There's a family history of heart attacks, confides Rozanne, and her dad is eating more healthily, cutting down on red meat and anything too fatty. Yet, one of her best times spent with her father involves lamb chops.
'It was a few years ago, during the electricity shortage when the rolling blackouts were kicking in without warning. One day, sometime in the week, in the middle of harvest, the electricity went. It was hectic but there was nothing we could do - it was before we'd invested in a generator.
'My dad grabbed a bottle of our sauvignon blanc and four lamb chops and we headed up the Gamka Mountain. We made a little fire and braaied our four chops and drank our wine, up there, in nature, away from it all, just the two of us. It was probably my most special moment ever.'
Carel Nel's daughters, bubbly, chatty and enormously enthusiastic about all things to do with wine and the family farm, are their shy father's greatest champions. They fuss over him and there's a great sense of camaraderie and shared enjoyment and purpose in this close-knit family. The only competition seems to be for the favour of Tawny, the Rhodesian ridgeback!
Carl and Jeanne, a Potgieter whose family also goes back generations in Calitzdorp, met in standard 5 (grade 7) at the local primary school. It was Jeanne's grandfather Koos Potgieter who donated the magnificent church organ, imported from Germany, to the nearby Dutch Reformed Church, beautifully rebuilt in dressed sandstone in 1912 and subsequently declared a National Monument.
The instrument so impressed doctor of music, literature and theology Noël-Jean Creil that he settled in Calitzdorp some years ago 'just to play that organ'. He does so for an hour at sunset on weekdays, as much for himself as for anybody else. Visitors are welcome to take a pew.
Jeanne was actively involved in the marketing and sale of Boplaas wines in the early days before her elder daughter took over the reins. And now that younger daughter Margaux is full-time in the cellar, dad and mom take the opportunity to hie off at a whim on spontaneous little jaunts together, as on a recent road trip to the Kalahari and back, 'stopping off with friends along the way'.
All family members try to make an annual trip overseas, 'not work-related, a proper holiday'. Even so, it's always a wine region, one they've not been to before.
Champagne was the most recent destination. Speaking of a wealthy acquaintance in corporate banking, Carel comments typically self-deprecatingly: 'I’ll never be as successful as he. But I'm rich in other ways...'
'My dad's full of ideas,' says Rozanne. 'We have to rein him in sometimes.' Carel merely smiles. His version? 'There are always things my daughters want to change; it just costs so much money!'
Some of Dad’s ideas have been born of an abiding love of the veld, and specifically the Little Karoo. In recent years the 70 hectares of Boplaas vineyards have been extended by over 2 000 hectares, solely dedicated to conserving the area's pristine succulent Karoo biome. A major feature is the spekboom, a small-leaved succulent bush beloved by elephant and found to absorb enough carbon dioxide to ensure wine-farming activities leave a negative carbon footprint.
Carel has also been instrumental in lobbying fellow local landowners to form the Rooiberg Conservancy, some 100 000 hectares of privately owned land around Calitzdorp. The elusive Cape leopard is being tracked and studied here, with an eye to greater protection in the Western Cape.
So it is, after generations of wine farming and when not on their international wine travels, the current members of the Ne! family still get together on a Sunday for a service at the stone church just across the vineyards from the cellar. They like to quote Oupa Danie's truism: 'We're a wine family.' They smile. 'And they're serving the Boplaas Cape Ruby at the moment.' ·
'The ring of rocks at the cellar honours the ancient European agricultural tradition of demarcating the hours from sunrise to sunset by a circular set of stones; a common sight in Ireland.'
Pears poached in port with ice cream and almond flakes recipe by Carel Nel....
Springbok loin wrapped in prosciutto recipe by Carel Nel paired with Boplaas Ring of Rocks or Boplaas Cape Vintage....