#KeDezembaBoss is all about the soft life, and today Food For Mzansi kicks off its Faces of Summer campaign with a trip to the Nederburg Wine Estate in Paarl, outside Cape Town.
There, we eavesdropped on a conversation between Brian Mahanke, better known as The Black Sommelier, and Zinaschke Steyn, Nederburg’s red wine maker. Growing up in North West, she admits that she practically never indulged in wine.
“I was born and bred in Klerksdorp. We didn’t drink wine up there; it was mostly beer and brandy. We had a lot of holidays in the Western Cape. My aunt and uncle lived in Worcester. I wanted to become a brandy distiller, to be honest,” says Steyn.
After she matriculated, her family moved to Worcester and she enrolled at Stellenbosch University to study chemical engineering. But life has a funny way of nudging you in the right direction, so Steyn took a two-year break to tour and discover the Cape Winelands.
It was during this time that she fell in love with the concept of winemaking. She eventually traded her engineering books for wine publications.
“You can literally turn wine into anything. And seeing a consumer enjoy that, that captivated me. I went to see oom Willie (van Zijl) at Elsenburg College and the rest is history. Here we are, twelve years later.”
Steyn’s summer wine selection
As a winemaker, Steyn is obviously spoilt for choice when it comes to the good stuff. This is why Mahanke and Food For Mzansi asked her to recommend just two of her favourite summer wines.
She picked Nederburg’s The Anchorman Old Vine Chenin Blanc (yes, that’s really its name!) as well as Nederburg’s Private Bin R163 Cabernet Sauvignon. Both wines are available across the country and can also be ordered online.
Fun fact: Nederburg’s winemaking history dates back to 1791. Originally the estate name was spelt as Nederburgh, in honour of VOC commissioner Sebastian Cornelis Nederburgh. Later, the “h” was dropped.
Okay, back to the reasoning behind Steyn’s “Faces of summer” wine selection.
She explains that the chenin blanc is special for a number reasons. Firstly, the fruit is sourced from vines that are classified as “old vines” – somewhere between 37 and 38 years old, to be exact. The grapes also comes from two different blocks in Agter-Paarl and the Swartland.
“It’s also bush vines, so there’s a lot of concentration in the fruit,” adds Steyn.
Furthermore, she picked the Nederburg Private Bin R163 Cabernet Sauvignon because it was grown in the Simonsberg and Simondium areas at a specific slope which is hand-harvested in specific seasons. This happens in very deep and composed granite soils.
The block which delivered Private Bin R163 Cabernet Sauvignon was planted 22 years ago in 2000. It was planted with low yielding which led to an intense, concentrated fruit. It also spent three years in 100% new French oak barrels before its market release.
A master of red wine
It is clear that Steyn has great taste in wine. This, of course, comes with a lot of experience and she also extends her gratitude to Nederburg team members Samuel Viljoen and Amelia Prins. They have worked alongside her to create the best red wines at the world-renowned estate.
Their philosophy?
Steyn says, “The philosophy of our red wine team is always to respect the fruit. We work with 14 different coopers when we do our wood selection in terms of barrel maturation and oak maturation. And the onus is always to focus on balance. You want [the] fruit to be the star of the show, but the wood must play a supporting role.”
Click here for more information on the Nederburg Wine Estate.
- As part of its popular Faces of Summer campaign, Food For Mzansi will feature some of South Africa’s finest winemakers and ambassadors. Next up we discover why Kleine Zalze’s award-winning wines are known for their distinctly South African character.
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