Hermanuspietersfontein — if you’re a lover of sauvignon blanc, you will probably have had the time to unwind the length of the name in your mind and for the wines to unfold their savour on your tongue.
Bartho Eksteen, the sauvignon-besotted winemaker and part-owner of HPF (the abbreviation is needed), markets four of them, allowing for small quantities of a few other grape varieties to be mixed in to add complexity to taste and texture. It would be difficult to find anyone doing it better.
The winery recalls the original full version of the name of the frenetically over-touristed and over-retirement-homed coastal town of Hermanus. In 1855 the village honoured the memory of a Dutch farm schoolteacher, Hermanus Pieters, but a postmaster later decreed the shorter version, responding perhaps to the anguish of envelope addressers in those epistolary days.
Eksteen’s winery is on the edge of the town at the entrance to the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, home to an ever-increasing number of good wineries since Hamilton Russell Vineyards’ pioneering days. But most of the grapes now come from HPF’s farm near Stanford, 40km away. It’s a large property, with much left to natural fynbos — HPF has ecologically responsible farming and respect for biodiversity close to its heart.
Two of the HPF sauvignons have zero influence from oak barrels. Sauvignon Blanc No 7 is the ‘greener”, grassier version, for those who like this style. No 3 (which I find more rewarding) comes from warmer slopes, so has riper flavours — delicate tropical fruit, with a vivid twist of grapefruit as it slips down. Both are suave and polished, which we have come to expect from this masterly winemaker, and gently intense.
The two grander versions have had some of the wine matured in wood. No 5 is the oakier and I suspect it will be more satisfying when the oak’s overt effect is better integrated in a year or two. Already there is a fine richness, with beguiling flavours of nut and apricot. The flagship white wine, Die Bartho, is definitely a blend in character, with a 20% addition of enriching, broadening semillon, which is a great natural partner for sauvignon — many of the Cape’s (and Bordeaux’s) finest white wines invoke this compatibility.
Die Bartho 2010, the current release, is splendid, with a beautiful balance of beguiling softness and typical sauvignon ‘bite”. The name, incidentally, might need to be explained for non-Afrikaans-speaking drinkers (the HPF labels are solely in Afrikaans) who might imagine it reflects a disconcerting winemaker death wish. It simply means ‘the Bartho”.
This odd practice (why not use just the person’s name if the estate must personalise things?) is also used for HPF’s two top red wines. Die Martha 2007 is a smooth, sweet-fruited blend based on shiraz — some, as I do, will find it a touch too jammy and soft perhaps, but it is undoubtedly a good example of the style.
Die Arnoldus 2007 is made mostly from cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes. It’s big, powerful and fairly serious, though not difficult to enjoy in youth, with plenty of berry flavours melding with the savouriness.
Arnoldus sells for about R200 (all these wines are fairly pricey, though there’s also a small cheaper range) but there’s a pleasing junior version for half that, with my almost favourite wine-name, Kleinboet, literally translated as ‘little brother”, but with a much wittier, deeper meaning in Afrikaans.