The Western Cape is a famed New World winemaking region, but who would have thought that a few of its most palatable vintages are produced by a winery in the Cape Town Central City? City Views editor Brent Smith met with Signal Hill Winery’s owner, Jean-Vincent Ridon, on a Friday afternoon for a spot of tasting.
Jean-Vincent is a French winemaker, and today he has offered me a smoky Spanish Grenache to taste at his South African winery on Shortmarket Street. “What can I say? The tannins aren’t harsh,” he opines. “So it’s a wine to be drunk – something we share with friends – not a wine to just talk about.”
Ironically, these words say it all, summing up Jean-Vincent’s approach to winemaking and the way his produce brings together different people and influences.
The Grenache was made right here in the Cape Town CBD from grapes harvested in the dry granite soil of the Piekenierskloof ridge in Citrusdal. But for its “city” wines, Signal Hill Winery uses grapes from tiny vineyards situated in, of all places, Oranjezicht and Camps Bay. The courtyard at its Heritage Square premises (where it moved in 2009) is also home to the oldest vine in the country. The latter has been use for a limited vintage of 20 bottles per year.
Once the grapes are harvested, everything is done by hand on site by Jean-Vincent and his partner, Laurence Buthelezi, a Burgundy-trained Zulu winemaker – as well as any member of the public who is keen to be a part of the winemaking process. “Every time we do a pressing or a bottling we advertise it on Facebook so that people can come and join,” says the vintner, who has made wine in California, France and Turkey, and in South Africa since 1996. “We even glue on the labels by hand.”
Wine of origin
Born in the Alpes on the border of the Rhone River and educated in Paris, Jean-Vincent was invited in 2001 by the mayor of Paris to be official winemaker at the last vineyard in city, Clos Montmartre. But he chose to stay in the Cape Town CBD, where he initially set up shop in 1999, two years after Signal Hill Winery was founded on Ashanti Estate in Paarl.
“I’m a city man,” he says, “and, after discovering through the Western Cape Provincial Archives that there were once three wineries in Church Street, I wanted to bring winemaking back to the Central City.”
He explains that in traditional winemaking centres – such as those in France, Spain, Italy and Germany – grapes are grown and wine is made in villages, towns and cities, not in the countryside as South Africans are used to. “Vines were protected behind the fortifications of old European villages, because in times of war they wanted to protect the wine! In fact, 90% of Burgundy wineries are inside villages and towns.”
Western Cape wineries are traditionally more in line with those of the Bordeaux region and its rows of countryside vineyards that rapidly expanded during the 17th century.
City sipper
However, Jean-Vincent says he will always stay in the city and hopes to see more vineyards planted in the City Bowl. His is a fully operational boutique winery that produces 3 000 – 4 000 bottles a year. Six hundred bottles are made from the Oranjezicht grapes and 300 from the sun-kissed Camps Bay grapes, and the rest are currently sourced from Constantia and Durbanville.
“You don’t need fancy equipment,” he says, “unless you’re going industrial and want to make 300 000 bottles a year.”
If you’d like to sample a wine produced at one of SA’s only urban wineries, pop in to 100 Shortmarket St from Monday to Saturday for a free tasting. And while you’re there you can order food from neighbouring restaurant HQ.
The winery also opens late for tastings as part of the First Thursdays initiative. If you happen to have your own vine or vineyard, you can even bring your harvest for fermentation. It takes about a kilo and a half of grapes to produce one bottle of wine.
Signal Hill is also stocked at Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar (62 Strand St) and can be ordered with your dinner at Chefs Warehouse and Canteen, also in Heritage Square.
You may be tempted to describe what you taste with words. But, reiterates Jean-Vincent, words mean nothing when it comes to vino. “They link to your own frame of reference. This wine might taste like my grandmother’s marmalade to me, but it’s something completely different to you. And it doesn’t matter, because, much like the CBD’s streets and public spaces, it brings us together.”
Signal Hill Winery: 100 Shortmarket St | www.winery.co.za, 021 424 5820
Handmade in the CBD
Here are two more reasons to love local in the Central City.
Mali South
Master tailor Meiga (from Mali) will kit you out in your very own bespoke hand-embroidered outfit. He’s recently moved to a new, larger premises where you can see for yourself how his beautiful garments are made.
94-96 Long St | 021 426 1519
Skinz Leatherwear
Since 1978, Skinz has manufactured and sourced unique leatherwear. This is the place to pick up leather waistcoats, suede crop tops, ostrich-skin wallets – and even outlandish porcupine lampshades.
86 Long St | 021 424 3978
This article first appeared in the April/May 2015 issue of City Views. Read it online.
Correction June 2015: In the original article we stated that Signal Hill Winery was SA’s only urban winery. This error has since been corrected.