From vine to wine – ‘controlled chaos’
LOUISVALE Wines winemaker Simon Smith says: “My passion for winemaking is both my career and my lifestyle. I still look forward to every day, as my normal day in the office is made up of controlled chaos and after 23 years of being the winemaker at Louisvale, each day brings new challenges.”
Born in Paarl, Smith always had his heart set on being a farmer. He studied viticulture and livestock science as well as cellar technology at Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute in Stellenbosch.
As a qualified winemaker and viticulturist, Simon personally selects the grapes he wants to use for his wine production from the grapes that have all been handpicked by a team of 10 staff working intensively for about 20 days during the harvest.
Smith worked at Bellingham, Simonsig and Weltevrede wine farms before settling at Louisvale, where he can produce unique wines due to the clones and terroir common to the Devon Valley area. The soil consists of decomposed granite which makes extremely good soil, and this gives the uniqueness to the wines. The best varietals to work with therefore are chardonnay, merlot and cabernet and these are the wines at the heart of Louisvale’s production.
Louisvale has attracted many awards of late, including a Veritas Gold for the 2018 Louisvale Chardonnay in 2019. The mantelpiece in the old manor house is also home to the three Michelangelo Golds awarded for the Louisvale MCC Brut, MCC Rosé and the Louisvale 2018 Chardonnay.
When he’s not enjoying the odd drop of Irish malt whisky, Smith’s favourite wine is the Louisvale Dominique 2017.
Asked about the worst experience he has had in wine making, he said: “That was undoubtedly when, during harvesting a few years ago, we had 30mm of rain twice in two weeks – not good news, and my nerves were shattered. That said, we prevailed and still produced some excellent wines.”
When asked about the best part of his career, Smith reckons it’s that he doesn’t have to pay for his drinking wine.
“Wine not come to Louisvale and see for yourself?” he quips.