The History of Vriesenhof Chardonnay

"To say Chardonnay is a great grape varietal, is like saying Michaelangelo was a great artist - true indeed but also a great injustice."

As much as Jan Boland Coetzee was a legend on the rugby field, playing for Western Province and South Africa in the 1960s and 70s, Coetzee has also become a wine legend in his own right, receiving an honorary doctorate – Doctor of Science in Agriculture – from Stellenbosch University last year. More recently, he was awarded the 1659 Medal of Honour at the annual Wine Harvest Commemorative event held at Groot Constantia.

Not only has he made some of South Africa’s greatest wines and influenced other winemakers, but he played a major role in “introducing” the Chardonnay grape to South Africa in 1980, while working in France. Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee’s passion for the potential of this green-skinned grape was laid bare in a 1986 newspaper headline that read: BOLAND COETZEE HET DRUIF GESMOKKEL (Boland Coetzee smuggled grapes). At the time the South African wine industry mostly consisted of plantings of just two other white grapes, and Coetzee and other Chardonnay-loving winemakers realised that if they waited for the establishment of a new grape variety through normal processes, the country would fall behind the rest of the world both as a producer and exporter.

To this day, Chardonnay has a special place in Coetzee’s heart. Now cellar master for the Stellenbosch estate, he has passed the winemaking baton to Nicky Claasens.

“I have a philosophy of ‘unobtrusive manipulation” Claasens said, “where I combine what nature provides with my knowledge to make the best wine possible without harming its intrinsic qualities.” He seeks to make “Chardonnays of refinement” and he is certainly succeeding in continuing one of Coetzee’s legacy wines.