Winemaking must count as an artistic pursuit if the Finlayson family is anything to go by. In a clan that includes several architects and a thespian and singer, those who have found their way to winemaking cannot help but follow their natural creative bent in other ways too. Peter Finlayson is one such.
Vintage 36
Over nearly four decades Peter Finlayson has, in characteristically reserved fashion, been a quiet leader in the Cape wine industry.
During his tenure with Walker Bay pioneer Russell Vineyards he helped open up new viticultural areas (the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Elgin and Villiersdorp) from the late 1970s, and then went on to establish Cape benchmark wines from a highly specialised variety (Pinot Noir) and its Burgundian co-star Chardonnay in the 1980s.
In establishing his eponymous Bouchard Finlayson winery in Walker Bay at the beginning of the 1990s, Peter attracted renewed European investment in local wine growing in the modern era (Burgundian Paul Bouchard's collaboration in Peter's own Walker Bay venture).
During this period the by-now internationally acclaimed Pinot Noir and Chardonnay specialist also introduced new grape varieties to South Africa (Italian classics Sangiovese and the climate-specific Nebbiolo).
And he was one of eight founder members in 1982 of the Cape Winemakers Guild (together with older brother Walter who put leading Cape wine farms Blaauwklippen and Glen Carlou on the map).
But behind the serious, self-contained public face of this éminence grise of Cape wine (combining a steely blue-eyed gaze with a shy smile beneath the grey-white beard), lies an avuncular private persona with the soul of an artist. It breaks through when he's surrounded by family.
A Family of Artists
Peter Finlayson is an unabashedly doting grandfather to impossibly blonde Katie and Floyd. Peter calls the little girl 'Goldilocks'; her toddler brother is named after Peter's late maternal uncle, architect Hugh Floyd, a staunch protector of the Cape's historical architectural heritage over the years.
To break the ice and entertain his grandchildren, Grandpa has been known to burst into song in his rich baritone. 'I was Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat once,' he reveals, referring to his regular turns in the local Hermanus amateur dramatic society's performances of anything from Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals to Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.
Katie and Floyd are the children of Peter's elder son Andrew, also an architect. As is Peter's youngest brother Graham; the third brother David is in the food business 'and the only one making serious money!' Peter's nephews (Walter's two sons) are David (Edgebaston winemaker and fellow Guild member) and Robert (one of South Africa's leading musical actors), while a niece Carolyn married a Swiss vintner who also farms in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley (Creation Wines).
Peter's younger son Peter-Allan has followed in his father's footsteps, although by a circuitous route. Despite initially abandoning a winemaking degree he found 'too scientific', this philosophy and economics graduate is yet another Finlayson inexorably drawn to winemaking. After working harvests in Burgundy and Priorat, Spain, Peter-Allan returned 'home' to Walker Bay to start his own label - Crystallum Wines - in 2007 in association with his brother Andrew. Rather than be referred to as a 'self-taught' winemaker, he likes to describe himself as 'father-taught'.
Peter and wife Geta, a jeweller with a fine arts degree from Stellenbosch University where they met when Peter was studying viticulture and oenology in the early 1970s, share a deep love of the outdoors, nature and animals. It's here that this vintner finds another artistic outlet: photography.
An avowed Canon man, he was eventually convinced to 'convert' to Nikon on his annual Wine Safari to Kenya's Masai Mara in collaboration with leading South African wildlife photographer and Wildphotos Safaris owner Daryl Balfour.
'It's a very special week for me. We'd developed a rather nice symbiotic arrangement where I'd organise the wines and give clients evening tastings in exchange for a place on the trip. But he'd be giving tips on his Nikon and I was the only one using a Canon; so I had to give in eventually!'
Flame-grilled fillet recipe with mustard and Worcestershire sauce by Peter Finlayson....
Grilled salmon recipe with salmon pâte and cream cheese sauce by Peter Finlayson....