Move over Charlize, here comes Rikus
If a blonde, blue-eyed beauty from Benoni can make it big in Hollywood, then a self-effacing blue-eyed boytjie from Benoni can surely make it in the winelands.
Tucked into a corner close to the N2 motorway to Cape Town, a stone’s throw outside Somerset West (in Eerste River), you’ll find the Croydon Residential Estate. No golf estate this, mind you, rather it is a wine estate where people get to live and if you really want to, even make some wine.
And it is here that you’ll find garagiste winemaker Rikus Neethling, who resides in a stylish home, a short distance from the dinky little Croydon Estate Cellar where he crafts his sublime red wines in tiny quantities.
His tasting room is on the estate – in fact it is in his home, in a cool high-ceilinged room adjacent to his office, lined with wine racks, and with a welcoming dark wood table and chairs. It’s the kind of place that makes you feel immediately at home, as does Rikus – while he presents his wines, and the story behind each.
“For me, each wine is a work in progress,” he says. “I’m constantly striving to make the next wine better than the last.”
And tasting his 2009 and 10 Henrietta (named for his Mum) Bordeaux-style white blend, and his 08, 09, 10 and 11 Estalét Syrah (named for his wife), it’s clear he’s heading in the right direction.The white blend is unusually semillon-led (70% semillon 30% sauvignon blanc), and it’s packed with waxy citrus notes and honeysuckle and lime peel whiffs.
The palate speaks of nutty honey and lemon and lime, linear, with edgy refreshing acidity and a lingering finish. The 09 is lovely, and the 10 is clearly a step up. The semillon component of his Henrietta Bordeaux-style white blend comes from Franschhoek: “I came across the vineyard while I was conducting wine tours in the area,” says Rikus “I got talking to the winemaker, tasted his wines and was convinced of the potential in semillon.” That same winemaker now supplies him with semillon grapes each year, and the sauvignon blanc component comes from Elgin.
Having been a dab hand with the willow at school, Rikus was awarded a cricket bursary at the University of Pretoria, but some fortuitous career advice set him on a path that brought him down to Stellenbosch, where he studied oenology and viticulture instead.
He cut his teeth at the then Mountain Ridge Co-op (now Wines), along with Swartland maverick Eben Sadie. “Eben eventually moved off and ended up doing his own thing, and I thought if he can, so can I,” says Rikus – and so Bizoe (from the French bisou – “little kiss”) Wines was born.
Turning to his syrah, we taste our way through three vintages, and Rikus relays the tale of where the grapes come from. “I spotted the vineyard when I worked at Mountain Ridge, and I knew that if I went on my own, I’d make great wine with those grapes if I could get my hands on them.” He did in 2008 and 2009, and the results speak for themselves. Smoky black plums, meaty notes, fynbos and white pepper, all lead to velvety red and black berry fruit, gently nippy tannins, a long finish with a plummy note at the end.
But in 2010, the fruit wasn’t available to him. “Why?” I ask, and he rolls his eyes and says “Don’t ask.” So the 2009 swyrah fruit came from Stellenbosch, and whilethe wine is quite different in aroma and flavour profile, it is characteristic of the 2008 and 2009, linear, balanced, sumptuous which says that Rikus is fast developing his style.
We stroll to the dinky little Croydon Cellar and in the dim coolness of the barrel cellar, we taste Rikus’s 2011 Syrah, first from a 400 litre Burgundy barrel then from a Bordeaux barrique.
The Burgundy barrel has produced a wine that is fruit-sweet plummy, peppery with an almost Bacon Kip note, on smoky earthiness. Malleable tannins are complemented by crisp acidity, and the finish is long. “The oak is old,” says Rikus, “but I inserted a new medium barrel head.” The Bordeaux barriques render crisper red and black fruit flavours with leaner, more structured tannins, and the finish is consistent and elegant. We speculate on what may emerge once Rikus does the final blending, but it’s clear that his work in progress philosophy dictates that it will be a step up.
Production volumes are small, but his wines have an uncommonly large footprint, helped no doubt by a crop of gold medals, and 90+ points from Wine Spectator and International Wine Cellar’s Steve Tanzer recently. His flagship Henrietta Semillon-Sauvignon blend and the Estalét Syrah have built a following in the America, Switzerland and the Carribean, and you’ll find them listed in local restaurants. You can’t buy the wines from Rikus directly, but you can get them from some retail outlets.
But for Bolander readers, Rikus is just a short drive away, so drop by some time, he’d love to see you – but do call ahead to make sure he’s there and not in the cellar, or visiting the vineyards to keep an eye on his grapes. Contact Rikus on 021 843 3307, 083 709 9357 or
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to book a tasting visit. Trust me, you won’t be sorry.
Written by Carolyn Frost You are reading Move over Charlize, here comes Rikus articles
