South Africa ( Waveren Road Tulbagh 6820 )
Saronsberg is located in Tulbagh right in the heart of the Swartland 100km north east of Capetown. Flanked on all sides by mountains in the upper Breede Valley it is an ideal site for growing wines. The two sides are different very different in terroir and have great differences in altitude, wind direction, temperature and most important rainfall. This makes it possible to produce many varietals and grapes with strong contrasting characteristics. Shortly after the farm was created a raging wild fire made all original plans obsolete. In the beginning the plan was only to grow grapes not producing wine. Tulbagh is a small town with just 9000 inhabitants that made world news on the 29th of September 1968 a 6,3 earthquake stuck the area leading to massive destruction. Still today there is an earthquake museum which is visited by every visitor as there is nothing else to do in town. Apart from driving 5 km north out of town to Saronsberg Wine Farm. Drive though a white wooden gate along a reservoir pass some beautiful sculptures and you arrive at the newly build cellar and tasting room which has ample outside seating. But the best is to check into one of the 16 small cottages simple clean each with its own terrace and barbecue set up for an evening with grilled meat in front of you, African skies and stars above, and a cold Sauvignon Blanc or a powerful Syrah in your glass. Heaven!
Until the 50s todays Saronsberg vinery was part of a much larger farm called the Twee Jonge Gezellen ( TJG). Two parcels Waveren and Welgelung which lie on either side of TJG were acquired in 2002 and renamed after the towering mountain whose slopes are home to a portion of their vines : Saronsberg. The wild fire in 2002 destroyed a lot of vines and buildings and made replanting necessary. At the same time Dewaldt Heynes joined Saronsberg and the situation allowed him to start an assertive planting program and to reverse some outdated viticultural methods. Dewaldt grew up on a grape farm not far away in Malmesbury which gave him the necessary experience.
How a quiet and unassuming kaalvoet ( barefoot) kid from the Swartland grew into one of South Africa's best winemakers is a mystery. Says Dewaldt´s father: “ Dewaldt? Ja….” If you speak Swartland that says it all. Dewaldt grew up on the family Farm called Uilvlug near Malmesbury. After school he studied wine making and in 1995 he completed his diploma at Elsenburg Agricultual College. He than worked as assistant wine maker in the prestigious cellar of Rust en Vrede, before moving to the newly established Avondale as winemaker in 1999. It was here when Dewaldt started to make a name for himself through his wines. Here the wines are grown organic with bio- dynamic principles adding another aspect to his understanding of wine making. In 2003 he got the offer to create a complete new set up at Saronsberg which had been hit earlier by a wild fire that had destroyed many plants and buildings. Dewaldt saw this as an opportunity to create something new from plants to process. In 2009 he was asked to join the Cape Winemakers´ Guild. I will never forget our first meeting. Dewaldt gave us a tour of the cellar and explained the process frm harvest to wine. We were very impressed by the. meticoulous process and the amount of detail we hadnt seen anywhere before. so I asked him “ Why do you go through such a rigmarole and effort in your winemaking?” He looked at me and thought for a moment “ You are right, I know many other ways to make wine `` he replied ``but no better one”. That says it all.
