MYTHBUSTING

MISSION IN LIFE

MISSIONARIES HELPED SPREAD WINE TO THE WORLD. CLIFFORD ROBERTS GOES IN SEARCH OF THEM IN SOUTH AFRICA.

South Africa’s winelands boast some of the most majestic vineyard vistas of anywhere in the world. The Simonsberg, here bathed in late afternoon sun, also shelters the former mission settlement of Pniel.

The story of how wine grapes conquered the world is shared by the work of churches and monastic orders, many of whose exploits are now well-known.

Viticulture in Burgundy is typically associated to the work of Benedictine monks; think Dom Pérignon, for example. Chateauneuf du Pape of the Rhône is so named for the involvement of even the Pope – then, a Frenchman of the 1300s. Wine was introduced to New Zealand by missionaries in the 1800s. Jesuit missionaries brought viticulture not only to South America in the mid-1500s, which later migrated north where the Mission grape is said to have defined Californian viticulture until the mid-1800s, but they also laid a foundation for a wine industry in China too.

Cultivation of wine grapes in South Australia was first trialled by English settlers and the German Lutherans who soon followed. Even vineyards in Namibia were first planted by German Roman Catholic priests at the end of the 19th century.

But what of South Africa? The starting point of wine here is confidently assumed to be with the import of vines in 1655 and Van Riebeeck’s diary entry of 1659: “Today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes …”

As a result, a myriad of questions arises about these men of the cloth and their viticultural enterprises. Missionaries arrived in earnest at the Cape of Good Hope from the mid to late 1700s. They came from all over and in 1852 even included 106 Mormons from Salt Lake City. Explorer and medical doctor David Livingston was one too, arriving at the Cape in 1841.

If missionaries planted vineyards, what was their extent and what happened to them? Why was the Dutch East India Company seemingly first to the post where the vine was concerned?

It has already been established that in their pursuit

“[Moravian Missionaries] prized personal piety and abstinence, but sacramental wine, music and education were all part of the non-sectarian spiritual journey,” he writes. “And, of course, for ‘nagmaalwyn’ (Eucharist wine) you must grow grapes and be able to make wine. So, grapes are not at all new to the Agulhas Wine Triangle. They were first planted at Genadendal and Elim in the 1700s.”

of service of the physical as well as spiritual, missionaries proved adept at farming. One record exists of a mission in the Eastern Cape reporting in the late 1800s, its status of directing “9 000 acres [3 642ha] cultivated land, 419 ploughs, 2 carts, 160 waggons …”. And achieving that while dealing with all that was associated with that era like wild animals, wars, disease, rudimentary implements, and isolation.

In general, missions that planted grapes did so to combat scurvy and

At the base of the Riviersonderend mountains lies the town of Genadendal – or dale of grace, roughly translated . There can be little doubt that the settlement was named by early missionaries.

supplement their income, but also for their own uses as winemaker Bruce Jack points out in a recent article for the annual Jack Journal about the Agulhas Wine Triangle where he farms. The area is also home to Elim, a town founded by missionaries.

“[Moravian Missionaries] prized personal piety and abstinence, but sacramental wine, music and education were all part of the non-sectarian spiritual journey,” he writes. “And, of course, for ‘nagmaalwyn’ (Eucharist wine) you must grow grapes and be able to make wine. So, grapes are not at all new to the Agulhas Wine Triangle. They were first planted at Genadendal and Elim in the 1700s.”

At the former Apostolic Union mission station of Pniel, in the shadow of Stellenbosch’s Simonsberg mountain, one might have expected a flourishing vineyard. There may well have been, but it would have preceded the station when one considers the latter was established on farmlands donated in 1842 as a home for newly freed slaves.

Long-serving trustee of the Heritage Trust Matthew Cyster says the local school had been housed in an old cellar until it had to be demolished. He points out that early missionaries applied strict rules for anyone wanting to live in the town. “Parties and drunkenness were not tolerated and to this day Pniel has no liquor store. But make no mistake; drinking still happens onder die kombers [beneath the blankets], as they say.”

Further north, there were Trappists. In addition to brewing beer, these monks of KwaZuluNatal had vineyards in the hills around Dundee, says well-known guide Nicki von der Heyde who authored a book on the province’s 22 missions. The monks arrived in the country in 1880, landing at Port Elizabeth and then migrating northwards.

Although they succeeded in self-sufficiency through expanded agriculture, evidence of winemaking is in short supply. It took Nicki two years to assemble enough material for her guide

Elim, one of the most recent successes of the South African wine scene with its range of cool-climate wines, is home to this early 19 th century Moravian mission church.

and she can only point to barrels, kept at the museum at Mariannhill, and reliefs in the famous monastery’s architecture.

The contributions of missionaries to viticulture, if indeed any, are clouded by the mists of time. Scouring the popular works on the wine industry more often provides anecdotes of missionary indiscretions than clues to their agriculture.

There is however a starting point that cannot be avoided when investigating the topic – a point that is made by one of the most prolific academics and authors of books in the field of the economic history of the Western Cape, especially the agricultural branches and mainly the history of the wine industry.

“Without basic research it leaves you with speculation which is unacceptable when judging past events,” says Professor Dirko van Zyl.

“Based on my research over decades there does not exist any historical evidence that mission stations played a significant role in the development of the Cape wine industry.”

Highlighting a few of the factors, Professor Van Zyl says that being financed from overseas headquarters, mission stations were not dependant on income from the wine.

“In their case, wine production would have been only a sideshow.

“In the case of bona fide wine farmers, they struggled for decades since the beginning of the 18th century till today with over-production. As a result, they often received prices lower than production costs.”

He says mission stations that may have produced more than their private consumption would have been compelled, like the bona fide wine farmers, to sell their wine to the KWV as required by regulation of the period.

To boot, he hasn’t come across a single mission station as shareholder of a nearby wine cooperative, the first of which was established round about 1940.

One might have hoped for perhaps a trace of those ancient vines among members of South Africa’s Old Vine Project, but manager André Morgenthal knows of none. The trail it seems may have gone cold, if indeed there ever was one at all.

THE RISE OF RUM

RUM. IT’S NOT A NEW SPIRIT, BUT IT’S STEADILY BEEN GROWING IN POPULARITY IN SOUTH AFRICA OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS – AMONG HIP DRINKERS, AT LEAST. LEAH VAN DEVENTER LOOKS AT THE HISTORY OF RUM IN THE COUNTRY, AND HOW IT’S EVOLVED.

While sugarcane spirit is believed to have first been made in India – sometime after the sweet crop was introduced to the area by maritime traders around 1 200 -1 000 BCE, rum as we know it originated in the West Indies, the first recorded mention of it being in Barbados, circa 1650.

That’s a long way off – geographically and in terms of time – from the current dalliance we’re having with rum here in Mzansi. So what happened?

Well, sugarcane first arrived on our sunny shores in 1848 … the shores of Natal, to be precise, as KwaZuluNatal was then known. The crop was imported from Mauritius by the British, who ran the colony at the time. By 1855, the plants were flourishing in the subtropical climate and sugar mills were a common feature on the Natal skyline.

Soon enough, “gavine” or “mystery liquor” was being cooked up from sugarcane, its numbing capabilities particularly welcomed by the indentured workers who slaved away in the cane fields.

As production of cane spirit formalised, the whole country started consuming it with glee; the expression “cane for the pain” practically became a South African slogan, alongside the heavy consumption of “spook and diesel” and “green mambas” (cane with Coke or Cream Soda, respectively).

So what about rum? And how is it different to cane, anyway? Simply put, they’re both made from sugarcane juice, sugarcane syrup or molasses, but cane has a neutral aroma and flavour while rum is more robust, clearly tasting like, well, rum. This is because cane is made in a

rectifying or fractionating column, stripping the spirit of character, just like vodka (and sure enough, cane is classified internationally as sugarcane vodka). Rum, on the other hand, can be made by pot or column stills, or a combination of the two.

The two most significant commercial titans in their respective categories launched a few years apart; Red Heart Caribbean Rum in the late 1930s and Mainstay Premium Original Cane Spirit in 1954. It’s important to note that Red Heart wasn’t made here though, its origin being right there in the name, while Mainstay was. Indeed,

“ Which brand can claim to be South Africa’s first craft rum is murky – as is often with alcohol-related accolades –but we can agree that 2013 was a key year for the craft rum production.”

despite the abundance of sugarcane, it wasn’t until the 2000s that we started producing our own rum here, which brings us back to the trend under discussion.

Which brand can claim to be South Africa’s first craft rum is murky – as is often so with alcohol-related accolades – but we can agree that 2013 was a key year for craft rum production.

Inverroche’s Lorna Scott started tinkering with rum in Stilbaai around the same time as gin, back in 2008 or 2009, releasing her seven year old

ABOVE:

The little distillery that could... Inverroche has thrown open its barn doors and has become one of Stilbaai’s biggest tourist attractions with a wonderful cellar door consumer experience.

African Blackstrap Rum around 2016 and the 10 year old Limestone Rum in 2019. However, several rum distilleries opened before Inverroche Rum came out, all of them launching products before 2016. Depending on when exactly their rums went to market, they may all have grounds for the title.

Clinton Wyness and Wayne Oliver started the now defunct Zulu Rum in KwaZulu-Natal in 2013, while two fatherson duos also launched distilleries in the same year: Robert and Eugene Kleyn of Durbanville Distillery in the Western Cape and Johann de Wet of 25 Degrees South in Pretoria. And let’s not forget the two pioneers of agricole in South Africa, rum made from sugarcane juice instead of molasses: Robert Greaves of Mhoba in Mpumalanga and Greg Hill of Tapanga in KwaZulu-Natal, who started their brands in this seminal year too.

Shanna-Rae Wilby may also have a case – she too opened Time Anchor’s doors in 2013, with her White Rum on sale from the end of 2014. Perhaps it’s splitting hairs, or best left as the subject of another story; the good news is that by 2013 the South African rum boom was officially underway.

A first that doesn’t seem to be debated – in South Africa anyway – is that Andrew Rall released the country’s (and possibly the continent’s) first cachaça in 2014, the Agua Zulu. This was an addition to the other spirits he’d been working on since 2008-ish at Distillery 031 in Durban. From there, things started picking up, with a flurry of distillers trying their hands at rum. Between 2016 and 2020, some 20-odd rum brands launched, bringing the current count to about 35 – some with several varietals in their stables.

We have aged white-washed rums, like Gertie’s White Wash Rum. There are Jamaican styles, like De Vry Die Warm Rasta Rum. Or even spice infused, like Whistler Spice Infused Rum. There are overproofs and coldbrew coffee rums, like Innocent Spirits Rum 62 and Coldbrew Coffee Mocha Rum. And we even have cross-cultural hybrids, like Suncamino, which takes rum from the Dominican Republic and Barbados and infuses it with South African hibiscus, honeybush and orange blossom.

Mercy! We even have delicious premium ready-to-drink canned cocktails featuring home-grown rum, namely Copeland Mojitos. This latest innovation is the brainchild of James Copeland, who also makes the lovely Copeland Rum down on the South Peninsula.

But what of the numbers? you may ask. According to Nielsen Retail Measurement Services (data points for MAT December 2019), rum is a R1 178 “Inverroche’s Lorna Scott started tinkering with rum in Stilbaai around the same time as gin, back in 2008 or 2009, releasing her seven year old African Blackstrap Rum around 2016 and the 10 year old Limestone Rum in 2019.”

billion market in South Africa. While a number with nine decimal places may sound like a lot, that only accounts for 4.6% of total spirit sales. But is it growing?

Rum saw a strong 25% growth in 2018 before things slowed down again in 2019. That said, the premium-plus segment – which is where South African local craft rums would fall – shows a growth of 6.5%. As it stands, gin continues to outpace all other spirits in terms of category growth, while whisky still holds the number one position on value sales across spirits.

In other words, yes, there’s a general uptick, but rum still has a way to go before it will outshine gin. Right now it’s for the mavericks – you just need to decide if you’re a trendsetter or a follower …