Glorious garagistes – Edo Heyns

Edo Heyns is the charming wine writer from Wineland and Fynproe. There is more to him than meets the eye – he has studied viticulture and oenology, and also practises what he preaches with his nocturnal garagiste wine making activities. In the second in our series on garagiste wine makers, Edo talks about the wine he makes.

1.    What exactly is a garagiste wine maker?
The term comes from the word garage and refers to people who make wine in their garages. Nowadays, however, some of them are quite serious about their wine and have mini-cellars with equipment to match their smaller volumes. Micro-winemaking has its own challenges, since a slight oxygen exposure to a 5 litres can is much more serious than the same happening to a 30,000 litre tank.

2.    How did you end up as one?
I have access to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc vineyards and studied viticulture and oenology. The first time I did it, I just thought it is a cool excuse for an interesting party and invited 5 fellow students join me for the harvest. That night we worked 13 hours, picked and destemmed just short of ton of Cab by hand, drank impressive amounts of Windhoek Draught (for energy, of course…) and went to class the next morning. True story. That wine was sold as “Ses van die Bestes” and we’ve been doing it ever since.

3.    What do you think garagistes bring to wine making that the traditional wine makers don’t?
I’m going to bugger up your question by saying that garagiste winemakers are the traditional winemakers. Most of us don’t have budgets for fancy equipment and additions like enzymes and fining agents. I think this type of wine is a pure, unadulterated form of the product. I am also playing around, like many established wineries, with the idea of trying natural fermentation to take this to the next step. This doesn’t mean that our wine is necessarily inferior to those made in proper cellars and it shouldn’t stand out when tasted among other commercial wines.

4.    What is the most exciting thing about being a garagiste wine maker?
Chicks dig it

5.    What is the most challenging thing about being a garagiste wine maker?
Being cost effective with smaller volumes. Bottling is also a problem. You can’t use a bottling line with nitrogen and CO2 to minimise oxidation when your total production is 300 litres. I bottle my wine with a hosepipe and gravity. This works, but it is scary to think that you can easily mess up your hard work during the final step.

6.    Please describe your wine for us?
So far, my favourite has been a Cab/Cab Franc blend. Cab Sauvignon ripens far later than Cab Franc and this meant that by the time the Cab Sauvignon was ripe, the Cab Franc was super ripe! They were co-fermented – it is not recommended to co-ferment if the sugar levels between the components vary a lot – and it worked beautifully! Berries, cherries, cigarbox and subtle cloves. Big and bold!

7.    What can we do to promote garagistes in South Africa?
It should not be promoted. As soon as too many people start doing it, it will lose its appeal

8.    What is the biggest challenge facing the South African wine industry at the moment?
Politics and economics. Unfortunately. Second to those – local consumption. Luckily, we can do something about it. Bottoms up!

9.    How do you think South African wine ranks internationally?
Increasingly high.

10.    Talk to us about environmental issues in wine.
I’ll keep you busy for days – I’m switching to organic production…

11.    What is your favourite wine that you have made?
See above.

12.    What are you drinking at the moment?
Still Windhoek. LOL

13.    Where can we get bottles of your wine?
Under my bed.

14.    If you weren’t making wine, what would you be doing?
Writing about it.

15.    Anything else you would like to add?
Go organic.

If you are a garagiste winemaker and would like to be included in this series, please drop me a line by email.