For Plettenberg Bay’s emerging wine industry, having stellar wine makers to create our wines is nothing short of a gift from the gods.
We have been so fortunate to have had two such ‘gifts in the guise of Anton Smal and Jaco van der Watt.
Anton (or Smallie for short) made his mark at Villeria, creating Cap Classique’s (bubblies), still wines, ports, noble late harvests and blends. He has taken two greenhorns and is showing them the beauty of wine.
Jaco, studied viticulture and oenology at Stellenbosch University and travelled the world studying the ins and outs of wine-making, becoming the assistant winemaker at Cedarberg Wines before heading down to Plett. His nose is incredible, and his precision and love of wine has created two exceptional wine for us.
It’s all about the grapes, and both Anton & Jaco, with their vast knowledge of the intricacies of wine, weave their magic – teasing the tastes from the grapes, tweaking the ambrosial liquids in cools steel vats and French oak barrels.
Each vineyard has its own unique terroir and personality which needs the winemakers’ skill to unlock the potential to create its wines and Cap Classiques.
Winemakers are as complex and as delightful as the wines they make. Men & women of heart, who love passionately what they do. People of steel, to have the dreams of many in their hands. People of logic and formulas – as it’s all about getting it right, in the end.
They have given the Plett Winelands the gift of their skills and we have been rewarded amply: golds, double golds, trophies, acclaims …
Anton & Jaco are in the company of Sollie Sauerman & Vicky Gent (Packwood), Gloria Strack van Schyndel (Plettenvale Wines), and our newest addition to the Winelands Family – Megan van der Merwe of Telluric in putting the Plett Winelands on the South African Wine Map.