Rand Merchant Bank chairman GT Ferreira had bought a fruit farm on the southern Simonsig slopes in 1994 as a family home, renaming it after his children Thomas and Kara. Miles Mossop had no immediate plans to make wine, but his neighbour persuaded him otherwise.
Webb [a former Guild member] is regarded as one of the Cape's most competent, ambitious wine growers, driven by the conviction that South Africa can make consistently world-class wines if specific varieties are planted on the right sites. Takara had several such sites.
Some 40 hectares of high-altitude slopes - more than 400 metres up - had them salivating at the potential for quality from microclimates cooler than was the norm in Stellenbosch. From 1995 to 1997, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon were planted.
Excavations started on a state-of-the-art 900-ton cellar on the crest of the Helshoogte Pass. Miles recalls his arrival in January 2000. 'There was this huge cavity covered by a stainless steel structure, sides boarded up with plywood. Fermentation tanks were being off-loaded. Jackhammers were going. There was dust everywhere. Then the first grapes started coming in.'
Webb left the game young winemaker to it. 'He said cheers, and I hardly saw him over the next few weeks. He'd appear at odd moments for a quick chat: I'd just hear this yell above all the noise: "MILES!"' The stoked young surfer took the wine wave and was barrelled.
The first wines were released in 2002. They made a huge impression on cognoscenti. They also piqued interest because of the name: Zondernaam. It was a reference to the seventeenth-century property's original listing as 'the farm without a name'. But it was also in keeping with Ferreira, Webb and their young winemaker's preference for understatement. The vines required maturity to deliver the quality they wanted Takara to be associated with.
It came in 2005. The first four wines to appear under the Takara label were a Bordeaux-style red blend simply called Tokara Red; a barrel-fermented and matured Sauvignon Blanc (later to include sémillon) called Takara White; a Chardonnay; and a Sauvignon Blanc from fruit grown in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near Walker Bay.
In the ensuing vintages, Miles continued to scale the ever-higher bar of standards and expectations set by Ferreira and Webb, critics, connoisseurs and ongoing public acclaim. In 2010, Tokara was voted top producer at leading South African wine competition the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show.
'I'd like to put a Rhône-style red on the Guild auction one day; and perhaps a port...'
These are not just small quantities of exclusive wines; this is quality across an unusually broad spectrum and consistently so. Even pinotage. 'Neither Gyles, Aidan [Morton] nor I are great fans, but GT had wanted a proudly South African pinotage.'
Miles almost won the 2002 Diners Club Winemaker of the Year award - the category that year happened to be pinotage - with his first Zondernaam Pinotage 2001 made from bought-in grapes. Not long after Tokara's 500 vines - planted in the middle of a block of mourèvdre - came on-stream, the Tokara Pinotage 2007 won the trophy for best pinotage at the 2010 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show.
Miles attributes it to the site, which delivers optimally ripe grapes. But he makes a 'full, chunky' wine with generous new oak maturation 'which pinotage needs'. This is unlike Tokara's trademark restrained and accessible style.
Smoked or Norwegian salmon in a creamy dill sauce on tagliatelle recipe by Miles Mossop paired with Tokara Director's Reserve White wine....
Upside-down plum pudding recipe by Miles Mossop and served with fresh cream and paired with Kika Miles Mossop Wine....