Duncan Spence introduced light lunches served inside or on the terrace but the addition of the restaurant meant it was possible to eat outside on a terrace, which is enclosed and cosy in the winter months. When Duncan Spence took over this was the wine tasting area and was initially converted into offices before the final remodelling into an eatery.

The restaurant was serviced from a bar in the modern cellar, its temperature control installation dating from Alan Tonkin.

Duncan Spence added to the range of wines being produced with a blended red and a blended white, both bearing the name Duncan’s Creek.

Continuing the tradition of prize-winning wines Duncan Spence has won several awards. The winery has competed overseas, winning several international awards and among its accolades is the Decanter UK.
Never mind the prizes, for me the Rickety Bridge Sauvignon Blanc ranks among the best in the world especially when drunk on the terrace looking at the mountans.

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The Dirkse van Schalkwyk’s bought the farm in 1868, the year it was confirmed that diamonds occurred in South Africa with the finding of the Star of South Africa. Mr le Roux of the Paarl museum commented that the Dirkse van Schalkwyks were something of an aristocratic van Schalkwyk, the addition of the Dirkse being equivalent to an English double barrel.

Nothing was found about what kind of man the first van Schalkwyk was, or how he struggled to replant after Phyloxera was discovered but, if not wealthy, he did become a man of substance, justifying a note in the local paper when he died explaining that he died in Worcester where he had gone to visit. During the visit he took ill and died on the Monday 27^th September 1913.

His son Theunis Gabriel Dirkse van Schalkwyk took over ownership in 1914 and left a substantial estate, recorded in detail in the Archives the most notable items being that on maps of the period  his farm/s  are mentioned as ‘Sanddrift now Paulinas Dal.’ That he left furniture valued at £50 and a motor car valued at £85 left specially to his daughter-in-law Anna Sussana Gertreuda van Schalkwyk. Fixed deposits totalling £1300 As well as a list of shares

Paarl African Trust                                                             £ 30

50 Wine Volkspers Bpk                                                                     £   8 – 19 – 2

20 Shares Franschhoek Coop Vrugteuitvoerders Maatsckappy        £    2 – 18 – 0 Fruit transporters

11 Shares SA Dried Fruit Co.                                                            £    5 – 10 – 0

607 Shares KWV                                                                               £106 – 14 – 6

         Interest                                                                                      £  15 –   3 – 6

(This legacy indicating that the farm had been a success from a financial point of view.)

The picture is of the tea room at Franscchhoek

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Rickety Bridge - Going back to 1830. In that year the farm was owned by Catharina, the widow Pepler, and when her son married Catharina's second cousin, the twenty year old Paulina de Villiers, Catharina installed them in the newly built manor house with its built in wall cabinet that still graces the ‘voorkamer’ in thee picture.

The marriage was a family affair and Paulina and the Peplers could both trace ancestry back to Jacques de Villiers, one of the three original immigrant Huguenot brothers. Palina had two children and enjoyed the manor house for only six years before dying at her father's farm.

What was Paulina like? 

No pictures have come to light. Since she died in 1836 at the age of twenty six, one assumes she was not particularly robust and a picture of a frail beauty comes to mind. Paulina did have two children however, so frailty seems inappropriate.

Her death certificate records only that she died at Groot Drakenstein but the law required it to be signed by ‘a close relative, who had been present at, or near the persons death or, in the absence of such, by the person who shall have chief charge of the house in, or of the place on which, the death took place’.

It is Paulina’s father, Paul, who signed the certificate bu t it makes no mention of whether she was thrown from a horse, or if she had gone to her mother to be nursed.

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Paulinasdal

SO much for the general history of South African wine after Waterloo. Let me concentrate on Rickety Bridge.

In 1831, Albertus Pepler married Paulina Maria Deborah de Villiers, the daughter of Paul de Villiers of Boschendal and the couple moved into the new manor house on what was, at that time, part of a bigger farm called Zanddrift, owned by Albertus's mother, Elizabeth Catharina, the widow Pepler.

 Two years later, in 1833, to adapt to the changing conditions when Britain reduced the tariff on French wines, Elisabeth Catharina extended her holdings by 81 morgen of grazing land, giving the whole the name Zanddrift and seems to have used her son, Albertus, as farm manager.

In 1836 Paulina died at the age of twenty-six and, in her memory, her husband changed the name of the enlarged farm from Zanddrift to Paulina’s Dal, the change being recorded on several maps and documents.

The picture is looking up the valley from the manor house towards Franschhoek.

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The picture shows Dee Cafari in Cape Town during a round the world race. Dee was a great person to interview, bright and intelligent, full of information and obviously enjoying her sailing.   Unfortunately Dee came into Cape Town second to the boat advertised behind her, the one sponsored by Rickety bridge winery. After writing up the notes on Dee and the race I decided to go to visit Rickety Bridge Winery at Franschhoek and found two more stories; one about the history of the wine farm and the owner from Sark.  In fact two stories and some nice Sauvignon Blanc.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vital-Spark-No-Witnesses-What-ebook/dp/B00UNNKUUO