WellsFaber Meet the Winemaker:

On Wednesday 31st of May, we held our monthly and final ‘Meet the Winemaker’ evening.   WellsFaber’s ‘Meet the Winemaker’ is a wine tasting with a regional focus, hosted by some of South Africa’s most prominent winemakers. Our focus for May was the Robertson region.

Sadly Salome Buys-Vermeulen who is the wine maker at Frolich Family Vineyards was unable to join us as she is due with her second baby imminently. Her very able and knowledgeable husband, Sybrand Vermeulen was our wine savant for the evening, sharing his knowledge on wine and the Robertson region.

Sybrand was ably assisted by Sean Smuts, the new owner of the farm. Sean is the great grandson of General Jan Smuts, former prime minister of SA, who was intimately involved with the Cape Town Club, the venue for our tasting. So how appropriate to have Sean pouring wine beneath a portrait of his illustrious forebear. Confirming that wine is truly part of our heritage and history.

The evening was made up of tasting a wide range of wines available from Frohlich. What makes the vineyard unique is that they are the only winemaker in the Cape to cultivate the Carménère grape. History tells us that this particular grape was transported from Bordeaux to Chile many years ago. For centuries the Chilean wine makers confused the grape with Merlot. When the error of their ways was discovered after many centuries the grape became their calling card, their version of Pinotage, but with finer flavours.

Guests were able to learn from Sybrand Vermeulen about this fantastic grape varietal and taste its fruits in some of the wines on offer for tasting. It was widely agreed that we hope to see a lot more of the Carménère grape being used in the South African wine industry as it truly does add something unique to the wines from the Frolich Family Vineyards.