful, though it was odd to fly for twelve hours and end up in the same time zone. Spatz and his wife Vera, whom I had previously met in Holland, were at the airport and whisked me off for a brief tour of Capetown and on to Delheim. It was only later in the day that we heard that a bomb had gone off at the airport a few hours later, once again, raising the question of how much tourism South Africa can expect if visitors don't feel safe. |
| Our focus for the rest of the day was the planning of the birthday parties, actually three in all. The first at 7:30 in the morning was for immediate family, and me, who long ago became known as Aunt Neale, thanks to Maria, their daughter who had visited me numerous times in New York. Of the four Sperling children, the older two, Victor and Nora, work here with the vineyard business, while Maria pursues her musical interests in Amsterdam and Nicky is working in Egnland on the technical end of theater production. The second party at lunch time was for thirty guests, described as the "oldies"-- those who prefer not to drive in the evenings. |
| The final event, for about 150 guests, included a wide range of guests who enjoyed a delicious meal, fabulous wine and good company until well past one in the morning. I tried to make myself useful in the last hours of planning, and spent a good part of the evening creating a video record of the speeches, jokes, and general conviviality of the event which celebrated the opening of a the family's newest "venue" known as Vera Cruz. It is a couple of miles from Delheim proper, on a farm that had been used for raising pigs, and was known as the piggery. Key buildings have been renovated and expanded into a coffee house and catering hall, while other outbuildings are being used for a nursery, a pottery and, in the future, a selection of other crafts. While Delheim is nestled snugly in a small valley at the foot of Simons mountain, the new Vera Cruz is on a broad hillside with a distant view of Capetown and its most famous landmark, Table Mountain. |
| The most compelling aspect of the entire celebration was the affirmation it gave to the future of the Delheim Estate, which suffered a near-catastrophic loss last January. On one horrific day, all of the pine forests, planted by Sperling over the last 40 years, when up in flames in a matter of two hours. The fire came within one hundred yards of the farm compound but luckily the fire was stopped just short of the oak trees which shade the farm itself, saving most of the vines, and a some isolated windbreaks through the vineyards. Sadly, the steep slopes are still black today, although they have already been reseeded with hundreds of saplings, assuring a forest for Spatz's grandson Rudi who is not yet a year old. |
| As a further statement of affirmation, everyone who came to the party was asked to bring a tree (of African heritage) as a gift and by evening's end, the banquet hall was green from end to end -- anticipating the future of the Delheim hillsides. I know little about African trees, but was enthralled by a tree with bright red blossoms. |
| It was, I thought, a metaphor, for the future of South Africa, which must take the optimistic view about its future despite many discouraging signs and bush fires along the way. |
| While I had originally suggested that perhaps it would be more convenient if I delayed my arrival until after the party, in truth it was a great opportunity to meet many friends and get a broad perspective on the world of vinticulture here in South Africa. Both Spatz and Vera have been open in discussing their lives in a changing South Africa, where on the one hand their wines, long isolated, can now compete in a global market, but where on the other hand new laws restrict their relationship with newly unionized employees, and a devalued rand affects the lives of many, and has sent a significant number of young South Africans abroad.! |
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Yesterday morning I drove into Stellenbosch with Nora's husband Erhardt, a freelance photographer. I spent two hours wandering around the town, avoiding the heavy downpours on what was one of the coldest days in recent memory -- a fact highlighted by snow on all the neighboring hilltops. The Cape area has a distinctly Mediterranean climate and the "Dutch Cape" architecture of bright white buildings bears a lot of similarity to the older buildings in California.
I decided to get my bearings by checking out the bookstores. in the first I found a wide selection of books on the history and geography of the country and the region, and bought a few to bring home. An interesting section included books on what you need to know about hiring servants (in the new South Africa) where many colonial aspects of former relationships are prohibited. For example, whereas offering wine to farm workers was part of the old tradition of life in the vineyards here (as it was in France) that is no longer allowed. |
| The second bookstore was smaller, and seemed more focused on European and American books, though I was a little taken aback to see a brand new copy of Mein Kampf sitting on the same shelf with Angela's Ashes and a biography of Christopher Reeve. My first reaction was to see if it was written in Afrikaans or English (expecting the former shows my prejudice). It was indeed in English, and upon reflecting I would expect perhaps to find it in a megastore like Barnes & Noble, but not in a tiny bookstore the size of a small bedroom. I did not choose to ask about it, but instead asked for recommendations of local authors, and came away with what looks like another good read. |
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This morning I took advantage of some moments of sun between the raindrops and walked up on the blacked hillside behind the farm. The mountains are really only hills, but the rocky, jagged outlines make them look more Alpine than they really are. At a distance the colors are bodly dramatic; only up close are you reminded that this is a farm is currently harvesting charcoal.
Back down on the farm a wine tasting was going on. Visitors travel the South African Wine Route much as they do Nappa Valley, and Delheim is a popular stop, not the least because of the personality of Papa Sperling. This afternoon Vera and I went into town for some errands and I got a look at the University and some of the neighborhoods, which are still distinctly separated into white, colored and black. Colored (people of mixed race) are more prevalent in this western Cape region and had more rights under apartheid than blacks. Now, under the new regime and the ANC, many coloreds object to be skipped over again by the majority group. Here on the farm, there are both groups, some of whom live in small houses just below the winery and others who commute, sometimes long distances. Tomorrow I head off to look at a program that focuses on South African culture through foods and in the process, a broader look at the countryside. |
