Duncan Savage was born to make wine at Cape Point Vineyards, where the vines overlook Noordhoek's famous Long Beach and the chilly Atlantic Ocean's rollers break onto a long, windswept stretch of white sand.
Vintage 10
'As a boy all I wanted to do was surf! I scraped through school at Rondebosch Boys’ High.' But his favourite subject was geography - 'Mr. Paarman was a really great teacher!' - and the surf-mad teenager, into reading wave patterns, evaluating wind direction, and reading up on tides, discovered a deep appreciation for the land, soil, and the weather.
Duncan's father, a banker - 'very organised, very straight up and down' - was somewhat concerned about his son's future. So Duncan agreed to do a B.Com., 'but by correspondence through the University of South Africa (UNISA) so I could still surf!' He travelled during this time, usually in search of good surf. 'I did a great trip to the Philippines in 1999.'
It was through his mother, a great wine lover with a particular penchant for reds, that Duncan's interest in wine was piqued. He started tasting wine with her and ended up doing a Cape Wine Academy course. 'Eventually, I just fell in love with the product of the vine and began spending my student money on collecting wine: Kanonkop was my favourite!'
The upshot was that he decided to drop the B.Com. degree - 'quite happily; it wasn't really my thing!' - and enrolled at Elsenburg Agricultural College for their viticulture and cellar technology course.
'I was a bit older than some of the other guys and one of just two or three English speakers. After the first week, I came home from the hostel and said to Dad: I don't know about this. But I went back and it all came together. The wine bug just a bit. I never thought I could enjoy studying so much; it was one of the best periods of my life, spent with great people!'
Among his most memorable experiences was a fun fundraiser that proved serendipitous for his career as a winemaker.
'A group of us from Elsenburg decided to raise a bit of money for charity by spending five days in a stainless steel wine tank at the Waterfront Wine Festival in the square outside Vaughan Johnson's Wine Shop. We got a few sponsors: a well-known fast-food chicken chain said they'd supply us with food, but it was this fiddly food, so Ferryman's Tavern jumped in with some really good grub to keep us going.
'The guys in the industry were great and kept plying us with wine. We were in a stupor for most of the time, but we did it, only leaving for bathroom breaks. It drew quite a response; everyone wanted photos taken in the tank with us.'
One such supporter was Hermann Kirschbaum, veteran cellarmaster of Buitenverwachting in Constantia since 1993, who became both mentor and friend. It was Kirschbaum who eventually alerted the young student winemaker to a position at a new winery in a11 up-and-coming new viticultural area in Cape Town.
'He was the one who told me that Sybrand was looking for a winemaker and said I should apply. I was still in my final year, had no experience and he just said: "Go for it!" He told Sybrand he'd take responsibility for any mistakes I made. He showed such faith in me.'
He took Kirschbaum's advice and approached Sybrand van der Spuy, owner of the fledgling Cape Point Vineyards, who put the young man straight to work after his graduation in 2002.
Gourmet beef burger recipe by Duncan Savage served with oven-roasted rosemary potatoes and paired with Cape Point Sauvignon Blanc Reserve wi...
Peri-peri chicken recipe by cellar master Duncan Savage served with Serve couscous and paired with Cape Point Isliedh wine....