Johan Joubert personifies a personality trait most aptly described in his mother tongue of Afrikaans: Stille waters, diepe grond. Quietly spoken, gentle, self-effacing, his contained, courteous demeanour belies a rare, deeply felt emotion when it comes to his relationship with the vine. It's most poigantly illustrated in a story he tells...
Vintage 20
Johan Joubert received a call from a colleague who was passing by his blue-chip 30-year-old chenin blanc bush vine vineyard, warning him that they were busy pulling out his vines. He dropped everything and ran. 'It was one of the worst moments of my life.'
'The bulldozers were already there, digging out the vines on instruction of the farm’s new owner. I literally went and stood in front of them with my arms out, yelling: “Stop! Stop!” Then I actually went and ordered the operators to switch off the ignition. Of the six hectares, they had already ripped out nearly four. I took one of the posts marking the block - these were vines planted in 1982! I was in shock, very disappointed. I went home and just sat there, clutching the wooden post.'
Wife Adri says he was absolutely devastated 'I couldn’t get anything out of him!' It was weeks before he could face returning to the site where the rescued two-and-half hectares remained. He collected all the old vine stock and brought it home. Chopping it up for firewood, he could see from the cross-cut that the wood was still perfectly healthy, showing no signs of dying off.
'Those precious vines had another 15 to 20 years in them; I couldn't believe it! The owner phoned and was very apologetic; he did not realise how valuable those old vines were.' Johan vows that the smidgen of remaining vineyard will one day, if he has anything to do with it, produce an 'icon' wine!
Johan reckons that, in 2011, roughly 80 hectares of old chenin blanc bush vines in Stellenbosch were ripped out and only eight hectares have been replanted. 'As a lover of these old bush vines, I have the utmost respect for one person in particular for her ongoing commitment to "saving" them around here and that's Christine Rudman [wine judge, writer and educator].'
The man can reel off a litany of evocative aromas and flavours characteristic of wines made from mature chenin blanc bush vines: 'peaches, ripe pineapple, litchi, honey...' He confesses it's his favourite style wine. 'I don't handle acidity too well, so I just love drinking chenin.'
But then, as if to defend the implied variety from which he also makes five-star wines, such as his award-winning Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, he catalogues the charms of the regional fruit that goes toward his Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.
'From Stellenbosch you get green fig; from Darling, asparagus; from Durbanville, green peas; from the West Coast, green pepper (capsicum, bell pepper); from Walker Bay/Stanford, winter melon and length. You can either capture it in one wine, or put some or all of them together to reach the style you would like for your consumer.'
As cellarmaster at Kleine Zalze Wines in Stellenbosch from the· 2003 vintage, Johan has relished the opportunities of working with vineyard pockets small and large, both on Kleine Zalze and in other areas within about 20 kilometres of the sea.
Creating different styles of wines for different markets has been part of the job description from day one. When Kleine Zalze's co-owner Kobus Sasson asked his then law partner Anton Melck, whose family owns Muratie Estate in Stellenbosch where Johan had his maiden vintage, to recommend a winemaker, he was told: 'You need someone like Johan Joubert.'
Baked kassler pork chops with pineapple rings recipe by Johan Joubert paired with Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Barrel Fermented Chenin Bl...
Quick fix mushroom risotto recipe by Johan Joubert paired with Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Barrel Fermented Chardonnay....