Peter's love of animals saw him consider a career as a veterinarian - 'possibly big game' - after matriculating from the Finlayson family alma mater Rondebosch Boys' High and enrolling for a B.Sc. at Pietermaritzburg University in then Natal as a precursor to acceptance at vet's college Onderstepoort.
When he didn't make the limited intake, he returned home to the Cape for a degree in oenology and viticulture.
'Home' for Peter Finlayson had always been Hartenberg, the wine grape and cattle farm in Stellenbosch bought in the 1940s by his father Maurice, a Cape Town pathologist. The Finlaysons bottled their first wines, made by Peter's older brother Walter, in the late 1960s under the label Montagne. When Walter moved on, Peter took over, having completed a post-graduate practical wine technology course at the Geisenheim Institute near Wiesbaden, Germany in 1975.
Proving financially unsustainable back then, the farm was sold soon after (eventually bought by the Mackenzie family whose winemaker Carl Schultz became a fellow Guild member). Peter spent the following few vintages at historic Boschendal with Achim von Arnim until, in 1979, he found his way to what was to become his true home: the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.
He stepped through a door forced open by ambitious adman Tim Hamilton Russell, pushing against a highly regulated wine industry operating in a conservative agricultural environment. The Hemel-en-Aarde Valley was virgin viticultural terroir. Then the Cape's most southerly vineyards, it offered a cooler, coastal climate than most other traditional Cape wine making areas, promising exceptional wines.
Peter was involved in the simple but effective Hamilton Russell Vineyards (HRV) cellar design, subsequently turning out highly rated pinot noirs and chardonnays grown in the stony, clay-rich, shale-derived soils. Both were new to South Africa.
He says Chardonnay began to absorb him only after his early HRV successes. By comparison, his attraction to Pinot Noir was 'instantaneous'. After drawing the first sample of his fermenting maiden '81 Hamilton Russell vintage and tasting it, he remembers thinking: 'This is it!'
In 1989 he won the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year award, Pinot Noir being that year's category. On the judging panel was Frenchman Paul Bouchard, the tenth generation at Burgundian négociant and shipper Bouchard Aîné et Fils in Beaune, who expressed an interest in the future of the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.
Peter and HRV administrative manager Michael Clark had already invested in and started planting a property next to HRV called Klein Hemel-en-Aarde, situated on the rugged slopes of the Raed-na-Gael range separating the valley from the Atlantic Ocean. Backed by several businessmen, the two partners decided to go solo. They built a small, thatch-roofed winery and, in 1991, crushed their first grapes, bought from surrounding Overberg cool-climate areas like Elgin and Villiersdorp.
While they were deciding on a name for their wines, Bouchard made a commitment, and 'Bouchard Finlayson' was born.
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....