- Meet Abrie Beeslaar, Kanonkop Winemaker now in his 22nd Vintage.
- One of only three winemakers in Kanonkop's 50-year history, he has been awarded the IWSC's International Winemaker of the Year award three times.
- Credited for the 100-point Paul Sauer 2015, Abrie's military precision continues Kanonkop's legacy of top-rated red wines and a Pinotage Pioneer.
Last year Kanonkop was named the 15th Most Admired Wine Brand in the World by Drinks International.
One of only two South African brands in the Top 50, Bruce Jack came in at number 20, 17 places up from their 32nd position in 2020.
Kanonkop remains a part of the foundation of premium international wine consumption as voted by this Academy of leading wine buyers, sommeliers, wholesalers, bar owners, Masters of Wine, writers, and educators from six continents (unfortunately, no winos in Antarctica).
It's an intriguing list, with brands like Château D'Yquem ranked 50th and Spain's Familia Torres at number one. To be a self-sustaining winery in South Africa is an accomplishment in itself. To be a thriving, family-owned, internationally-recognised, premium wine-producing company in South Africa is, well, a miracle in a country that presents more challenges than opportunities.
The traits of a Winemaker
Kanonkop is a fourth-generation wine farm, notable in itself, as part owner and Managing Director Johann Krige once said.
It's usually the first generation that makes the money, the second generation that spends it, and the third generation that liquidates it.
Largely credited as South Africa's top, pioneering, Pinotage producers, they have never abandoned the cause of this often criticised South African grape.
Blessed with three visionary winemakers in their 50-year history (this year), Oom Jan Boland Coetzee (Springbok, winemaker, diver, owner of Vriesenhof), Beyers Truter (Pinotage Pioneer, Chairman of the Pinotage Association today, and owner of Beyerskloof), and Abrie Beeslaar.
Johann said he looks for three things in a winemaker. 1. A chemical background. 2. They have to like good food. 3. They should be just a little mischievous. (Not a desirable trait in your finance guy, to be sure.)
Abrie Beeslaar this year celebrates his 22nd vintage at Kanonkop. In that time, he has been awarded the IWSC's International Winemaker of the Year award three times, as well as the Outstanding Wine Producer Trophy, and credited as the maker of the first-ever 100-point (as rated by Tim Atkin MW) Paul Sauer 2015. Abrie has also made the Black Label Pinotage since its inception in 2006, a wine that has come to define the true potential of Pinotage.
Greg Sherwood MW wrote of the 2017 vintage: "The lasting impression of this wine on the palate is the vitality, precision, knowhow, and authority that beam from the glass akin to facing down a glass of Roman e Conti Burgundy."
Made from one of the oldest Pinotage vineyards in South Africa, 70 years old this year, planted in 1953 - this is merely a preview of what to expect in the years to come as these vines mature and benefit from Abrie's deft hand.
Worcester
Abrie comes from Worcester, a small town in the Boland. His mother was a housewife, and his father was in the cooling industry.
Like many of his peers, he went to Stellenbosch to become a doctor, but six months in, he realised his passion for winemaking. Like the other two Kanonkop winemakers, he played rugby. There's something about Pinotage and rugby, but that's a story for another day.
Suffice to say that Abrie stopped playing after his first year, which was probably for the best, given that rugby at Stellenbosch can become an all-consuming pursuit.
Abrie met Beyers at Swartland Cellars, where he was working at the time. Beyers needed a million litres of Pinotage for a Tesco & Sainsbury's own brand wine, and Abrie had the opportunity to work with him.
Abrie says he lived in the Swartland before it was cool, that the Swartland lifestyle then was the very thing that attracted the people who live there today. He lived in Malmesbury, and he says work always seemed to interfere with the hopping Swartland social life, spending many days and nights at the tiny pub named Die Swartlandertjie.
The guys would bring in their grapes from surrounding farms, with meat and wood, and end up braaiing the whole night in front of the cellar. Or when you'd do site visits, he says it was customary to be offered Coke or Water, merely a question of whether you wanted Coke or Water with your Brandy. Carefree days, he says. "We didn't have money, but we had wine."
Beyers
Abrie says he always knew of Beyers and respected him, and after two or three seasons of making a wine together for Tesco, they went to France with a group of guys.
At the airport, Beyers asked him if he wanted to work with him at Kanonkop. There wasn't a position or anything, but if he were keen, there would be.
Abrie is a calculated man, and after two or three weeks, he decided to leave his more senior position at Swartland Cellars for Kanonkop. For a calculated man, you'd think he would have asked what his salary would be. Abrie left the Swartland and only found out what he would earn at Kanonkop when he received his first paycheck.
Such was the draw of Kanonkop and Beyers. Abrie says Beyers had a tiny desk carried into his office for him, only big enough to fit an A4 notebook, pencil, and calculator. Here they worked side-by-side. From Beyers, he learned that great men do not shrink from any task, he learned that ego cannot play any part in your winemaking and that one can be religious and enjoy good wine. There is a moral code here informed by faith.
No Fluff
Abrie doesn't mince his words. Above anything, his razor focus on quality mimics the Krige brothers' decision in the 1980's to focus solely on red wine.
He scoffs at any form of fluff. A man should not stand in front of his wine but behind it. It shouldn't be about a story but only the quality of the juice. He tunes out the noise and whittles it down to the important things. There's a sense of military precision and planning.
Abrie depends on facts and experience, which after 22 years, he says, you can make accurate predictions on various aspects of the winery and manage it. That's what Johann said too, of pandemics, business, and struggles, you manage it-having purchased neighbouring Laibach (now Ladybird vineyards) in April of 2022. Kanonkop has effectively expanded its production with Right Bank (Merlot-focussed) vineyards on dominant clay soils to their Left Bank (Cabernet Sauvignon-focussed) vineyards on decomposed Granite and Hutton soils on the slopes of Simonsberg in Stellenbosch.
An Ecological Approach
Ladybird Vineyards went fully organic in 2000, and it was an opportunity for Abrie to assess the effects of organic farming methods versus their own, a combination of organic and chemical farming. While much debate and emphasis is placed on organic farming abroad, South Africa has been slow on the uptake for several reasons. The first is that organic certification is a very costly and prescriptive international certification, which most farmers do not have the money for, though they cherry-pick the most effective organic farming practices where relevant.
Second, organic farming can be inconsistent. You can lose a crop one year and thrive the other - which, for many South African farmers, living vintage to vintage, is an economic impossibility. And to run a successful, fully organic practice, you need your neighbours to agree and support you by not spraying chemicals, etc.
Abrie has taken inspiration from Château Lafite's (French First Growth) ecological approach, making it work for Kanonkop and not following a roadmap set up for European wineries. This approach considers everything from the community on the farm. They currently house 40 people on the farm, provide aftercare and a school for their children, and plan for their retirement. To how Kanonkop integrates with nature, they have erected perches for owls and birds in the vineyards, planted fynbos corridors, and cover crops to promote carbon in the soil and diversity in the plant and animal life on the farm. The overarching goal is to keep the soil healthy, as dictated by their requirements.
It's very simple
Abrie spares no expense in the cellar. It's very simple, as I found with all things profound. A light or 'thin' wine, as Abrie says, while joyful in the bottle, requires less effort and investment than a well-rounded, luscious wine and, thus, should not be sold at the same price. There are no trends here. There is only good quality wine here, no variation on the theme, only an iron resolve to make the best from their vineyards and stay true to their ethos. Focus, focus, focus.
Now in its 50th year, Kanonkop is a proudly South African success story and, given Abrie's input, a sure-thing wine every time.
