Back Label: “We’ve had eight or so astronauts and cosmonauts on the farm” says Dr. Greg Olsen, third civilian to visit the International Space Station back in 2005. And while the Pinotage vines he took with survived the trip on Soyuz, the ones he shipped to his ranch in Montana succumbed after the second vintage.
“Winter is just too cold” he reports “it gets down to minus 30 and in spite of covering them in heaps of straw and manure (of which we have plenty) they didn’t make it.” So global warming has yet to reach Montana, although Greg does report that the glaciers of Glacier National Park in the state, are in full scale retreat.
Aliens and spacemen visit Olsen Vineyards in the lee of the Klein Drakenstein mountains in Paarl for face time with their comrade colleague, who also takes them down to Cape Point for a paddle. For the Point is clearly visible from space and looks like the southernmost tip of Africa, even if it is not.
Yet more vindication for the satellite image of Cape Point on labels of Two Oceans wines, as Professor Nigel Penn from UCT confirms that speaking oceanographically, evidence is mounting that it makes more sense for the Atlantic to meet the Indian at touristic Cape Point rather than windswept Agulhas. And yet another reason not to pay any attention at all to that UCT wine spoofer Tim James, a geographical pedant of note.
Why Paarl? After completing a PhD in physics at the University of Virginia in 1971, unemployed Olsen noticed an ad for a post-doc position at the University of Port Elizabeth. In spite of his American wife causing a mini incident when she used the bathroom at Jan Smuts Airport labelled “non-Europeans”, when the Rand hit 13 to the dollar a decade ago, Olsen reckoned that 30ha of vines in Paarl was too good to miss.
Why Pinotage? SA’s own love it or hate it grape Pinotage, is a favourite of Olsen who calls it “the calling card” of the estate. While Brits by and large hate its rustic flavours, Americans can’t get enough. Dave Jefferson may grow 700 acres of grapes in the Napa and Sonoma valleys of California, but his real passion is the Pinotage he grows in the Waboomsrivier on the unfashionable side of the Du Toitskloof Mountains. His grapes go into Flagstone, Guardian Peak, Rickety Bridge, Lemberg, and the much lauded KWV Mentor range.
Wines: Most of the grapes are sold off to the local Bovlei Co-op, but a boutique range of wines is available at reasonable prices. Pick of the white bunch is a fresh 2011 Chardonnay while for reds, the 2008 Pinotage is drinking well now while the 2009 may be bought for the cellar. Dave comments “very nice wine enhanced by use of their new sorting table; for garagistes, making wine is now closer to making a salad, once the grapes are picked.”
Psy-trance Potential: The March Ommiberg wine festival in Paarl was this year hijacked by a Love & Light day party on the Mountain Shadows farm between the Olsen and Mellasat farms, which sounds like mission control for a satellite launching company.
Trancers were invited to “experience the best trance beats in a beautiful setting alongside a crystal clear, fresh water dam… a fully licensed bar including a cocktail bar by the lake with a live feed of the music from the dance floor… the freshest mountain spring water available for drinking and a comfortable eating and chill area for the appreciation of good music in paradise with friends” which confirms Olsen as an optimum spot for late summer picnics and mountain gazing by those who prefer red wine to Red Bull.
Tastings: are by appointment only (021) 862 5653 and cost R25 per person and light meals are available for groups of ten or more.
Directions: Take the last exit before the Huguenot Tunnel off the N1 and turn right on Keerweeder Road. Olsen is on your left one kilometre after the tar is replaced by dirt.
GPS: 33S 44’ 4.7”; 19E 3’ 5.0”
