An evening in the company of De Grendel cellar master Charles Hopkins is always a treat, and not just for the experience of tasting his internationally sold, multi-awarded and consistently highly-rated wines.
You are guaranteed to learn more about the science of wine growing and making, definitely also something about rugby (he played for teams in Stellenbosch and France in his youth), interspersed with personal, wine and farming stories, and jokes told with a broad smile of delight when the audience shares his sense of humour.
He brushes off any suggestion that he’s a legend in SA winemaking, though his track record as not only a maker of premium wines, but also pioneer of new winegrowing areas, educator and mentor of young winemakers, passionate researcher in the science of soils, grapes and flavours, always willing to share his experiments and knowledge, tells a different story.
Hopkins also earns his “legend” status through leading the remarkable wine journey of De Grendel.
The Durbanville estate is one of SA’s oldest still-working farms, established in 1720 but only bottling its first wines just 22 years ago, after then-owner Sir David Graaff invited Hopkins to leave Graham Beck and design his own wine cellar to make wine on the farm — the closest wine farm to urban Cape Town.
In that relatively short time, De Grendel has built a reputation for serious quality wines, a golden thread of precision and elegance in how the wines tell the story of grape and terroir, delivering on complexity and deeply pleasurable.
It took just over a decade for Hopkins to bring home De Grendel’s first Platter’s 5* rating, for the 2017 Elim Shiraz, awarded in 2019 (with seven of their wines earning 4.5* the same year).
The tally rose the next year to four wines earning 5* ratings, and the trajectory has continued with international awards and lofty ratings by the likes of British master of wine Tim Atkin.
It’s not just about the awards, though, as De Grendel wines are on order by devoted customers around the world and the estate has rapidly become a top wine tourism destination and leading winelands restaurant, loved as much for its wines and contemporary Cape cuisine as for the panoramic views over the fynbos-rich slopes of Tygerberg across Table Bay to Table Mountain.
The proof is in the tasting, and our journey took in the De Grendel Sauvignon Blanc 2026 (R140 cellar door), with its typical Durbanville freshness, fruit purity and mineral tang.
From Durbanville to the heights of the Ceres plateau, the highest vineyard in the Western Cape where a coating of snow every July delivers the ideal continental climate for De Grendel Op die Berg Chardonnay (R370).
A superb chardonnay with crisp green apples complemented by caramel and marmalade, a finely judged balanced of liveliness and richness.
De Tijger Merlot 2022 (R370) is the newest addition to the De Grendel portfolio, which already has a “standard” Merlot (R195), anything but standard and I often recommend it.
De Tijger, however, is the cut above, made from De Grendel’s oldest vineyard and reflecting Hopkins’ determination to prove that SA can make world-class, rich and weighty Merlot.
The 18 months maturing in barrel, he explains, is not about adding wood flavour but to mellow and soften the wine.
Made in “the absolutely classic method”, the wine certainly is classic, with serious ageing potential — right now, super fragrant, already mellow, redolent with ripe fruit, cassis, Christmas cake and warm spices.
Up to the mountains we went again, with the Op die Berg Syrah 2023 (R370), which is in line to make history as the first to make the Shiraz Top 12 with five successive vintages.
Easy to see why, for a wine that balances delicacy with quiet power, its soft florals and fynbos herbs deliciously integrated with savouriness and distinct black pepper.
De Grendel Rubaiyat 2020 (R490) is a classic, both in its Bordeaux-style blending of cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, merlot and cab franc, and in the velvety texture, rich fruit, classic elegance and the layer upon layers of flavour that unfold with each new sip.
Now this, Hopkins tells us, is a highly versatile wine, poetry in a glass, beautiful with a fine meal, as well as ideal after “a dispute with your beloved”.
“What you do is, run yourself a bubble bath, pour two glasses of Rubaiyat, leave your clothes suggestively by the door, and when the beloved arrives home, lock the bathroom door and drink both glasses!”
Hopkins’ unquenchable curiosity and lifelong passion for learning and teaching come through in everything he does — we left the tasting not only more educated about wine but also with tips on how best to wash and store wine glasses, the correct way to clink glasses for a toast, wine serving temperatures, and how to select wines with the best ageing potential.
De Grendel wines are widely available in local stores.
The best option for the upper-level wines would be Preston’s or SPAR Tops.
Kanonkop’s new winemaker has big shoes to fill
The hottest news in the local wine industry this week is the appointment of Dirk van Zyl as Kanonkop’s new head winemaker.
The keen interest is for various reasons — Kanonkop’s status as a global icon of SA wine, considered a “first growth” estate, a trailblazer in putting Pinotage on the world stage, the producer of Kanonkop Paul Sauer as one of the tiny handful of SA wines considered genuinely “investment grade” in international markets.
It’s a dream job for a winemaker, one who must have the talent, skill, vision and, to be frank, the sheer guts to take on the job of filling the big shoes of winemaking legends Jan Boland Coetzee, Beyers Truter and Abrie Beeslaar — a prospect Van Zyl describes as both terrifying and exciting.
Van Zyl, most recently the winemaker at Glenelly, will become only the fifth Kanonkop winemaker in its half century of existence.
Follow The Herald WhatsApp channel today and stay connected to the stories shaping our world.
The Herald
