My brother, Xaver, lives in Switzerland. Whenever he is here in South Africa my life is not my own. He arrived the week before but this week we started off Monday Morning at 4:30 am by heading off to Voor Paardeberg to film the next episode of “Finding the rock stars of the wine industry”. The Hitman is on the move again... It starts with a sunrise scene of distant rolling hills of the Swartland. Breathtaking! Mathew Copeland, winemaker of Vondeling, took us to the top of Paardeberg. A hectic 4x4 route and his Toyota really impressed...
There are many consumers who won’t drink wine from certain wine producing areas in the Western Cape, who according to them, cannot make good wine. But as I stood there on the top of the Paardeberg, I realised that all these so-called areas are right next to eachother. Malmesburg is actually situated right next to the ocean. Gazing towards Table mountain I see Durbanville right in front of me, Constantia and Tulbach in the distance, Paarl to the one side, Riebeeck Kasteel to the other, Darling closer to the ocean, and Wellington to the back.
I am not saying that these areas have the same climate and will therefore produce similar wines, no! What I am saying is that all these areas have the potential to make something extraordinary. Yes, the vineyards of all these areas will differ and therefore the wine styles, but so does one vineyard to the one next to it, even on the same farm. It differs as the soil changes. If you are in the wine industry, people tend to focus on areas and it makes it feels so big and glamorous, but in fact it is so very small. Everyone knows everyone and we are all on top of each other. Fascinating that we can all produce wines that is so different... Maybe we should stop looking at areas where we think people could make wine or can’t... Let’s rather focus on the potential of a block of grapes, regardless of area. Let’s look at the soil, the microclimate etc. and then decide if we have the guts to invest into that specific block. I personally believe that all the areas that I could see from Paardeberg have incredible potential. Different cultivars, different wines, different styles... but with one thing in common: LOADS OF POTENTIAL! According to the history books, our wine industry is 350 years old. This gives us the privilege to have ample old vines. But according to history, again, our wine industry’s been exposed to the international trade for only 15 years. So I recon our industry is only 15 years old then. We now have some of the best and innovative winemakers in the world. They are scattered throughout the Western Cape and only starting to scratch the surface when it comes to wine innovation. Truly exciting times. Anyhow, we shot the interview with Matthew Copeland of Vondeling on the top of the Paardeberg.
Back to the office on Monday afternoon we sat at the drawing table until Tuesday afternoon. We were planning the 60 second commercial we have to make where the “Hitman” is commissioned by the boss to find the “Rock stars of the wine industry”. We finalised the script way back, but nothing wanted to work. We wanted to use the SA NAVY in the opening shot but they said no, we could not find a suitable board room to do the second scene and the jazz band cancelled on us. I do not want to go into detail but great friends and family came to our rescue. With family like this; I am not too sure you can do everything, but you can at least try everything...
On Wednesday morning Xaver and myself seriously considered postponing the shoot. We prayed about it and decided to give it one more day of trying to see if things work out. While bottling 2 new wines by hand, I phoned everyone I know who might be able to help us. By Wednesday evening, and plenty of MIRACULOUS happenings later, we had everything in place. We planned a 8 am start for the next day. As I sat down on the couch, glass of wine in hand, I received a e-mail on my Blackberry. It was from Siskha, the right hand of “the dangerous one”. The venue where we were supposed to shoot the 2 main scenes, (the yacht and the bar scene) cancelled on us. Luckily we planned to shoot these scenes only on Friday. Xaver came over and we again considered stopping everything. We did the sums and realised that there are just too much at stake. We had to now push through.
Early on Thursday morning we shot the first scene with the Kaapse Klopse at Shofar Christian Church’s head office on Oude Molen, Stellenbosch. They gave us free use of the venue. Our actors were my wife, my brother in law, my father-in-law, a friend of a friend and the main guy (can’t tell you who that was). Our friends came to help behind the scenes while the remaining family did babysitting while my family was acting... We had heaps of fun! During the morning The Cape Grace Hotel in Cape Town came to the rescue. We could make use of their bar for the following day’s bar scene. Later the day “The BOSS” phoned me and made the suggestion that we make use of a limo, rather than the yacht... And that’s how it all came together...
Day 2 at the Cape Grace hotel: We shot the first scene of the day in their lobby, the second scene down in their Bascule Bar and the last in a 4x4 Land Rover limousine in front of the hotel. The hotel personnel assisted in some of the supporting roles. Bottom line: we wanted to make a world class commercial for the wine industry. The problem with that is that selling wine will never produce enough revenue to fund the commercial . You therefore want to do amazing things on a tight budget. And that’s where one’s friends and family comes in. That evening when we left the Cape GRACE at 00h00, I just realised that without God’s GRACE we are lost... and our dreams will just stay exactly that...a dream!
