Totally Wild!

After 11 hours on a plane with the company of 2 screaching infants (not mine!) beside me to remind me of the joys of British Airways cattle class, I arrived in the Cape on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, my luggage had not yet decided to get on the plane from Edinburgh! Couldn't even blame Heathrow this time....

After what they claim to have been one of the coldest, wettest winters on record, the Cape appears to be emerging fairly rapidly from the gloom with temperatures up to about 23 degrees yesterday - something we could only have wished for over our summer. First port of call was to see Virgin Earth - something Kobus du Plessis (also the owner of Havana Hills) has been pestering me about for years.

About 3 years ago, Kobus started talking about this amazing place far away from established wine regions and very close to both where he grew up and to his heart. Over a few drinks one evening in his Cape Town flat, we came upon the name Virgin Earth and the estate has been called this ever since.

Virgin Earth has recently been granted status as the only winery in the new Langeberg-Garcia district and after my visit, I feel sure that we are going to hear rather a lot about what is happening here. 44 000 acres sounds like a large property, but nothing can prepare you for the wide open expanses and sheer wilderness that confronts every one of your five senses.

Less than 20 hectares are planted to vines, with the rest being mountains and scrubby karoo terrain. A huge variety of native flowers and trees provide a habitat that is home to a wide variety of creatures. 3 hours riding in the dirt-eating rhino buggy exploring this wilderness brought sightings of Springbok, Oryx, Wildebeast, Ostrich, Terrapin, Tortoise, Antelope and Baboons - not to mention a huge variety of birds. Apparently leopards and foxes are also regular visitors just to add to the variety.

This is all extraordinary stuff - difficult to take in over such a short period of time and one can see why Kobus is so attached to the place. Perhaps more extraordinary still is the lengths that Kobus has gone to make this a quality wine estate. A lack of cool storage space for barrels early on in the development of Virgin Earth led to the bizarre but succesful practice of submerging barrels in the lake! Strange as it sounds, Kobus is convinced that the cool, dark surroundings lead to a a nice slow wood integration and helps to keep the wine tasting fresh. Not sure I can see Gallo adopting this approach just yet!

The challenges set by this remarkable terrain are various. During the growing season, the cool winds sweep down over the vineyards making it difficult to stand up and driving yields down. As one would also expect, water could also be a problem but Kobus has tapped into the natural water supplies from the mountains to fill various lakes and dams so that water is plentiful. Contruction of a huge lake is nearly complete and when finished, huge fountains will rise from the centre which, when caught by the wind, will spray just enough water over the vines to cool them down and slow the ripening process - ambitious stuff!!!

Kobus is not used to people saying no to him and doesn't accept that anything is impossible. Having seen Virgin Earth, it's easy to accept that whilst entirely mad, Kobus' inventive, visionary approach has made something that seemed to impossible to many, a reality.

We're yet to see the best of Virgin Earth and the 2008 vintage is possibly going to see the first wines that truly put the property on the map. I'm personally really inspired by projects like this - it's nothing about return on investment, it's not about making ordinary, consumer friendly wines but it is about pushing the boundaries and proucing wines with a real sense of place.