THE CIRCLE
SECOND EDITION MAY 2021
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Hello again! It’s the end of May, and here is the 1. Just over the fence: Why do second edition of The Circle. My some estates produce really sincere thanks to all those who sent great wine while others don’t? me comments on the first edition . Is it art or science? Some new people have shown interest and there are now 55 people on the mailing list. I write this content as a retirement hobby. for our family and friends, and fellow Midstreamers we know. This month I’ve maintained my goal of 900 words a week. This second edition of The Circle has been expanded to include four different stories:
2. Violins and haircuts: A story of two immigrants and the rise and fall of a South African icon. 3. Clarens: Our visit to Clarens this month was perfectly timed, and we experienced the autumn colours and great hospitality. 4. Buttons: By popular request, a second instalment in the busy life of Sandra Coetzee, proud owner of Sandra’s Bridal Boutique
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1 Just over the fence
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Just over the fence In the Western Cape of South Africa there are two wine estates, located side by side on the same hillside. Both produce riesling, sauvignon and chenin grape varieties. On weekends wine lovers like to visit these estates to swirl, sip, taste, and swallow.
On the main road, a sign invites you to enter the first farm through two newly painted white gateposts. As you drive up between the vineyards to the tasting room, be sure to admire the pink roses at the end of each row of vines. Roses in vineyards earn their living by acting as an early warning system. They attract insects like aphids, and fungal disease like black rot and mildew, before the vines.
Just over the fence When you pull up at the farm buildings, you may notice the winemaker standing outside the winery in his white coat. If you wave to him, he’ll wave back and most likely invite you to tour the winery after your tasting session. He’s always keen to show off his spotless winery, so clean you can eat off the floor. He’ll explain the heating under the vines which he turns on in winter.
He’ll point out the stainlesssteel vats and crushers, the state-of-the-art laboratory that tests the wine’s chemical and biological profile, the transparent piping where you can see the raw wine being pumped from one place to another. The winemaker’s enthusiasm for his job is catching. He says the science of wine making takes many years to master.
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Just over the fence After your tasting, you may decide to visit the wine estate next door. The entry gateposts here are not quite as grand, they haven’t been painted for years. Straggly roses in pink, yellow, orange and red sit at the end of every third or fourth row.
You’ll note the rickety old farmhouse with its tin roof, the basic winemaking equipment in the old barn, the rusting piping made of galvanised iron.
You might see the old winemaker, the farmer himself, with his beard, his khaki shorts and his pipe, supervising the picking and crushing, tasting the wine hour by hour during fermentation, and testing the temperature with a basic thermometer. 5
Just over the fence Now the truth of the matter is that this old farmer wins a gold medal every year at the wine shows, and his riesling has a 5-star Platter rating. The first farm, with the enthusiastic young winemaker, sometimes wins a bronze. And you may indeed conclude that it’s the wine maker who makes the difference, since these farms share the same soil and climate.
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Just over the fence Terroir is the French term used to describe all the factors that affect a crop’s genetics, including climate, farming practices and the specific growth habitat. Collectively, these form the It seems that some wine crop’s personality. makers, like some chefs, are Poets have described wine just more gifted than as the perfect expression others. Great winemaking of its terroir, and its makers families hand down their as mere conduits for secrets from generation to mother nature, letting the generation. grapes tell their own story. Wine making is a scientific process. But many wine lovers argue that wine is also an art form that uses a raw material in the same way that chefs create great dishes.
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Just over the fence But that’s not the full picture. Today microbiology and chemistry are part of the winemaking process at every stage, and directly impact the creative process. The level of nitrogen in the soil is tested during the growing season to balance the vine’s canopy with the amount of grapes it is carrying.
As the grapes ripen, the winemaker decides the right time to harvest, using laboratory tests to support his subjective view of the sugar, acid, and tannin balance, from tasting the fruit in the vineyard. 5
Just over the fence But while researchers have a good understanding of which chemicals create bouquet and palate, just how those unique qualities are passed on into the wine is still more art than science. Laboratory analysis also plays an important role during fermentation, the crucial seven to fourteen days during which grapes turn into wine. During this time, the winemaker adds yeast, macerates the skin of the grapes, and manipulates the temperature to
Great wine requires choices that depend on the winemaker’s taste, personality and aesthetic preferences. These choices determine the product that ends up in the glass.
achieve the correct fermentation speed, flavour and colour. 6
Just over the fence In France, low levels of harvest rain and high levels of summer temperatures produce the best wine vintages in terms of both taste and capital appreciation. Great vintage years are predictable, but the greatness of each individual wine estate depends on the winemaker. The International School of Wine in Bordeaux, France, has students from all over the world, including a large group from China. The students are taught how to combine art and science to create the great vintages of tomorrow. The truth – and the wonderful mystery of wine - is that not all will succeed.
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2 Violins and haircuts 1
Violins and haircuts Economists and politicians tell us the world needs more entrepreneurs, as if this talent can be taught in school. But not everyone has what it takes. You might be surprised to discover how many successful entrepreneurs are the eldest child in their family, and how many are immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Childhood experiences of leadership, risk assessment, relocation, responsibility, selfreliance and determination to make it in this world, help to form the entrepreneurial personality.
“Michael Miller was born in Lithuania in 1893. He left school at the age of 13 and, when he was 17, immigrated to South Africa where he worked as a hairdresser. Sam Cohen was born in London in 1894, immigrating to South Africa with his parents just before the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War. He left school early and was a violinist when he met Dora Miller, Michael’s sister, in Harrismith in the Orange Free State”. Source: Sunday Star, December 14, 2015
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Violins and haircuts After their marriage Cohen joined his wife’s father’s business, helping to run three trading stores in Harrismith in the Orange Free State.
But Sam quickly realised that trading stores could only offer him limited prospects and when Miller suggested they start a wholesale business together, he agreed.
Miller aged 25, and Cohen aged 24, rented office space in Johannesburg and started trading in anything and everything. Within a year the Commercial Trading Company had tripled their staff and moved to larger premises.
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Violins and haircuts Four successful years later, the partners decided to realise a long-held dream : to open a low priced, cash-only general retail store. They found a site on the corner of Eloff and President streets and designed the layout of the store around a new self-service concept from America. :
The partners sat down with their wives to decide a name for the new business. No one can remember who first suggested OK Bazaars, but the slang expression ‘OK’ (based on the distorted catchphrase “orl korrect”) was popular at the time and it seemed a good name. When the store opened on Saturday June 25, 1927, police had to be called in to control the crowds.
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Violins and haircuts Over the next 40 years, three generations of Cohens and Millers built the OK family business up to more than a hundred stores in the central business districts of towns and cities across the country.
But OK was still a family-owned business in 1970 and thus vulnerable to a takeover. In 1973 the South African Breweries bought out the Cohen and Miller families in a huge deal that Breweries described as “the biggest transaction in South African history”.
By 1970 OK Bazaars was the preferred shopping choice for thousands of South African families and the country’s largest retailer. :
Today many Cohen and Miller grandchildren live in places like London, Los Angeles and Plettenberg Bay, off the Trust Funds that were set up from the proceeds 5 of this sale.
Violins and haircuts Breweries thought they had bought a very good business, a market leader with prime sites across the country. Grocery retailing is an industry with millions of customers and never-ending demand. But good brewers do not always turn out to be good shopkeepers. Less than three months after buying OK, South Africa’s first suburban shopping mall, Sandton City, opened near Johannesburg.
This landmark event was to change the face of retailing in the country forever. South Africans had always shopped in the high street shops in the centres of their towns. But malls were easy to access and offered greater variety. Shopping habits changed and retailers followed when suburban shopping malls exploded across South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Violins and haircuts Inside the malls new retailers emerged with focused product ranges, specialising in groceries, or clothing, in toiletries or furniture. Many traditional high-end department stores in the centre of town closed down, and central business districts started to decline.
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Strangely enough, OK Bazaars did not follow the trend. They didn’t move to the suburbs, or focus their product range for some years. OK stuck to its tried and tested business recipe, a high street general dealer offering groceries, clothing, furniture and home appliances under one roof in the central business district of town. Meanwhile more and more of their past customers were shopping at the malls.
When OK finally woke up and tried to open stores in the malls, the prime sites were already taken by Pick’n Pay, Checkers and Shoprite. They tried to sell their properties in the central business districts but nobody wanted them. In other towns they were tied into expensive leases they couldn’t get out of.
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Violins and haircuts The company first reported a drop in sales and profits in 1989. Then profits continued to fall year after year while OK carried on running their stores in the empty CBD's. Investors were critical but management denied responsibility. OK's 1992 annual report blamed the drop in earnings on the “current recession, escalating unemployment, and continued socio-political unrest” - while competitors reported increased profits.
In 1995, when OK Bazaars reported a thirty million Rand operating loss, Breweries put OK up for sale. Over the next 3 years local and international buyers came to look, but no deal was reached. And the losses continued. Finally, in 1997 OK's 187 departmental stores and 22 Hyperamas, on the brink of insolvency, were sold – or given away if you like - to South Africa’s youngest grocery retailer, the Shoprite group, for a token amount of One Rand. The brewers were not shopkeepers.
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Violins and haircuts 1997 was exactly 70 years after Michael Cohen and Sam Miller opened their first store, and 25 years after Breweries took control.
In 1999, just 2 years later, Shoprite reported that OK had returned to profitability with pre-tax profits of R5 million.
The OK brand barely survives today in the Shoprite group as a furniture, appliance, and carpeting chain store, and as a food and liquor franchise, a shadow of its former self. I wonder what Sam Cohen and Michael Miller would think? Or – just a thought - did the Cohen and Miller families sell OK to Breweries at exactly the right time?
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3 Our visit to Clarens 1
Our visit to Clarens There’s no such person as the Duke of Clarens and Clarens isn’t named after him. This charming village at the foot of the Maluti mountains in the Eastern Free State is in fact named after the village of Clarens in Switzerland, where the exiled Boer leader Paul Kruger spent the final year of his life.
This article will be published in the travel section of The Sowetan newspaper next month, and also appears on the Clarens Tourism website
Clarens was founded in 1912. Today 109 years later, a visit to Clarens from Midstream must begin with some research. South Africa’s toll highways are in good repair but the secondary roads range from reasonable to absolutely awful. Potholes can inflict lethal damage and many roads are under continuous repair with long delays.
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But the Midstream community will help you with just about anything. A query on the Midstream Owners and Tenants facebook page quickly elicited a dozen responses.
Some advised in no uncertain terms which routes NOT to take, and the consensus of the others advised turning off the N3 at Warden. From here the secondary roads go via Bethlehem and the entire journey takes just over 4 hours. The countryside is green and pleasant at this time of year, and the cosmos on the side of the road is lovely. 5
Il Castilo On this visit we decided to spoil ourselves and booked into an upmarket hotel, spa and guesthouse.
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Il Castilo, built in the style of an Italian castle, lies on the brow of a hill about two kilometres outside the town centre. It’s on 4 levels with lavish furnishings, patios and gardens.
We were welcomed on arrival by concierge, porter and general major-domo Fana. During our visit he helped us park, carried our bags, checked us in, served welcome drinks, took us into town in the shuttle and even swept the leaves in the courtyards. 6
Breakfast
The Il Castilo breakfasts are individually prepared by a chef according to your personal preference. We chose to be served in the rooftop garden, which on that sunny morning gave a marvelous vista of the village below and the surrounding mountains. A superb serving arrived of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.
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The town centre The Clarens town centre is a good place to enjoy browsing and meet up with friends. The town square and surrounding roads offer a selection of art galleries, gift shops, restaurants, boutiques and pubs. There is a popular craft brewery and an adventure centre. And coffee shops where husbands not needing retail therapy can observe the passing throng or peacefully apply their minds to a good book.
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Clementines We dined that evening at Clementines, a good restaurant which is owner-managed by hostess Shelley. From the menu we selected trout dishes, which were both excellent. The patrons that evening spoke in a variety of languages and accents, a very pleasant atmosphere with much banter and humour exchanged between patrons and proprietor. .
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Golden Gate
The highlight of our visit, to me anyway, was Golden Gate National Park, the trees at the roadside resplendent in their autumn colours. The SUV lapped up the two circular drives which lead off from each side of the main road, taking you right up into the surrounding mountains with occasional views of black wildebeest, eland and other varieties. The parks board chalets and campsites were full and we saw many families out hiking.
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In the afternoon, after a stop in town for a snack, my dear wife availed herself of El Castilo’s spa offerings which gave me a chance to read my book and take a nap. We . ate that evening at Mosaic, a robust pizzeria that offers great value for money and a variety of fresh salads. After another first class breakfast the next morning we left Il Castilo to continue our journey to Ladybrand. We can strongly recommend a visit to Clarence in autumn, to fellow Midstreamers and all our friends and relatives.
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Fouriesburg And then an unexpected bonus! The road from Clarens to Fouriesburg winds through one of the most stunning mountain landscapes in South Africa, if not in the world. It is filled with incredible rock formations, bushman paintings and vistas that will leave you aching to explore further.
There are views across the Caledon River Valley to the Maluti Mountains – snow-capped in winter – and Lesotho. At Surrender Hill you can view a plaque commemorating the surrender in 1900 of a large contingent of Boers during the Anglo Boer War. Recommendations: • Clementines • Golden Gate National Park • Mosaic • Il Castilo • The road from Clarens to Fouriesburg • Model butchery in Fouriesburg for biltong
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4 Buttons 4
Buttons Early one Monday morning Mrs Sandra Coetzee, proud owner of Sandra’s Bridal Boutique, was thinking about the events on the previous Saturday when, as usual, she had dressed another bride for her wedding. Every wedding, she thought, has an element of theatre – an old time musical with a happy ending, or a stage drama, or a television soap opera. Each with its own cast of characters, and sometimes with a surprise finish.
Thinking back over the hundreds of times she had dressed brides, Sandra thought, she had seen everything. Heroes, villains, crybabies, mothers-in-law from hell. Tipsy groomsmen stumbling in church, fathers of bridal couples exchanging harsh words. Fortunately, though, most of her weddings had gone off very well. 5
Buttons It was important, she thought, to keep things arms-length and professional as much as possible. For example, she preferred her brides and their friends to call her Mrs Coetzee. Occasionally, she might permit parents she knew to call her Sandra. But never the brides. Yet these days, with people being less formal, it was becoming difficult to control. Recently, a young bride had even addressed her as “tannie”, which would not do at all. A sign of respect in young people you might say, but certainly not professional decorum.
On Saturday morning she had driven out to the spa hotel in Stellenbosch where the bridal party had spent the night, to dress the bride for her wedding at the Moederkerk, the beautiful 300-year-old church with its imposing bell tower. 7
At their first meeting the bride, a shy young woman who taught history at a local school, showed her an etching in an old book. It portrayed a striking full-length wedding dress, probably of French design, with a high neckline. The dress was fastened at the back with a row of forty tiny buttons. Sandra approved of buttons. Forty buttons with loops would provide the most beautiful finish one could wish for in a wedding gown. She always loved their effect.
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Buttons It was interesting to hear the teacher explain the traditional way a wedding dress was hand-made in 18th century rural France. The bride’s closest friends and family all contributed and the process took several months. For example, it took a long time to make the rouleaus – the button loops which are made of bias-cut strips woven into the finest cord, and the buttons themselves lovingly covered in the dress fabric. Such care went into making each loop perfect, identical and beautifully spaced exactly apart to close softly over the button.
On the wedding day, the honour of fastening the buttons was traditionally given to a special person nominated by the bride – a close friend, a mother, aunt, childhood nurse or grandmother. As many as forty friends and relatives would crowd into the dressing room. While buttoning the buttons, each person in the room had time to address and counsel the bride as their captive audience. Forty buttons worth of time to share feelings, and offer love 6 and support.
Buttons Sandra had always thought that the event of dressing a bride was a very special ritual. Just as time is taken to make the dress, time should be taken in the dressing. The bride’s experience of slowly putting on her supporting garments , jewellery and make-up before getting into her wedding dress, savouring each action, is a once-off event, an experience to treasure, never to be rushed.
Each and every part should feel special and just for the bride. Sandra thought she could never condone the practice of stitching buttons on top of a zip, as some dressmakers do. Wedding guests have a full view of the back of a bride’s dress and to see fake buttons stitched on over a zip is totally unprofessional. She would rather see a dress made in cotton with beautiful buttons than the most expensive fabric with badly made buttons. 6
Buttons As soon as she entered the dressing room in the hotel, Sandra sensed trouble. The bride was already dressed and standing in a corner with her bridesmaids. The young woman was in tears, her makeup patchy and her hair awry. At the other end of the room were two large middle-aged ladies whom Sandra immediately suspected were the bride’s mother and motherin-law, standing with grim expressions and folded arms.
And she saw to her horror that the bride was wearing the lovely dress BACK TO FRONT, with the buttons facing forward! These two intimidating women had decided between them that the bustline of the dress was designed to fit over the shoulders and shoulder blades, not in front. Brought up in a culture of deference and respect for their elders, the shy bride and her bridesmaids had been bullied into reluctant compliance.
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Buttons There was not a moment to lose. “Girls” Sandra said loudly “start undoing those buttons as fast as you can. This dress is the wrong way round.” “But Sandra it can’t be!” protested the mother. “Mrs Coetzee to you if you please” snapped Sandra. “You need to listen to your daughter.” In twenty frantic minutes the wedding dress was unbuttoned, turned around and rebuttoned, makeup applied, and hair tidied. The bride was escorted into the limousine and on her way, the chastened mothers following behind.
Yes, Sandra thought, every wedding was a little play, and this one could easily have turned into a farce instead of a melodrama. There was a first time for everything. Imagine that poor girl walking up the aisle with her dress on backwards. Imagine if it got into the papers. It would have made the bride into a laughing stock and left Sandra looking totally unprofessional. How fortunate she was able to rescue the situation. She thought she might look for an antique ring with a button knot design to add to her collection, as a memory of this 6 wedding.
Feedback on the April issue of The Circle Thank you for including us in your short story readership. I like short stories and have just read all 3 of yours. Well done I look forward to seeing you grow in your storytelling. Please, add me to the list. Travel journalism is a great passion of mine. Got your e-mail! Read the Circle. Well done John! especially the Burberry story. Please send more. Hi john. Fantastic idea ..Just read your articles and really liked them. I’m sure you have a lot of very interesting life experiences.
Hi John Thank you for the interesting read! I enjoyed it - I love human drama and reading about people and their life stories. Please continue sending me articles. Well done! Thanks for your Circle Mag, I’m sure this will keep you young for a long time. Barry forwarded your magazine on to me. I enjoyed reading it. You have met some very interesting people in the course of life's journey. The Burberry story makes a very good case study.
Please circulate The Circle. To join the mailing list e-mail me at stretch@global.co.za
Some photographs in this issue are sourced from Unsplash.com
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