Hermanuspietersfontein

The HPF Vineyards

Bartho Eksteen – Mr Sauvignon

Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2010

A wine tasting with Mr Sauvignon Blanc, Bartho Eksteen, is an experience I have had on a few occasions.

For the past almost 20 years Bartho has been host to The Bartho Eksteen Sauvignon Blanc Celebration to share his passion for this variety.

Diners Club Winemaker of the year 2010. 27^th November 2010 is a date that this sultan of savvy and the Hermanuspietersfonteiners will remember forever … To have the honour of Diners Club Winemaker of the Year bestowed on you is an honour only one man receives every year. Furthermore this award confirms Bartho’s status as South Africa’s sage of Sauvignon Blanc, the variety Diner’s Club put under their magnifying glass for 2010. The wine that stood out from a healthily competitive line-up is the wooded HPF Sauvignon Blanc No 5.

HPF No 5

In gratitude, Bartho said “I am truly blessed and honoured to receive this prestigious award. My sincere gratitude to the Diners Club team, Leila Fourie, Ebrahim Matthews and Jane Ledger. I will treasure this achievement for the rest of my life. Many of the previous winners assure me that 30 – 40 years from now HPF and I will still be benefitting from this great accolade.”

Tasting in the Cellar

Why a wooded Sauvignon Blanc, Bartho? “There are only a handful of high quality wooded Sauvignon Blancs out there and the trend is away from “fragrance bombs”. My aim was to create a full, well-balanced food wine, complementing classic dishes associated with wooded white wines whilst still retaining the unique flavour profile inherent to Sauvignon Blanc. I have enormous appreciation for the fact that the judges recognized my vision for this wine and sealed it with the award.”

A true terroir wine, all the grapes used in the HPF Sauvignon Blanc No 5 come from the cellar’s BWI [Biodiversity and Wine Initiative] champion farm. This award raises the reputation of Sondagskloof, one of the winelands’ youngest wards and it is also fitting for a dedicated farming team to be rewarded for their labour, having made the most of the terroir by extracting the unique combination of regional elements. This distinction follows hot on the heels of the cellar’s platter 5 star rating for its Sauvignon Blanc-driven Die Bartho 2009. The HPF motto, good earth makes better wine, is bearing fruit.

The beginnings of Hermanuspietersfontein

In the Oak Barrel Cellar at HPF

In the early 1800’s farmers in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley chose for their children to be schooled in Dutch, the mother language of Afrikaans, in preference to the English demanded by the British colonialists then in charge of the Cape of Good Hope. Hermanus Pieters was the leermeester and oftentimes the farmers remunerated Mr Pieters with sheep. He grazed these at a spring under the milkwood trees by the sea. In l855, long after his passing, and in his honour, the village Hermanuspietersfontein was named after him. In 1902 the postmaster, doubtless tired of writing out this long village name, shortened the name to Hermanus.

Hermanuspietersfontein Vineyards

What better setting for a Vineyard?

More than a hundred years later, the owners of this multi award winning vineyard and winery felt it fitting to revive and relive the village’s history by naming their cellar and wine brand Hermanuspietersfontein. And, quirkily, to stay true to the tradition of the use of Afrikaans HPF are committed to using Afrikaans only for all their wine names and labels – the only cellar in South Africa to do so. Afrikaans is the third most spoken of the 11 official languages of South Africa.

The HPF farm lies in the eastern corner of the Walker Bay wine district. The farm was a founding grape producer in the Sondagskloof wine ward. The picturesque 320ha BWI champion conservation farm [the first wine farm in the district to be awarded this recognition] nestles in a valley in the mountainous area near Stanford and the Atlantic Ocean where it benefits significantly from the maritime influences on the vineyards.

Sustainable and eco-friendly farming practices are followed to preserve and support the rich biodiversity of the area and to conserve the HPF ecosystems. Vineyard blocks were planned around fynbos corridors to keep natural pathways for the flow of indigenous wild animals and birds between various eco-systems on the farm. Tilling by nature’s ‘first gardeners’, the earthworms, presents the HPF vineyards with the valuable underground benefits of air, moisture, bacteria and soil-conditioning material. There is also an army of ducks that performs the all-important role as ‘natural’ snail controllers. Bees work their magic with the fynbos, flowers and other trees spreading around the vineyards. And in doing so producing the most remarkable quality fynbos honey.

The Hermanuspietersfontein Cellar

The HPF Cellar

The 350 ton HPF gravitation cellar is situated some 40km from the farm in the popular seaside holiday village of Hermanus. Bartho Eksteen, the cellarmaster, follows a minimum handling approach and his main focus is to treat grapes with the utmost care and attention. All grapes are hand selected and twice-graded, ensuring quality is never compromised. The spacious underground barrel cellar provides the essential space for ideal maturing of both red and white wines.

Grape Sorting

The Hermanuspietersfontein Food and Wine Market

The Saturday Morning Market at HPF

With the same style that they brought the original name of Hermanus to life again, HPF revived the traditional Saturday morning community market. This popular food & wine market has become the place where friends and families meet, where they come for breakfast or lunch, or just to enjoy a glass of wine and relaxing in a child-safe and dog-friendly environment. Open every Saturday of the year, no matter what the weather, visitors are invited to come and browse the food tables. Wine tasting is free and there’s something for everyone.