From his maiden 1999 vintage, Bruce Jack's wine labels have intrigued and delighted almost as much as the contents of the bottle.
His first Pinotage Writer's Block was dedicated to 'anyone struggling to write a novel'. The Chardonnay Two Roads, named after the Robert Frost poem 'The Road Not Taken', tested wild yeasts: a poetry reading and a bagpiper's turn encouraged fermentation in the unusual Cape combination of French and American oak barrels. There have since been wines called Treaty Tree, Music Room, Word of Mouth, Longitude, Poetry Collection, Free Run, and, simply, Fiona (named after his sister, a high-flying Internet designer and sometimes winemaker based in the United States).
'We think of our wines as very special, individual creations, with their own history, character, energy, and potential. I suppose they are like children to us. And like children, we give them names.'
Inspired by a trip to Gigondas in the southern Rhône in the early 1990s where he discovered the 'deliciousness' of ripe, soft tannins, Bruce set out to find something similar in South Africa, without confining himself to any specific varieties. He found it in a varying melange of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz, and pinotage and became a champion of pinotage as an ingredient of blends that were authentically Cape in character and make-up.
The Flagstone Dragon Tree Cape Blend, released in 2000, was named after an exotic Canary Island plant (genus Dracaena) with its distinctive blood-red sap planted over a century before by Cape Town's port captain. It stands sentinel near the entrance to an old underground tunnel once used to ferry stone from a quarry to build the harbour breakwater. The tunnel became Flagstone's barrel maturation cellar for a few years before Bruce and the fast-developing V&A Waterfront outgrew each other.
In 2002 he moved to equally historically interesting premises in Somerset West: an old dynamite factory dating back to the Cape's late nineteenth/early twentieth-century British colonial era. Built by renowned English architect Sir Herbert Baker for controversial British-born South African businessman/mining magnate/developer Cecil John Rhodes, it's been the hub of Flagstone's winemaking operations since then.
Joint partnerships with growers in far-flung corners of the Cape Winelands have given rise to highly rated wines from places not normally associated with fine wine until this vintner strolled into the vineyard (or drove up in his beloved Subaru: 'It's a special Forester S Edition,' confesses this closet petrolhead).
One such is a collaboration with the Frater family of Wildepaardekloof up in the Langeoerg near Ashton in the Breede River Valley, unlocking the potential of high-lying, rocky red varietal vineyards nurtured to contribute to his premium Mary le Bow and 'cult' Dragon Tree red blends and medal-bedecked Dark Horse Shiraz.
Particularly outstanding and invariably interesting, unusual and characterful Flagstone wines are reserved for the annual auction of the Guild, which Bruce was invited to join in 2002. Each is a distinctive wine with its own name and unique story, a reflection on the origins, experiences or state of being of the wine (or its maker): The Black Southeaster, Love Handles, Month of Sundays, Happy Hour!
Scrambled eggs recipe by Bruce Jack paired with CWG Flagstone Weather Girl or CWG Flagstone Happy Hour wine....
Shiitake mushroom, organic spinach, and kale risotto with gremolata and white truffle oil recipe by Bruce Jack....