It was with the tiniest sigh of relief that I passed through an inconspicuous door in the splendid Delaire building complex, moving from the public area into the cool, spare functionality of the winery.
Behind me was all the smart lavishness that the most ardent admirer of conspicuous consumption could wish for — including (for the very rich) a boutique selling the jewellery of Delaire’s owner, big-time international Âdiamantaire ÂLaurence Graff.
Even the name has acquired grandeur and amplitude. This is now the Delaire Graff Estate, not the simple Delaire founded by John Platter a generation back. Lying high above the Helshoogte Pass outside Stellenbosch, it is utterly transformed since those days — but the immemorial views remain spectacular: across to distant Table Mountain in one direction and, even more magnificently, down the Banghoek Valley in the other. There’s a restaurant for each prospect,
incidentally, as well as a small, luxurious hotel. In terms of view, at least, you won’t find a better lunching venue in the winelands.
Continuing the grandiloquent note, the tasting room is called the Tasting Lounge and is about as far as you could get from a little shack offering farm produce — in this case, wine.
But the space behind the winery door is governed in a different spirit (though an equally meticulous and fundamentally ambitious one), by quiet young winemaker Morné Vrey. His wines, too, have nothing of the showy about them.
Vrey is, in fact, the ninth wine-maker at Delaire since the Platters sold it in 1988 (in 2003 Graff became the third owner since then), making for a somewhat giddying Cape record. Inevitably, wine styles have changed over the years, although it has always been clear that these vineyards can produce quality.
Vrey also points out with pleasure the continuity provided by two old cellar assistants who have been there since the earliest days.
Fortunately, under the new Graff regime, things look more settled than they have for a long while and Vrey can proceed with his own quiet vision, leaving the bling on the other side of the winery door. His cellar is not large and production will never be huge. The Delaire vineyards are also limited on these high slopes. What has been learned over the years is that they are most suited to chardonnay and red-wine grapes and they have been replanted accordingly.
The vineyard focus is largely on chardonnay and the main red Bordeaux varieties: cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec and petit verdot, which go to varietal wines as well as a blend of all five, called Botmaskop.
Most of the grapes for the white wines are brought in from elsewhere, including sauvignon blancs, of course, and a particularly pleasing chenin blanc from Swartland fruit.
The range is surprisingly extensive, from the whites, through a very charming rosé, to a clutch of reds and even an excellent port. But there’s somehow a unity of aesthetic across the Delaire wines. Beyond the quality claims, they share a character of restraint and finesse.
It’s hard to realise, for example, drinking the excellent Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 (not ridiculously overpriced at about R300) that the alcohol level is actually fairly high.
Vrey’s firm and skilful control ensures that all is harmoniously balanced. Delaire has settled down beautifully.