His boss is known on the world stage as 'The Big Easy', but Louis Strydom, winemaker and now managing director of Ernie Els Wines, the Florida-based, South African golfing international’s eponymous winery. On the slopes of the Helderberg in Stellenbosch, has a fluid and seemingly effortless way with winemaking, life, and the universe as Els has with his golf swing.
Vintage 18
Wife Rianie says all her husband really wants to do is spend his days trundling his wheelbarrow around his vineyards, secateurs in hand, battered hat on his head, cigar dangling his lips, 'even though he doesn't smoke.'
The wheelbarrow, she explains, is in keeping with the peasant French tradition of making a fire out of old vine stock in your wheelbarrow to keep yourself warm while you work in the vineyards in winter.
No surprise then that one of his favourite meals is simple spaghetti bolognese, like his mother Ednamay, a nurse, used to make it. 'We always had it once a week. Now I do it every week for my family.'
'Family' includes 'the team', as he refers to his three children with the nostalgically French names of Jean-Louis, Jacq, and Daniele. Large, informal portraits of each look down over the big, wooden kitchen table where most meals are enjoyed.
The two boys are pictured on Dune Seven in the Namib Desert near Walvis Bay.
The Strydoms did a recent overland trip with several other families and their children, which Louis rates as one of his best holidays ever. The love of the outdoors and open spaces runs in the blood.
'My father Wessel was born in Senekal in the Free State, the son of a sheep and grain farmer. But, being the second son, he didn’t inherit the farm.
So he joined the police force, moving from the Free State to Camps Bay in Cape Town.'
Once married, his parents lived in Bakoven overlooking the sea, where Louis was born. The family then moved to Table View.
Louis was head boy of Table View Primary but, because there was no high school there in those days, he was sent off to Paarl Boys' High, where his love for the Winelands was born and his professional path was forged.
'When my dad retired, he was able to spend time on his sporting passion, hunting. So as a family we've been introduced to venison in all its forms: biltong, sausage, and various cuts of fresh meat.'
And there's a fair bit still coming his way as Wessel and Ednamay (still practicing nursing at the new Khayelitsha Hospital) live right next door on the smallholding simply signposted, in understated French peasant style: Strydom Vineyards.
Baked spaghetti bolognaise recipe by Louis Strydom paired with Ernie Els Big Easy wine....
Springbok fillet with gooseberry-Amarula sauce recipe by Louis Strydom paired with Ernie Els Proprietor's Blend wine....