Toast ‘L’Chaim!’ at Fairview a bustling Mediterranean-style winery, where the farm cheeses are almost as famous as the wines (and the goats are definitely as adventurous as the vintner).
La Med
There is a distinctly Mediterranean feel to Fairview, evoked by its architecture, ambience and style of wine. And that is entirely fitting, for third-generation owner/vintner Charles Back has been a pioneer in championing one of the Cape’s strengths: its ability to produce richly fruited wines reminiscent of Italy, Spain and the south of France.
On a hot summer’s day, there can be wonderful air of somnolence about the place. Think Peter Mayle’s evocative A Year in Provence or Chris Stewart’s Spanish sojourn in Driving over Lemons. Set on a hillside dotted with gnarled olive trees, Fairview’s winery looks across the undulating landscape between Paarl Mountain and the Simonsberg near Stellenbosch.
From the oak-shaded car park, a cobbled pathway meanders across a lawn and leads up some steps into a sunny courtyard. Here you’ll find the cavernous tasting room, its entrance shaded by a vine-trellised pergola.
Restless, searching, innovative, savvy, trend-setting: words used to describe Charles Back could also be applied to the award-winning and characterful wines that he and long-time winemaker Anthony de Jager turn out at Fairview. Examine the displays in the tasting room that provide insight into the origins of some of the wines.
Old photographs, snippets of information and samples of different soil profiles - they all have a tale to tell. And, right up to date, recessed glass windows provide a view into the fermentation cellar with its shiny stainless steel tanks, revealing the business end of winemaking.
The Stories
The Fairview label encompasses not only wines made from the farm’s own vines, but also special bottlings from single vineyards and selected sites that Back has found elsewhere in the winelands.
Each has a story: there is The Beacon Shiraz from Swartland dryland bushvines; Pegleg Carignan from some of the oldest vines of this uncommon variety in South Africa from the Paardeberg; Caldera, a red blend in Rhône style combining Grenache, Carignan and Shiraz from the Swartland; and its Regional Revival range stablemates Extraño and Homtini (alluding to the cellarmaster’s local and Italian roots).
Back was so convinced of the Swartland’s qualities as a wine-growing region that he helped pioneer the area in the ‘90s as a quality source of Mediterannean varieties, mostly reds, founding the Spice Route Winery near Malmesbury. It now produces internationally renowned blockbuster. reds and characterful whites.
Formerly available for tasting at Fairview, the extensive, always interesting collection of wines is showcased at the Spice Route property nearby, developed by Back as a multi-facetted winelands food and wine destination with an array of other craft, artisanal and bespoke goods on offer.
While exploring Fairview’s tasting room, don’t miss the display on the Agostinelli range of typically Italian varietal reds. It tells of Signor Michele Agostinelli, a trained agrarian who came to South Africa as an Italian prisoner of war and helped Back’s father Cyril to establish a cheese-making enterprise in the 1980s, using the milk of Fairview’s first small herd of goats. Today, Fairview is almost as famous for its cheeses as it is for its wines.
The Goats
Although the goat herd, now numbering several hundred, is housed across the road from the winery, the traditional goat tower still stands in front of the tasting room.
With its small family of Swiss Saanen goats, the tower has become a Cape winelands icon, not only appearing on the wine label as the Fairview trademark, but inspiring an anecdote about errant goats rampaging through the vineyards.
This, in turn, inspired Back to form an entire wine company, which markets the highly rated Goats do Roam collection of wines. ‘Herd’ members include irreverently named Bored Doe, Goat-Roti, Goat Door and even The Goatfather (for wine lovers and movie buffs to decode).
Fairview’s emblematic goat appears in numerous guises around the farm and it’s fun to see how many you can identify. A sharp eye may spot the goat’s-horn embellishments on the iron balustrades of the steps that lead into the Beryl Back tasting room (named after Back’s late mother, also remembered with the blend, including unusual varieties, in the Limited Release tier).
The hushed, medieval-like alcove - softened by thick drapes and the glow of chandeliers - can be reserved for a tutored tasting of Fairview’s premium wines.
From the tasting room, stroll along the lavender-lined pathway to the former barrel maturation cellar - called The Goatshed, of course - for a convivial lunch. The fare is authentically Mediterranean and includes tasty bistro dishes, filled bagels and panini, platters of Fairview’s cheeses and cured meats, and salads.
The Paarl winelands border Stellenbosch to the north and northeast, opening up into a broad valley with granite outcrops of Paarl Mountain a...