Reyneke’s wines are grown, not made
OPEN a bottle from Johan Reyneke’s pioneering Stellenbosch biodynamic winery and you’ll wonder, firstly, why organic wine gets such a bad rap and, secondly, why Reyneke finds his success so surprising.
He has grown from a few hundred cases produced in an old cowshed in 1998 to more than 30 000 cases sent all over the world annually. Last year he was the only South African nominee for the US Wine Enthusiast magazine’s New World Winery of the Year award.
“And this year we sneaked into the Top 20 Wineries in South Africa list,’’ says the self-taught viticulturist.
“The accolades are growing – we’ve been lucky. I feel privileged and a bit surprised.”
As a dreadlocked philosophy graduate, his first job in the ’90s was as a farm labourer, where he found himself spraying chemicals by day and reading up on environmental ethics by night.
“It just didn’t work,” he grins wryly.
Certified as organic and biodynamic since 2 000, his wines first found a market in the more green-conscious Scandinavia and in other parts of Europe. But they are taking off at home as local consumers’ environmental consciousness and demand for organic products grow.
As with any product, there are good and bad examples, and green credentials need to be balanced with quality.
Enter his “quality with integrity” philosophy; borne out by, among others, the four and four and a half Platter’s stars for its entire biodynamic range.
So what’s the difference? It starts in the vineyard, says Reyneke, selecting plants that grow in synergy with the vines, adding nothing – no herbicides, pesticides or preservatives – and putting everything back into the soil.
“Some say it’s going too far, but it’s what blows my hair back,” says the now short-haired Reyneke.
As for the wines, the 2013 organic white, a Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon, is a delicious fruity-flowery blend with some citrusy zing.
The straight Sauvignon Blanc delivers a complex package of lightly nutty, peach and pear flavours balanced with limes and a hint of honey.