Rickety Bridge Snakes and See-saw

The interest Celia had taken in the Rickety Bridge house became clear as she talked of what the house and its bridge had been like in the past. She mentioned that when the McNaughts took over, the farm had been really dilapidated and it was they who set about planting vines.

The house was revamped by Robin Singer who had used a builder, Len Raymond from Paarl, who specialised in Old Cape houses. The house had originally been a T shaped Cape Dutch house with a central room which ran through the house to the back, with a room on either side. In the old days, the people would have slept on straw mattresses in the side rooms.

The house would have been built with half doors, so that the top half could be left open to allow a breeze to circulate in the hot months, with the bottom closed to keep out the animals and snakes.

Commenting on the old ‘rickety bridge’ before it was replaced by the new concrete bridge by Robin Singer, Celia said it was a set of boards sitting on top of some pieces of railway track. When a car came on to the bridge at one end, the planks lifted like a see-saw and only came down with a clap when the car reached the middle of the plank.

Since my association with Rickety Bridge came through sailing I hope you won't mind the link or the picture of Dee Cafari.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/vital-spark

Winter fun at Rickety Bridge

Celia told me that, while the Tonkins were there, the Winter and its rain brought little relief. They found a small ancient tractor on the premises. When this overturned, nearly trapping the driver, they bought a new model. Using this to plough the South East vineyard after heavy rain, the driver got stuck. No doubt being unwilling to let it be known that he had got the new tractor into difficulties, the driver kept trying to free the tractor until the big wheels were well bogged down above the axles. At that stage he called the Tonkins.

The Tonkins called their neighbour for help and the neighbour sent a tractor, which, after much revving and smoking, joined the Tonkin’s machine in the mire.

A third tractor was sent for and, watched in anxious disbelief by those present, it too sank into the mud.

The neighbour then brought an enormous unit which, to everyone’s relief, pulled first one and then a second and finally the Tonkin’s tractor out of the mud.

www.sullatoberdalton.com

Iced grapes

For Celia, at Rickety Bridge harvest time held other problems. It is traditional that the grapes must all be picked before Easter and temperatures at that time of the year can be high and unsuitable for grape storage and processing. Before the Tonkins built the new cellar, the old cellar’s cooling system was anything but perfect and had to be supported on hot days by whatever ice could be made or acquired. Celia remembers sending the bakkie to Paarl to collect bags of ice, half of which had melted by the time the bakkie returned.

The pipes laid for irrigation had not been buried but were lying on the surface and as they sweated in the night the moisture attracted small animals that gnawed the pipes, making repairs to the lines an ongoing feature of life at Rickety Bridge until the pipes were safely buried.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books

Paulina's ghost at Rickety Bridge

Carrying on with Celia at the wine farm.

Being marketing minded, Celia promoted the idea of Paulina’s ghost being around, telling clients at the tasting that if they drank enough wine they might be able to see Paulina. While people laughed, the idea stuck and became legend but backlashed at harvest time.

In those days it was fashionable to harvest at midnight and the pickers felt the clammy hand of a ghost in every breath of breeze and heard the rustle of a spectre’s dress in each flutter of the leaves. Celia spent a good deal of time reassuring nervous wide eyed pickers that they were not about to be snatched into another world. 

www.ricketybridge.com

Carry on at Rickety Bridge

The Tonkins at Rickety Bridge highlights the enjoyment I had as a freelance journalist and reading over my notes about the Tonkins brings back all the fun. First some facts:-

In 1997, the Tonkins, Alan and Celia, took over Rickety Bridge farm. Celia told me the house was gorgeous but the cellar was broken down and little more then a shed with vats in it.

While the farm was hard work, it produced well. 

The cellar, however, was totally inadequate for producing the award winning quality wines the Tonkins were aiming at and, in 1997-98, the Tonkins built a new boutique cellar, installing state of the art wine pressing and cooling, at a total cost in excess of R6 million.

They produced Sémillon, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a Shiraz and were the first to introduce the red blend Paulina’s Reserve.

During their time at Rickety Bridge the Tonkins won a number of awards for their wine.

In 1996 Silver medal         ’96 vintage Chardonnay

             Silver medal         ’95 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon

             Bronze medal       ’96 vintage Semillon

             Bronze medal       ’96 vintage Sauvignon Blanc

             Bronze medal       ’95 vintage Merlot

In 1998 Double gold         ’96 vintage Paulina’s Reserve

            

In 1999 Michael Angelo International Wine Awards

    Double gold and best wine        ’98 Chiraz            

    Silver                   ’97 Chardonnay

             Silver medal        ’99 Sauvignon Blanc (My personal favourite  -SD)

            

Celia loved the place despite commenting that, at times, it was like living in a Carry On film. Wait for the next installment! 

www.sullatoberdalton.com

Forest fire

I just want to finish what Deborah wrote about her stay at Rickety Bridge before going on in my experience as a journalist to the next occupant of Rickety Bridge.
In an earlier note it was mentioned that firs had been planted on the slope to retain the soil but Deborah's experience highlighted that benefits come with responsibilities.

Two little boys from the farm one Saturday made a campfire and set the forest alight. Had the wind changed direction we might well have lost the house, so it was a few nasty hours. That prompted the beginning of removing the pine forest from the hill at the back of the house, and allowing the indigenous fynbos to regenerate. The pines had been planted ages ago and then not looked after so they were useless as a crop and a huge fire risk as well as being unhelpful to the original mountain flora.

It was all an education in itself, and there was so much good that could have been brought about had one been able to stay long enough.
The photo shows how the pines have been re-established on the slope behind the winery.

I've mentioned before that one stumbles across stories and this fire incident would make a great highlight if I were doing a novel about the winelands.Whether a literary agent would agree, I don't know. Two of the stories in Bees in my Bonnet were written to test the idea  but I was told, nobody buys books about South Africa unless they are written by Wilbur Smith.

www.amazon.co.uk/Bees-my-Bonnet-Short-stories-x/dp/1541345673/ref=sr_1_2?

French Heritage

As a freelance journalist I found Deborah's letter about what she and Robin Singer did at Rickety Bridge a highlight and here is a bit more.

We tried very hard to keep the feeling of a family working farmhouse, vineyards and cellar  - in fact when people came to the tasting rooms we built onto the end of the old cellar, they all said how different it was from the other farms - more like France in feel. I suppose you could look at that in several ways - Franschhoek being so proud of its French heritage should have given that impression, even if we were trying to promote South African wine in its own right, but Rickety Bridge was the last of those small working farmhouse and cellar farms, and a little gem, so I am not altogether happy with the huge amount of development which has robbed it of that distinction, and lost forever that feeling which made it so very special.

We were so lucky in the people who helped us. Len Raymond, our builder, was a complete Cape Dutch fanatic, and his knowledge of the history and construction of these wonderful houses was a huge factor in lots of what we did. Rowan Pape was a marvellous architect with a real understanding of what would and would not work and given the passion which every one of us approached the project, how could we lose? I was very sad to have to leave it.   - especially to the ravages of conference-centre builders! Those places are two a penny in and around Franschhoek. Small is beautiful more often than we realise, and Rickety Bridge was unique.

Whether one agrees with Debs or not, progress marches on and business is business.

www.sullatoberdalton.com