Lady Astor and the Delta cooperative

I was happy with what I had learned about Delta and the museum, the wines and the Solms family and was already drafting the article in my mind, when Mark explained his plans for the farm. It turned out he had partners, none other than the Astor family, one of whom had been the first female member of parliament in Westminster and had told Winston Churchill that he was drunk and, if she were his wife, she would poison his tea. Mark then explained that between the two families, they were forming a cooperative with the Wijn de Caab Trust which representing Delta’s workers and their families. From all this you'll understand the fascination of freelance journalism and writing in general.

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Delta's royal connection

The white wine Amalie is named after Princess Amalie zu Solms-Braunfels, who’s grandson became William III of England two years before Delta had its first European resident in 1691.

While William had no children, the English royal family have German ancestry and, no matter how distant today, the Solms have many family ties with them. Their royal connections proved valuable when Friedrich Hermann, 3^rd Prince of Solms-Baruth was convicted of involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler. At the time, Hitler was negotiating with the king of Sweden and the Prince's life was spared due to the intervention of the Swedish ambassador, who informed the Nazi’s that the execution of the brother-in-law of the Swedish king’s queen would have unpredictable consequences for ongoing negotiations.

It was the unpredictability of what I would find that fascinated me as a freelance journalist in Cape Town.

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Talking of wine

I told you there was something special ab out the way the Delta winery was organised and, like everything there, Hiervandaan red wine has a story. Marq, a descendent of the de Villiers, who were earlier owners of Delta (Paulina of Rickety Bridge being one of that ilk), came from Canada to research his family history. Talking to a worker on a nearby farm, Marc mentioned that his family had farmed the area for three hundred years. The labourer, having Koi ancestry, replied that his family had been Hiervandaan (from hereabouts) since “Sommer altyd” (for ever just) and the name for the wine wa born. That's the kind of association Mark Solms brought to Delta.

The Lekkerwijn rosé label was signed with the mark of the 1690 owner of a nearby farm slain by Silberbach, one of the early joint owners of Delta. The dispute in which the unfortunate neighbour died is reputed to have been over Silberbach’s wife Ansela, a freed slave.

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Making Biblical wine

As to wine at Delta, the Solms family had been making it in Germany long before the first Solms left for southern Africa seven generations before Mark, Delta's current owner was born. Mark took over in 2002 and set about learning what he could about wine making, not just from modern technology but from Biblical times. He told me he felt that the art of making wine for the senators and pharaohs of the ancient world died with, among other things, the the Barbarian Invasion of Rome. What survived during their occupation was how to make house wine. Well, what else would you serve to barbarians?

I didn't mention that at least some of the invaders were Celts and probably drank whisky.

Let me get back to the theme, the benefits of Mark’s researches into the methods of the ancients enhance his new wine, a Shiraz Afrikana to be launched in September.

At that time, 2002, there were three Delta products to choose from, all containing blends of the Rhône type grapes Mark has grown to supplement the traditional Cape varieties, believing Rhône vines are more suited to the Cape’s dry summers than those originating from the wetter climate and more generous soils of France.

My wife was with me and enjoying Mark's company and, hereabouts, there was more to come. 

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Conservation, Trees at Delta Solms winery

AT Delta Solms the wine tasting is inside the museum but let me first talk about the trees and woods that have been exposed and put to use now that the invaders have been repelled. 

All the trees are tagged, including the National Champion oak tree in front of the house planted around the time the farm was first occupied in 1690.

Mark Solms, the owner was kind enough to show us round. First stop was the clump of giant Chinese bamboo, light and strong, planted to provide roof trusses. They form a secret alcove where, to the accompaniment of the chimes of the bamboo, Tracy, from the museum, told stories of long ago to school groups.

Where the undergrowth had been cleared, sapling yellowwoods have sprouted, camphor trees grow to monster size.
Originally farm concessions were given out on the understanding that if a tree was cut down, one would be planted to take its place, while not always adhered to, this resulted in the planting of a variety of oak trees. Not just gnarled monsters that a Cavalier king could hide in, but reminders of the tall straight forest giants felled two centuries ago to provide planks for the ‘Hearts of Oak’ of the British navy.
The pictures are of my wife and Mark in the bamboo grove and the other, believe it or not, is an oak.

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Khoisan and Japanese relics

At Delta Solms, when the archaeologists started to dig they found not just the remains of an old building but also relics of a past civilisation dating back to the Late Stone Age. I found it fascinating to imagine how ancient hands had made and worked with the relics. It was all described in the museum’s display cabinets and panels and but what made it more mystic was that I was transported into their world by the haunting voice over of a Khoisan storyteller.

The cabinets also hold Japanese ceramics from the days when the farm was founded in 1690 under the Dutch East India Company, the cheaper Chinese pottery of later British times, mixed with some produced in England and forced on the colonies by the East India Company and the Westminster government’s policy of trade monopoly.

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Delta Winery History at every turn

I'd often passed the Delta winery on my way from Stellenbosch to Franschhoek but when I eventually found my way there I found the winery worth a visit but the people fascinating. The turn off is just after crossing the Dwaarse River bridge on the Franschhoek road and lies at the end of a long driveway. The first person I met was Tracey Randle, a vivacious young ‘girl next door’, who already had a master’s degree in history and archaeology and was busy with a PhD. The museum she was in charge of had its beginnings in the Mark Solms, the owner's interest in archaeology and his desire to tell the real story of the Cape of Good Hope in a way that people could relate to. Mark was, at that time, and may still be, a professor who consulted at Groote Schuur. Mark sought advice from historians, archaeologists and conservation architects and when Dr Antonia Malan looked the place over she commented that the reason for the distance between the old wine cellar, which housed the museum, and the main house being more than normal was probably because there had been a building in between. That's only the beginning. There's more history and historical events being played out at Delta than you could shake a stick at.

The picture is what the archaeologists found between the main house and the museum. 

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