Back in 1990, upon his return to Mont Fleur and an architectural career in Cape Town, David Trafford had been 'somewhat taken aback to find that one Rita von Thelemann, a young graduate of the Cape Town cordon bleu cookery school Silwood Kitchen, had been driving 'Mello Yellow', his much-beloved old Peugeot 404.
Rita, a former fine arts student from the University of Stellenbosch, was working for David Trafford's parents at their secluded Mont Fleur Conference Venue. [Now run by David's sister Lynne, it was built from a design David had done as a student practical and was to host some of the key negotiations between political party leaders in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections in the early 1990s.]
'I saw Rita's CV before I saw her,' admits David with a bashful smile. They were married in 1994, spending a two-month honeymoon travelling in the European Winelands, specifically Champagne and Saint-Émilion. Now the parents of teenage son Nicholas and young daughter Rosalyn, the two share a love of nature and all things creative, from art and design to food and wine (each vintage of the De Trafford Chenin Blanc features one of her artworks).
'Nicholas at 15 is quite a into food and loves going out to good restaurants, while Rosalyn, who's 12, occasionally gets creative in the kitchen.' David was a dab hand in the kitchen himself 'until I married a qualified chef!' A few years ago it was his turn, though, after a Guild team tasting competition organised by fellow Guild member Bruce Jack saw David's 'team' win one of the famed 'men-only' Kitchen Cowboys cookery courses with South African celebrity chef Peter Goffe-Wood.
'There are so many things one can't do because one just doesn't have the time ... it's just life.'
The Traffords returned to the French Winelands for a 'second honeymoon in 2001 when David was given two air tickets to visit the Loire, the home of Chenin blanc, as the winner of the 2000 Chenin Blanc Challenge with his De Trafford Chenin Blanc 1999.
David had added a wood-fermented Chenin Blanc to his repertoire in 1995, it being a white variety that could be made in barrel quite successfully, thus not necessitating any additional expenditure on expensive new winemaking equipment in a cellar geared towards making red wines. It also appealed to him as something new to the Cape, an alternative to the increasingly ubiquitous chardonnay in providing a wooded white that could still express the natural fruit of the grape.
Although not overly keen on entering competitions and wine shows, he admits quite frankly that he entered the challenge mainly in the hopes of perhaps 'winning a trip to the Loire to explore Chenin further'.
It was there he became convinced that naturally fruity South African Chenin blanc, seriously treated in the barrel to come into its own after just a few years in bottle, offered a unique alternative to the highly acidic Loire wines that required decades in bottle before becoming drinkable. Similarly, such serious Cape chenins provided a pleasing new middle-of-the-road option in a market long dominated by full-bodied chardonnays on the one side and distinctively crisp, sometimes tart sauvignon Blancs on the other.
David (by now a Guild member) duly repeated his Chenin Challenge success in 2002 with his Keermont 2001, sharing the award with another advocate of the potential of wooded Chenin blanc, Teddy Hall [a fellow Guild member].
Hall had won the previous year, prompting David with his trademark dry wit to comment: 'At least it shows they got the [judging] panel right for the past three years.' Once asked how winemakers chose their best wine, he replied: 'The wine your wife likes.' But on a more serious note, he says his mission as a winemaker is simply: 'To express the vineyard and the vintage as completely as possible.'
David had also taken the opportunity during his Loire trip to taste sweet Chenin Blancs and visit the Jura, where he encountered vin de Paille (straw wine) for the first time. He had already been trying his hand at something similar from sun-dried grapes since 1995. The De Trafford Straw Wine from Chenin blanc, first released in the late 1990s after he had had to petition the wine industry to officially register this new wine category, was the first authentic vin de paille made in the Cape.
'Our straw wine is like a dessert on its own; I usually have it after I've had pudding. But it's also good with Rita's vanilla ice cream, orange cake and yoghurt and cheese and biscuits and nuts...'
I took a bottle of straw wine along on a trip to Tanzania to have at the top of Kilimanjaro in 2004. Alcohol at altitude is not wise, but we enjoyed the rest of the bottle in the Serengeti.'
South African traditional Durban curry recipe by cellar master David Trafford paired with Sijnn Rosé wine....
Pork belly recipe by David Trafford with roasted sweet corn and red pepper salsa served with roast sweet potatoes and dates....