- Ken Forrester recently announced the sale of the Ken Forrester Vineyards brand to French company Advini.
- Their succession plan involves winemaker Shawn Matthyse, whom Ken has been mentoring for the past nine years.
- With the recent release of the FMC 2022, their premium flagship Chenin from the 2.3ha old vineyard planted in 1974, Shawn continues to prove the success of Ken's mentorship method (the immersion method) and promises to secure the brand's future.
I don't know if they planned it like that, but when I walked into Ken Forrester's tasting room the day before Easter, I walked right into him distributing Easter eggs to the team. Winemaker, Shawn Matthyse, was busy helping out in the tasting room.
You can't fake hard work, and listening again through our almost four-hour discussion, these two are incapable of faking it. The proof's in the wine.
News recently broke of Ken selling the Ken Forrester brand and cellar to the French company Advini. Confused by the parameters of the deal, I asked him where he plans to live in the future. With a steely glint in his eye, he looked up at me and said: "This is home, we live here - I've no plans to move - I've farmed this patch of land below the Helderberg and learned from the land for 30 years, we've replanted more than two thirds and I'm currently still replanting, it starts with the soil"
Never underestimate a man's love for the land. Ken runs this business with steely resolve and foresight. He explains, Advini is a company that specialises in succession plans and are shareholders in the business, though Ken's team retains full management control of it.
Advini's international distribution channels allow them to sell beyond their original network and add that all-important global scope to a mature business ready for the next step. While Ken's family will not be continuing the business, Ken's family extends beyond blood and includes his team. Some of them have been with him for over 20 years, and who better to run it than them?
Shawn
Shawn Matthyse was born on Kleine Zalze. His father is a vineyard worker, and his mother is a domestic worker. He grew up in the vineyards. "My voete was in die grond." / "My feet were in the ground."
He studied at Elsenburg and started work as a tasting room casual at Ken Forrester in 2013, and became permanent in 2014. He has risen through the ranks from tasting room staff, cellar controller, assistant winemaker, and winemaker today.
Shawn's got that same flinty look in his eye, belying his soft nature. He has been Ken's shadow for nine years. Though shadow is perhaps the wrong word, he has been his teammate and confidant.
Shawn told Ken he wanted to be an award-winning winemaker, and I think something just clicked in Ken, that someone wanted it, that someone wanted to learn, and he said: "Ok, Shawn, we're going to make you an award-winning winemaker." And he has become that.
The Misfits
There's this thing about winemakers who work for a bigger company, a craving for something of their own. I remember Andr Van Rensburg told me the love of another man's farm is insane.
Though there's a point of difference here, Ken is transferring ownership of the brand to his team members, chief among them Shawn.
Together they have been making wine for nine years, but in the last few years, Ken has been relinquishing control of the wine, and Shawn has been making their flagship wines virtually independent, as well as taking full ownership of their experimental range called the Misfits.
Currently, the range consists of a Cinsault, Syrah, and Grenache, and in the future will include a Pinot Noir from the Polkadraai. These wines are made in tiny quantities but are meant to experiment, explore, and offer Shawn independence to inspire future wines.
While the Ken Forrester brand trades on its Chenin (the Petit, the Old Vine, the Terre Noir, the FMC, and the Dirty Little Secret), and these are the wines that "put the kids through school," it is the experimental wines and the constant innovation that keeps the spark alight here.
They had a meeting planned for the following week to go and see a Chenin vineyard planted in 1966 in Stellenbosch. Ken said it felt like test driving a Ferrari and we are discussing the potential of what it could be. They'd have to negotiate with the farmer, but I could tell they both relished the challenge of getting their hands on this vineyard.
Negotiation tactics
There are things you can't learn in a classroom or a presentation. You have to experience it and have the natural ability to do it. Negotiation in the Cape Winelands is one such thing. Ken cultivates 50ha on his Raithby farm, right below Helderberg, and leases about 70 odd additional hectares from various farmers.
He farms it as well, and so doing, the scope justifies their full-time viticulturist Pieter Russouw and their ever-evolving range of wines. You have to remember while Ken is the Chenin King, he also has a vested interest in Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, and Mourvedr and is not afraid of sourcing it far and wide.
The pitfalls of leasing a vineyard include the fact that farmers can sell you one vintage worth of fruit and take it away the next for a more financially viable deal. Ken has employed the law and sheer logic to the issue by signing long term leases with his farmers and paying them a monthly rent for the vineyard instead of a lump sum on delivery. Under SA law, a 5-year lease will stop farmers from selling the land from under you and secure your supply and, by extension, the longevity of a wine.
These relationships and access to the vineyards are one of the lifelines of the brand. You can't teach someone how to maintain or establish these relationships. They have to have the audacity to do it, which I think is something Ken sees in Shawn. If we're going to be successfully inclusive in our industry and be a true representation of the demographic, it has to be through mentorship like this. What Ken calls the immersion method.
Chenin
Shawn makes around 12 different Chenins, including a few private labels for restaurants like the Foodbarn in Noordhoek.
I always ask what's the mission statement. The mission is to explore the full scope of Chenin's expression, from a Sparkling wine to Ken's famous 100-point wine, the Petit Chenin.
One hundred points (not from a critic, but through sheer sales) because it's where expectation meets reality. The Petit is their entry-level Chenin and one of the most important in the range because it goes out to the most people (over 600 000 bottles).
It's the wine you just need to deliver at the end of a hard day. To the much-lauded Old Vine Chenin, the 2021 vintage was awarded Best in Show in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2022 and rated 97 points and remains one of the sure thing Chenins year on year.
While the Dirty Little Secret Chenin represents their top tier, a multi-vintage Chenin made in the Solera method, and once again showcases Ken's absolute passion for experimentation and, above all, Chenin. The FMC retains pride of place in their stable of Chenin (though I didn't even TELL you about the Noble Late Harvest yet, though they make that too, 100% Chenin).
FMC
FMC stands for Forrester Meinert Chenin, named for his original collaborator, and Chenin Scion Martin Meinert, or just - Fucking Marvellous Chenin - as Ken jokingly refers to it.
The FMC is special because it is made from a 2.3ha block of Chenin planted on the property in 1974, and the latest 2022 release (released only last week) represents the 22nd vintage of it.
Of the 2020 vintage, Neal Martin rated it 95 points and wrote: "This is a very engaging and cerebral FMC. Superb." And the '22 is no different. The reason? Ken and Shawn had the vineyard picked 18 times.
Yes, 18 times. The way they assess when and how has nothing to do with the numbers but involves Ken and his pack of dogs walking the vineyard and tasting the grapes. Ken says it's about assessing the sugar, phenolic ripeness, and acidity all in one, and that the one big indicator for him is when you chew the pip of the grape, and it doesn't disintegrate, signalling phenolic ripeness, and heralding the start of the harvest.
But it's not that simple. The 2.3ha is subdivided into various plots. The canopy, monitored by drone to asses which vines are at a similar stage of ripeness and vigour, will determine which plots get picked together and which are left for the next picking.
Pruning and harvesting is an art, and Ken and Shawn employ a group of eight ladies who have graduated from the Old Vine Project's pruning course to select the right bunches and prune the vineyard with the aim for it to grow old-the level of attention beyond reproach.
From there, each picking gets put into different barrels, from new oak to 2nd fill, 3rd fill, and just plain old, and then Shawn starts plotting the blend. They have built an intricately beautiful Chenin from a small piece of land and vines that have found near-perfect expression here for 49 years. Like Neal said: "Cerebral."
Little Fires Everywhere
Shawn has immersed himself in the ethos of Ken Forrester Wines. He has actively sought to stay here and soak up everything he might learn from Ken, understanding there are no instant payoffs in wine. He drives the trucks, works in the tasting room, helps out with the Chenin Association, helps with marketing and negotiations, and makes the wine.
And he understands the value of it all. Ken, in turn, has flooded him with information and experience. I never feel drained when getting up from a conversation like this.
It's just hopeful, right? While our country struggles with inequality and ingrained prejudice, I keep finding these little fires everywhere, which, if we fan it just right, might grow into raging fires. One might argue that Shawn was born to it, having grown up in the vines of Stellenbosch, and I cannot wait to see what he makes of it, though his wines foreshadow great things.
The Misfits range recently received a new back label with Shawn's name on it. He says getting his name on the bottle has been one of the most significant milestones of his career.
"Daai's goed genoeg vir my. Die res sal kom." / "That's good enough for me. The rest will come."
Shop their range of wines direct from the farm here.
