The story goes that when Louis Nel turned one, his mom discovered she'd run out of food colouring for the icing on his birthday cake. So she used some red wine! There is no record of the result (pink icing or a very happy little boy), but her son eventually became a talented winemaker with a refreshingly unorthodox view on what goes into, and onto, his bottles of Louis Wines.
Vintage 20
Launched in 2009 with a 2007 vintage of two rich red wines, the Louis by Louis Nel range immortalises the memory on a bold black label marked by a simply rendered drawing of a somewhat wonky (drunken?) cake in various guises. It proved a doubly apt emblem as the launch followed the arrival of the winemaker's mini-me daughter, Bea, with his wife Celeste.
'The cake,' ponders the tall, gangly man, 'has sometimes been mistaken for a crown.'
But given the seemingly shy, thoroughly un-royal mien of this vintner with his decidedly offbeat sense of humour and wry observation on of the ways of the world and its people, it would then be more illustrative of King Louis, the loopy lemur of the animated movie Madagascar, than of any of the famous French regents. There's an equally wacky tale lurking behind the source of the very fine grapes from which the maiden Louis Cabernet Sauvignon was made.
'This wine has a soul ... that of a civilised Viking warrior that was good at maths and liked jazz.'
A good friend, whose family owns a wine farm in the foothills of the Helderberg, kindly offered him some grapes from a prime, then 20-year-old cabernet vineyard in exchange for his winemaking services. The subsequent saga involved a disputed boundary line between the friend and a neighbour, the unilateral erection of a fence through the middle of a trellised block amid negotiations over a land swap to preserve the vineyard and an unseemly scuffle among the vines between Louis' 'meek and mild and well-meaning' friend and his irate 'unreasonable' neighbour.
The single crop from the 'lost' vines was vinified separately and appeared as a once off on the 2009 Guild auction. The mischievous Louis called it Neighbour's Wrath! The salvaged vines have since been producing the Louis Cabernet Sauvignon and the Louis Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot.
Subsequent special Guild auction bottlings have appeared under similarly intriguing names, reflecting the questing nature of the man who makes them. In 2011 there was Turtles All the Way Down, a pure cabernet made as 'naturally' as possible and described by Louis as 'wine in its simplest, unadulterated form... as naked as can be.'
The moniker alludes to the circular essence of cause and effect; the cosmological conundrum of infinity. Challenged with answering this unanswerable question, renowned modern scientists and astronomers involved in debate tell an anecdote based on the ancient concept of the earth as a flat plate supported on the back of variously: an elephant; a tortoise; and a turtle. The riposte to the immediate follow-up question as to what's supporting the turtle, is simply: 'Well, it's turtles all the way down!'
In a similar vein, Louis has been known to dwell on the question of 'the science of the art of winemaking and the art of the science of winemaking. He's a regular contributor to the New World Winemaker technical website, where winemakers and wine technologists, researchers and product manufacturers post findings.
'I was an "avant-garde" winemaker in my "youth",' he says. 'Now I keep things as natural as possible, but I'm still interested in the infinite possibilities of what can be done in the cellar.'
On that same 2011 auction was another typically 'Louis' wine called Rebel Rebel. He explains his philosophy thus: 'Wines are often so correct they are boring and this was an attempt to have a wine that showed some skin, with tattoos. This wine could be compared to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - a grown-up Pippi Longstocking.'
Despite his self-confessed rebellious streak, the man is no Don Quixote tilting at windmills. His recently embraced freedom of expression through his own labels, including various collaborations with growers and chefs to produce wines tailored to specific tastes and trends, is based on a solid grounding of study, experience and an abiding interest in wine technology.
He grew up 'surrounded by vines' in Paarl in the Cape Winelands, making wine 'almost an automatic career choice'. He had, however, considered doing electrical engineering but was stymied by a 'suspect' school maths mark. Instead, he completed a B.Sc. degree in viticulture and oenology at the University of Stellenbosch in 1992.
From early on, the man found himself working with some of the strongest personalities in the business: assertive, demanding, talented and driven. Recognised and described as a prodigious talent himself, he revelled in these influences, on all levels. But his naturally low-key approach saw him seldom if ever, take centre stage; he was happy for the wines to speak for him.
Hearty and zesty lamb knuckle casserole recipe by Lois Nel served with couscous and paired with Louis Cabernet Sauvignon....
This salad sauce recipe by Lois Nel brightens up any salad, paired with Louis Sauvignon Blanc wine....