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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In the 1850's there was a resurgence in the local wine business caused by the devastation of the European vineyards by powdery mildew, which pushed Cape exports to 1 112 449 gallons, but it was short lived.

Despite the debt burden he faced, du Toit struggled on.

Powdery mildew was in the Cape by 1859 and unfortunately, although some of the upland farms escaped, the Franschhoek valley suffered.

Then, in 1860, Britain signed a trade agreement with France that reduced the tariff on imports from there and virtually killed the export trade of the Cape wine farms.

By 1861, the powdery mildew was at its worst in the winelands. While the application of sulphur proved an effective antidote, lurking in the background was Phylloxera. Discovered in America in 1854, the pest had crossed the Atlantic and had been recognised in hothouses in Hammersmith in 1960. By 1863 it was rife in France.

In 1866 a strange infection was noticed at the Cape and the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society suggested wine farmers should try growing linseed, cochineal and some new varieties of tobacco.

The 1867 recognition that the ‘blink klippies’ around Kimberley were diamonds saved South Africa’s economy and encouraged many farmers to sell up and try their luck at Kimberley, for du Toit, even that was too late.

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In the 1850’s the group of small farms that included Paulina's Dal suffered two major convulsions, first when it was sold to Daniel Jacobus Du Toit and later, when du Toit sold a portion of the property and created what became Rickety Bridge out of what land he retained. This Du Toit could trace his ancestry back through his mother Anna Margarita de Villiers to David, a brother of Paulina’s father and a grandson of Jacques de Villiers. 

Leading up to 1850 the wine industry had taken a knock and was heading for depression.

In 1840 the exports had been   465 773 gallons

In 1850 they were reduced to  246 132 gallons

By 1853 this was down to       182 322 gallons

In that year a consignment to England lost its owners £3000 and on a similar consignment to Madagascar, £4000.

However, at that point, the local industry received a boost when the powdery mildew, Oidium Tucheri, devastated the vineyards of Europe, lifting the price of a leaguer of Cape wine, roughly 120 gallons, from 67 to 82 Rix dollars.

It may be that this created one of those sudden surges in an economic sector for which South Africa is famous and convinced people, like D. J. du Toit, that the wine industry was ripe for investment.

Whatever the reason, du Toit bought the farms, including Paulina's Dal for £1125 in 1853, taking a mortgage bond from Albertus Jacob de Villiers for £500,

Du Toit also took a mortgage on the properties from Paulina’s father, Paul, for £1000, presumably to finance a replanting and expansion. It meant Du Toit's mortgage on  the property now stood at £1500 when its market value, set by his own purchase, was only £1125, and the scene was set for his insolvency.

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