Nombre de la bodega

FAIRWAI

Dirección

Suid-Agter Paarl Road

Localidad

Suider-Paarl

Código postal

7646

Provincia

South Africa

País

South Africa

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Descripción

The history of the Fairview farm
The cultivation of virgin vineyard land on Fairview in recent years has led to the unearthing of prehistoric stone tools providing proof of the presence of hominids here at the foot of the Paarl mountain some 700 000 years ago. Centuries later, probably towards the end of the first millennium AD, these hills became home to nomadic pastoralists from the north called the Khoi. These peaceful people remained until the arrival of the first European settlers the Cape of Good Hope in the mid 1600s. The official demarcation of Fairview as a formal farm followed in 1693. A tract of land on the southwestern slopes of Paarl Mountain was granted to Steven Verwey (thought to have been one of the French Huguenots who fled Protestant persecution in Europe from 1688) by Governor of the Cape Simon van der Stel, a Dutch East India Company official instrumental in developing several of the Cape’s first and still finest wine ‘estates’.

Just six years later, in 1699, the first wine was made on the farm. Official tax records of the time reflect a farm ‘inventory’ which listed a few barrels of wine, among items ranging from bags of wheat to rifles and slaves [sic]. The farm had previously been known as Bloemkoolfontein (‘Cauliflower Fountain’). Jests current owner/vintner Charles Back II: ‘I’m pleased that someone had the foresight to change the name!’ Up to about 100 years ago, the farm had a chequered history: it was part of no less than eight insolvent estates. Quips the incorrigible Charles again: ‘I’m doing my best to break the habit!’

In fact, the farm’s star started rising from 1937 when Back’s grandfather, Charles Back I, bought the property from the Hugo family for the princely sum of £6 500. An immmigrant from Lithuania, the young Back had landed on these shores in 1902 and opened a butcher shop in Paarl, which also sold fresh farm produce. Through his dealings with local farmers, especially David Louw who grew wine grapes on his farm Babylonstoren, the canny Back patriarch’s interest in wine was piqued. In 1916 he bought a piece of Louw’s land called Klein Babylonstoren on the Paarl-facing slopes of the Simonsberg mountain range, a Cape winelands landmark.

Next thing, he’d produced South Africa’s champion wine (in 1926, as a self-taught winemaker) and built up a booming wine export business. Such successes encouraged him to look further afield: in fact, just down the valley towards the round granite outcrops on Paarl Mountain, which is where he found the farm Fairview. Such foresight enabled him, upon his death in 1955, to bequeath a wine farm to each of his two sons, in whom he’d also instilled a passion for wine, a strong work ethic and a spirit of endeavour. Klein Babylonstoren went to Sydney… and became Backsberg (now in the hands of Sydney’s son Michael Back). Fairview was Cyril’s inheritance…

Cyril Back immediately set about replanting his vineyards. Cinsault, then fairly ubiquitous in the Cape winelands, was ripped up and replaced with the more classic Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, as well as Pinotage, an innovative Cape cross then still emerging as a potential producer of quality red wine. Some Pinot Noir and Chenin Blanc came later. Cyril went on to become a valued supplier of good wine to the KWV, then the Cape’s largest wine co-operative with statutory control over the local wine industry. Imbued with the Back entrepreneurial spirit, and encouraged by brother Sydney who had become one of the Cape’s first wine farmers to sell wine to the public in 1970 under his own Backsberg ‘estate’ label (amidst strong opposition from the large producer wholesalers!), Cyril went solo in 1974. Bottling his own wine for the first time – 500 cases each of Cabernet, Shiraz and Pinotage – he initiated the Cape’s first public wine auction as a vehicle to market and sell the fledgling Fairview wines. The top price back then? “R3 a bottle,” recalls his son Charles.

Charles Back II started farming with his father in 1978, having completed his oenological training at leading local agricultural institution Elsenburg, and took over full responsibility for the farm upon his father’s passing in 1995. This third-generation Back vintner has built further on the Fairview family’s tradition of innovative wine growing, an innate understanding of consumer tastes and a keen eye for business opportunities.

He’s become a pioneer in developing new, hitherto-unexplored viticultural sites across the Western Cape and experimenting with lesser-known varieties. And he’s expanded his late father Cyril’s dairy goat herd, started in 1980, into a fully fledged cheesery producing international award-winning farm cheeses. In 1981, Charles built the now-famous Fairview Goat Tower, inspired by a similar structure that his parents had seen during their travels in Portugal. Today, in addition to wine and cheese tastings and sales, friendly Fairview welcomes visitors to The Goatshed, a Mediterranean-style indoor/al fresco eatery.

Over the past decade, Charles has also been consolidating the Fairview property, the historical value of which has long been underplayed. The original homestead, circa 1722, sold off in one of many earlier subdivisions, is back in the hands of the farm’s proprietor, beautifully restored and home to the resident owner/vintner once more. Part of the restoration process was the nurturing back to health of an old grove of chestnut trees behind the homestead, whose crops were delivered to the market in Cape Town at the turn of the 20th century. And, among the many snippets of information gleaned during the process of looking back into Fairview’s past, was that the farm’s wines, predominantly fortified dessert-style elixirs up to the early 1900s, were prescribed by a local Paarl doctor for medicinal purposes… to ailing children! (But at least it was just by the teaspoonful!)

Under Charles Back II’s sure guidance, Fairview has come full circle: from its days as one of the Cape’s earliest wine farms developed by French Huguenot Steven Verwey at the turn of the 17th century, to its current position as one of South Africa’s most successful, enduring, innovative wineries firmly ensconced in the 21st century.

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Vinos de la bodega

• FAIRVIEW PINOTAGE 2010
      Año: 2010    
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