- L'Avenir is one of five South African wine farms owned by the French wine company Advini.
- Though there is very little French about this decidedly Stellenbosch farm and its focus on heritage varieties, Pinotage and Chenin Blanc.
- Winemaker Dirk Coetzee is one of the rising stars of the new-wave Pinotage producers. He is making a case for site-specific, minimal-intervention Pinotage, not as a replacement for our traditionally bold Pinotage style, but as a supplement.
This place is called The Future, funny, set as it is on 68ha of ancient soils on the lower slopes of Simonsberg in Stellenbosch, in the heartland of Pinotage. (With 38ha to vine currently and the potential to expand to 45ha in the future.)
Vintages
By some stroke of fate, when I met with Dirk Coetzee, winemaker of L'Avenir for the past 15 years, and Edo Heyns, Strategic Development and Marketing Director of Advini South Africa. The French company that now owns L'Avenir, Le Bonheur, Stellenbosch Vineyards, Ken Forrester, and Kleine Zalze, it turns out we were all born in 1985.
And there's a strange kind of camaraderie between people of the same year… same vintage. Dirk gets poetic when he talks about vintages. He says he imagines 2018 like two lonely Kalahari Elephants, dusty, walking across the desert after the great three-year drought, with elemental knowledge of where they'll find water.
Like his old vine, Chenin Blanc planted in 1973 and Single Block Pinotage planted in 1991, who survived the drought winningly, despite him hurriedly trying to offer them irrigation and then realising they didn't need it. Or 2020, who he says is like a private school child, given everything, if he showed even the slightest aptitude for painting, he received a complete oil painting set and canvas. 2020 has the potential to be great, but he has to decide ... *Do note that 2020 is currently living his best life.
A Farm in Africa
L'Avenir has undergone various transformations in its lifetime, from being owned by Mauritian sugarcane trader Marc Wiehe, who fell in love with the receptionist on a visit to the Stellenbosch Hydro and bought the farm. The relationship eventually crumbled, but his ownership endured.
And Oom Francois Naud , the winemaker credited for putting L'Avenir Pinotage on the map. They eventually sold to Michel La Roche, a Chablis land owner, and finally, Advini, though L'Avenir was attached to La Roche holdings, and the French were initially disinterested in this farm in Africa. Dirk was already the winemaker here at the time, and between him, CFO Rebekka Swiegers (also 1985), and Advini SA's MD Naretha Ricome (South African by birth now living in France), they decided to fight for the farm, for Advini to retain it, and invest.
They promised to make a profit and, within two years, had turned the business around. I do not say this lightly because making a profit in wine is a marathon, not a sprint. However, one might argue that through all its iterations L'Avenir was merely finding its way and thus ripe for the picking when Advini came to call.
Quintessential Stellenbosch
I'd hazard to say the only thing French about L'Avenir is the name. Its heartbeat is Pinotage, South African heritage, with only Chenin Blanc and Pinotage proudly planted here. As we stood on the Western slope of the fault line L'Avenir is planted on, the source of the particular clay-like decomposed shale soils that offer fruit intensity and the rusty iron of koffieklip that brings the tension and tightness, and together produce a well-balanced wine, our conversation turned to Pinotage and rugby.
You know the Pinotage story is inextricably linked to rugby? Beyers Truter told me, and Dirk confirmed it again. From the vantage point of their Western koppie, you can see all the major players in Pinotage throughout the years. The first Pinotage was made at Elsenburg in 1941 by CT De Waal of Uiterwyk, and back in the day, all the farmers played rugby.
Dirk says legend has it that it was during a Springbok tour that the team was hosted at Elsenburg and invited to try Pinotage for the first time in the experimental cellar late night, that the winemaking rugby players were first persuaded to plant this truly South African grape, the likes of PK Morkel of Bellevue, and Paul Sauer of Kanonkop.
You can argue that Pinotage has been kept alive and well through the camaraderie of these producers throughout the years, and people like Dirk and Danie Steytler Jnr. of Kaapzicht represent a new generation of Pinotage Pioneers.
Pinotage
Edo says historically L'Avenir only flew three flags on the property, the first of the Pinotage Association, then the French flag, and then South Africa, in that order. And it is very much represented in their offering. Dirk poured me not one but four different Pinotages during our visit, each one more distinct than the other and representative of the absolute versatility of the grape and what it can do on different sites.
Old School Pinotage, with the backing of Kanonkop's Black Label Pinotage, has carved out a place for itself in the industry, well-respected and paid for like Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon, who also makes unapologetically old school Stellenbosch Cab, to international acclaim.
Far from vilifying this style, people like Dirk and Danie Steytler Jnr. have an absolute respect for the pioneers who have gone before them but are looking to produce more focused wines as a representation of site. Dirk says he wants the person who drinks his Pinotage to join him in the bakkie, sit in the vineyard, taste the grapes on the vine and the juice in the bottle, and understand that they are one and the same. His focus is on fruit purity.
His style of making Pinotage has evolved throughout the years, and he has learned that he can pick earlier, the grapes don't have to be overripe, and that they do well in dry areas. They enjoy a minimalistic approach in the cellar, fewer punch downs, less extraction, and less alcohol. And his wines prove this. He is slowly working on creating a range of Pinotage from various Stellenbosch sites.
His 'Le Sommet' Pinotage from the Bottelary Hills is perfumey, with elegant, fine tannins, which I can only assume comes from the decomposed granite in those soils. And the Grand Pinotage 2018, from that Kalahari Elephant vintage, has a unique menthol character, representing the best barrels from his Single Block site.
Grand Pinotage
Collective marketing initiatives in South African wine have done incredible things for the industry. The Pinotage Association has brought South African Pinotage to the world and worked incredibly hard to understand it and produce world-class examples of it.
Dr Jonathan Steyn of UCT identified six brands that have historically worked to bring Pinotage to the forefront based on an intricate scale he developed.
L'Avenir was one of these, with Kanonkop, Simonsig, Rijks, Beyerskloof, and Kaapzicht. Together they have propagated clones like the Kanonkop clone to offer the world better plant material and ensure the quality of the resulting juice. As a culmination of their efforts, these six producers have created the Grand Pinotage case (the last wine Dirk had me taste) to represent what they believe to be the pinnacle of Pinotage production.
The case costs R9000 and is emblematic of South Africa's legacy, which, having tasted the L'Avenir Grand Pinotage 2018, I can well believe. For more information on this particular case, you should read up and possibly shop here.
The L'Avenir Clone
You can't throw away their Chenin Blanc, either. The L'Avenir clone has been successfully propagated and will be available in France from 2027. Our old vine Chenin informs the world. While many viewed the sale of this proudly Stellenbosch farm to a French entity with trepidation, asking what this would mean to the industry.
Advini's model of minimal winemaking intervention, investing in people, and the existing identity of the farms, with people like Ken Forrester and RJ Botha of Kleine Zalze in their circle, shows a spark of genius and belief in what we have. The fact that Advini offers investment and a supercharged international distribution network to further hero South African wine and not try to use the grapes to fuel bulk wine production shows something of their belief in the people behind the brands and the quality of the wine.
And I believe it is endeavours such as this that will cement our future as a wine-producing country. Of course, I think it is all founded on the spirit of 1985 and people like Dirk, Edo, and Rebekka's infallible optimism and ability to make good on their promise.
In the Chinese Zodiac, we represent the year of the Ox, but now I digress...
Shop L'Avenir's wines on site here, that GlenRos Pinotage Ros only fuels South Africa's thriving Ros culture. And if you're in the area, you should visit their tasting room, which currently offers beautiful cheese platters and even better views of Simonsberg.
