Barcelona has ‘La Sagrada Familia’ and ‘Parque Güell'. London, the Palace of Westminster, beefeaters, red telephone boxes, red buses and Big Ben (did you know that only the actual BELL is called ‘Big Ben’ and the tower in which it is located the ‘Clock Tower’). Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue stands overlooking the city. Sydney’s opera house is imprinted on my brain, and even though I’ve never SEEN it, I KNOW it.
Hometown Landmarks
In lesser-known cities, your hometown perhaps, you identify your own landmarks, with their own values. “Here is the road I used to ride my bike up and down in because I was too short to actually get OFF the bike successfully.” “Here is the house where the two big dogs lived who used to terrorise us every time they got out.” (childlike scream: “Die Wollerige HOND!”) “Here is the house I lived and grew up in for 13 years.” In a sense THAT house becomes THAT town for you because YOU lived there.
Stellenbosch Landmarks
In places such as Stellenbosch, which is a University town and South Africa’s unofficial wine capital, there are a number of people who experience it as a collective. “Here is the Hangbrug (suspension bridge) we crossed on afternoon runs after class.” “There is the Kweekskool (seminary) we’d walk past on our way to the hostel or on our way to Bohemia.” “There is the Moederkerk (mother church) with little wooden pews that creak when you settle in, and fidget during service, a medieval device to point out the unfaithful/bored or dead asleep.” “There is the Ou Hoofgebou (old main building) that once represented the ENTIRETY of Stellenbosch University, and today, only manages to house the Faculty of Law.” “Here is the old Kruithuis (ammunitions store), a relic of times past and a reminder of our military prowess - also remember trying to ‘ride’ a canon after a particularly rowdy house dance.” {the thoughts of an IMAGINED alumnus.} And what would a town named for a man be, without some semblance of that man as a landmark? Vanderstel the wine and Stellenbosch the town were both named for the same man, Simon Van Der Stel, who among other things also claimed himself a whole mountain, Simonsberg. Whatever else he may have been, he does seem to have had TASTE and ensured that he was interred in the very bones of the place, even the wine.
The Stellenbosch Reserve Range
The wines of the Stellenbosch Reserve are made by the team at Rust en Vrede and run by Jean Engelbrecht, all Stellenbosch natives. Each wine is dedicated to a Stellenbosch landmark and made exclusively with Stellenbosch grapes, be it from the Devon Valley, Simonsberg or the slopes of Helderberg. What they’ve done is deconstructed their hometown into the wines and landmarks that, to THEM, define it. And who better to do so? We invite you to sample this range of landmark wines and so-doing discover Stellenbosch from its locals' perspective.
