IN 1988, Hartenberg’s Ken MacKenzie hosted a tasting of shiraz from around the world as a benchmarking exercise for the wine-writing and wine-judging fraternity.

Prescient in this (as in most things) he recognised that his property could be a source of great shiraz. Since the variety was largely unknown outside the local Australian market (and enjoyed only a tiny global following among a small group of aficionados buying wines from the Northern Rhone in France), the event and its objectives was years ahead of its time. After all, in those days, shiraz accounted for less than 1% of all South African vineyards.

Much has changed since then: the Australian invasion of the European markets created the illusion that shiraz was “the next big thing”. Huge swathes of the south of France were taken over by it. In the Cape, shiraz plantings increased tenfold in as many years, the US embraced it with Texan enthusiasm, Chile and Argentina followed suit.