The Road to Santiago
Not to get too philosophical on you, but a pilgrimage is defined as a journey or a search of moral or spiritual significance, usually to a shrine or place of importance. In this case, it has led us to the vines. The oldest producing vines in South Africa, Landau du Val’s heritage Semillon vineyard block planted in 1905, credited with the creation of Rickety Bridge’s, aptly named, Road to Santiago Semillon. 112 years as a vine. A 112 year journey, which in South African winemaking terms is historic, NAY, iconic, a shrine to our winemaking history. Hence the name, Road to Santiago (Camino de Santiago), the famous pilgrimage in Northern Spain toward the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. The historic relevance of these vines are further underpinned by the farm responsible for its expression as wine. Rickety Bridge, sits on land, part of one of the original 7 French Huguenot farms, La Provence, established in 1688 when the Huguenots first arrived. The land has changed hands, been subdivided and reunited numerous times and thus has a rich history. The first female landowner, Paulina de Villiers in 1797, having called her slice of it ‘Paulina’s Drift’ and is rumoured to still keep vigil over the vines (a topic to keep in mind for wine-related Halloween mentions).
The Bridge
Winemaker, Wynand Grobler, this year celebrates his 10th year at Rickety Bridge, a decade, and while he has produced a number of noteworthy wines in that time, two stand out, not only representing the journey of the vines, but his, as a winemaker (if you’re going to see it in poetic terms). The wines in question are The Road to Santiago and The Bridge. The Bridge, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, coaxed from extraordinary bush-vine on the slopes of Dassenberg Mountain which took 8 years to bear its first tiny crop. The Bridge, like the farm, is named for the original ‘rickety bridge’ that straddles the Franschhoek river, which was part of the historic estate dating back to 1797. These two wines have been produced in extraordinarily small quantities, given the small yields, with 840 bottles of The Road to Santiago produced and 2500 of The Bridge. Made with minimum intervention, given the quality of the fruit, these wines have been hand-made from start to finish, with natural fermentation and gentle-handling to reveal the unique character of the bush-vines and their terroir.
True Cape Vines
As such, the road has always lead here, and will continue to evolve as the vines and terroir does, perhaps adapting to the ever-changing weather patterns and wine styles. But like with most pilgrimages, it would seem, the answer always lay within and we look forward to many more vintages of these true-Cape vines.
