Hamba Kahle Pieter Visser

Makro offered me a Totem Mountain Bike XC200 this afternoon for R799 as Twitter tolled the bell for Pieter Visser, mountain biker of note and winemaker at Oak Valley, who passed away today. Synchronicity strikes again or do I get told to get on my bike all the time while cancer claims an alarming number of young and gifted SA winemakers?

makro

My last memory of Vissie was him executing an elegant half pike dive from the upper deck of a Rawbone-Viljoen powerboat anchored off Clifton third beach. Gorgeous Lee Robertson had stripped down to her graceful undies and gone for a dip. Vissie was the only alpha male with balls large enough to take on Neptune.

His wines were also like that: unexpected. Zingy Sauvignon Blanc and a better Bordeaux blend than anything the Bordelais can manage at the minute. Vissie has now taken off on the ride of his life. We’ll miss him.