The name Jan, often Jan 'Boland', but mostly Oom Jan said with a mixture of fondness and respect, runs like a fine, golden thread through conversations with the Cape's winemakers, young guns and greybeards alike.
Vintage 43
If it were Jan speaking, he'd call them ‘daai snotkoppe’ and 'onse oumanne'. His unhurried, thoughtful, methodical approach belies a razor-sharp mind. The man does not suffer fools gladly. He’s in his late 60s and ageless: strongly built, weathered, with boyishly cropped iron-grey-turning-white hair and piercing blue eyes. He was short for a rugby flanker but indomitable on the park, earning himself caps for the Springboks against the British Lions, France, and the All Blacks between 1974 and 1976.
But he was perhaps most beloved as a stalwart of the Streeptruie, the first to play 100 games wearing the Western Province blue-and-white striped jersey. As amateurs, rugby players were affiliated with a club throughout their careers. For Jan it was always Stellenbosch University's Maties, his home as a player for 17 years and as a coach until the late 1990s.
It is here that his tastings inspired generations of youngsters, not only rugby players and not only those already studying winemaking. More often than not it was his passion for Burgundy and a taste of some great wine that saw them up sticks and change course, many becoming top winemakers.
‘There were a lot of us playing rugby and making wine: me, Jannie Engelbrecht, Hempies du Toit. But it was because we all grew up on farms; we were farmers. To make good wine you have to listen to nature, let nature do the talking, and leave only footprints in the vineyard.’
Time spent with Jan is time spent learning new things. A vine shoot trailing over the pergola at the front door of Vriesenhof, his home, winery, and vineyard since 1980, shows even spacing between each leaf nodule. Where the space varies is an indicator of stress due to excessive heat and lack of water during that period of growth; a natural record of weather patterns.
“I could tell you as of 6 January 2012 that this vintage was going to be a repeat of 1981, for the first time.”
Jan was born in Porterville in the Swartland. It belies his muscular build and immense strength that he was premature at seven months. 'I weighed about one kilogram. It was before fancy medical facilities, incubators and such things. I went home in a shoebox. Apparently, my grandmother lifted me up and my neck went pap [slack]; she thought she'd broken it! Maybe that was the fighter spirit in me!'
Schooling was at Lambert's Bay Primary and Swartland High in Malmesbury, the source of his trademark regional brei with its rolling 'r's. Although his father was a teacher, Jan spent a lot of time with his uncles and Duma Anna on the family farm between Piketberg in the Swartland and Eland's Bay on the West Coast. One nephew still farms there; another is his viticulturist at Vriesenhof, replacing son Hannes who's broadening his experience elsewhere.
Jan studied oenology at Stellenbosch University. He graduated in 1968 and went to Kanonkop at the end of that year. 'Johann and Paul Krige's late father Jannie, who was running the farm for his father-in-Jaw Oom Paul Sauer, coached the Maties' Ul9 rugby team and offered me a job as assistant to veteran Danie Rossouw. But the old man passed away just before the harvest and there was I not knowing how a cellar worked and having to get 1 200 tons of grapes through a 2000-litre Willmes press! I didn't sleep for two whole months!'
Cape Coq au Vin Recipe with Vriesenhof Pinot Noir by Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee....
Delicious pumpkin pie recipe paired with Vriesenhof Pinotage by Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee....