I have a bunch of epic vineyards I pick grapes from but this site is surely one of my favourites. I mean…Ceres Plateau… I will tell you more about the history and visionaries who established these vineyards when I release a wine called Kliptuin; but that will only happen next year. What I love about South Africa is the luxury of the availability of massive mountains, which does not only separate areas and create valleys, but adds a dimension in wine that has been neglected for many years: height above sea level – something that expresses itself in a very unique way in wine.
So this wine is named after a little boy called William (or I think that was what his mother screamed). In January 2016, I was driving back from this Ceres Plateau vineyard through a very windy road leading towards the Witzenberg pass, when I saw something in the middle of the road. I had just come through a super sharp bend and had to jump on the brakes with both feet. When I finally got my 470 000-km-on-the-clock Toyota to stop, there, in the middle of nowhere, on the white line, stood a little blond boy, maybe 1 year old. Of course I jumped out and not knowing where he lived, I started talking to him and allowed him to walk in a direction (hoping that he was walking towards home). We walked for about 100 meters until we got to a little bridge entrance leading to a farm house on a hill about another 100 metres from the big road. He headed towards the house and at his slow pace we reached the house more or less 10 minutes later. The gardener called a woman and judging by her reaction, she must’ve been his mom and he must’ve been missing for a while…his name is William.
The label:
The original artwork was done from a photo I took at a specific place in the Witzenberg pass. I did the first hills with lino but the hills looked too hilly…I needed a rough moon-type of rocky landscape, so I took wooden blocks and carved the mountains from wood. I then added ink to it and did the prints, then drew the road by hand.