Donovan RalL

– Western Cape, Stellenbosch, Ceres

In great wine regions there are the established producers, the icons and the mavericks. So where do these wines fit in to the vibrant picture that is modern South Africa? The simplest and most satisfying answer is that it doesn’t really matter, these are just great wines that are worthy of their acclaim. Vuurberg is certainly a very small producer, a garage-style winery, named after the ‘Fire mountain’ which is sits in the shadow of. The wines are pure and precise, delicately crafted by a physical giant of a man, Donovan Rall. His wines are growing in reputation so much that they may eventually match him in stature. Building his skills in the embryonic ‘new wave’ of South Africa with Miles Mossop and Eben Sadie, Donovan is now able to put his own character on a fascinating range of wines.

It’s quite something to see a master craftsman at work. We had just spent a morning blending in a barrel cellar and royally mucked it up. If you’ll allow the metaphor, we had a palette of bright colour and managed to mix them together to make brown. That afternoon in Vuurberg’s cellar, Donovan casually splashed together a rough blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Cinsault. This rough blend was bristling at the edges but had the hall marks of a masterpiece in the making. Our own attempts at blending may take some more work, but we were taking notes.