Winemakers On Fire, Issue #23

Good day, and a warm welcome!

Welcome to the world of Weltevrede Wine Estate, where four generations of winemaking expertise combine to craft some of South Africa's finest Chardonnays and sparkling wines. Philip Jonker, the current owner and cellar master, took the reins from his father and has elevated the estate's reputation for excellence. Pour a glass and dive into this compelling interview with Philip as he uncorks the secrets of his award-winning Chardonnay magic.

We also showcase Jordan Jelev's stunning design for Chateau Boshnakoff's label, 'The Wave,' which is a perfect blend of modern and classic styles. Jordan skillfully combines various design elements to craft a captivating story that will grab your attention and linger in your memory. This elegant label is more than a simple decoration—it's an artistic feat that'll impress your senses and excite your taste buds.

Health Warning: This week's Winemakers On Fire is a bit longer than normal. I couldn't resist sharing the entire, fascinating interview with Philip Jonker. I’m sure you will agree with me.

Join us as we celebrate the passion, creativity, and innovation of these entrepreneurial spirits from the wine and design industries.

Meet Chardonnay Specialist Philip Jonker, Owner and Cellar Master at Weltevrede Wine Estate

Located in the biodiversity hotspot of the Cape Winelands, close to Bonnievale in the Robertson Valley, Weltevrede Wine Estate has been producing exceptional wines for over a century under four generations of the Jonker family. The current owner and cellar master, Philip Jonker, joined his father on the estate in 1997 after graduating with a degree in Viticulture and Oenology. Philip further honed his winemaking skills through harvest internships in California, Bordeaux and Burgundy before taking the helm at Weltevrede.

Under Philip's leadership, Weltevrede has established itself as one of South Africa's premier Chardonnay producers. The estate's 72 micro-vineyards encompass a diversity of terroirs that lend distinct personalities to each wine. Philip crafts multi-award-winning Chardonnays along with Methode Cap Classique sparkling wines that express Weltevrede's unique sense of place.

Beyond the vineyards and cellars, Philip is deeply involved in community initiatives like the Jakes Gerwel Technical school project. His faith and passion for helping others shape both his viticulture and life. As a 4th generation steward of his family's legacy, Philip Jonker is writing the next chapter of excellence at Weltevrede Wine Estate.

You come from a long line of family winemakers at Weltevrede. What inspired you to become a 4th generation winemaker, following in your family's footsteps?

For a family of custodians of one of the oldest family-run brands in South Africa, Weltevrede, the question of succession is important and potentially weighty. However, my parents are both exceptional people, and I was raised with the understanding that I have the freedom to pursue any dream or passion, as long as we try to keep Weltevrede in the family. That freedom has led me to fall in love with our geology, our terroir, and to become captivated by Chardonnay and Cap Classique. Other passions—to explore, innovate, design, write, and affect change—all find their place aligned with what I do.

Weltevrede is well-known for its outstanding Chardonnays. What factors contribute to this varietal's success in your vineyards, and what techniques do you employ to produce your award-winning Chardonnays?

I like to think Weltevrede didn’t choose Chardonnay. Chardonnay chose Weltevrede. The various terroirs of south-facing shale hills and plains of chalk are all high in limestone, which we refer to as calcrete, and Chardonnay vines love to put down their roots in this calcareous terroir. Calcrete allows the vine roots to be well aerated and to develop within reach of calcium, an important element to form Chardonnay flavours. Chardonnay, from here, draws its minerality and luminosity from these rocks and soils.

I know the Chardonnays from Weltevrede are much more elegant than most, much cleaner and more vibrant, and thin-layered in their complexity. Compared to other varietals, Chardonnay shows very little of herself. She is like a looking glass, magnifying either the ambition of the winemaker or her terroir. I believe she should be respected by the winemaker; she needs to be handled with care, with a very gentle hand, and with much restraint. Only then will she reward you with her nobility, offering intelligent and pensive wines, wines of modest inner beauty. Then, when asked, “Why are you so beautiful?” she humbly points to her origin, her terroir, and her place of birth.

You studied winemaking in California and France. What impact did that experience have on your approach to winemaking at Weltevrede?

When you have lived for 50 years in the same place, I think it is essential to travel and learn from others as much as you can. I have made Chardonnay with Bob Cartwright, a legendary winemaker for Leewen Estate in Margaret River, Australia. I have made Chardonnay with Bernard Portet from Clos du Val in Napa, yet my greatest inspiration probably came from the vineyards of Burgundy. In 2010, Lindelize and I took our daughter, Marianna, and did a home exchange to live in France for a few months. We moved into the medieval hilltop village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, halfway between Beaune and Chablis.

At the foot of the hill, I was given the opportunity to work at Vignoble d’Alesia, making Chardonnay from limestone terroir. I recognised a similarity in minerality to what we have at Weltevrede, but, like Chablis, they were the masters of capturing that minerality in the glass. I traded my sweat for Chardonnay grapes, bought a few barrels, and made my own Chardonnay in France. That became the inspiration for the making of Calcrete.

Today (and this is very recent news), we have launched what may be the first for the New World, a region defined not only by a grape varietal but an identifiable style. So, from the multigenerational family estates between Bonnievale and Robertson, you will find Calcrete wines: Weltevrede Calcrete, De Wetshof Calcrete, Rietvallei Calcrete, Van Loveren Calcrete, Excelsior Calcrete—very clean, minerally unwooded Chardonnays. A brand old appellation, I call it, as it is new, but rooted in a terroir track record of almost half a century.

Tell me about some of the unique terroir and soil diversity that contribute to the personality of your wines. How do you highlight the terroir in your wines?

Weltevrede makes only Chardonnay and Cap Classique. Other varietals find their home in a sister brand house, Cape Wine Crafters. Weltevrede makes three different Chardonnays and four different Cap Classiques of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Weltevrede is the southernmost estate in the Robertson Valley, close to Bonnievale. All our vineyards are south-facing and exposed to the off-cooling breeze in the afternoon during the growth season, which causes a vast diurnal shift, which Chardonnay seems to like. Sunny days, cool nights. Our terroir ranges from hills of shale harbouring ancient imprints of fossilised marine life to plains of chalky “kraaltjies”, calcrete circles established by ancient termites. All our vineyards are well-drained and high in pH, and calcium, leading to lower-pH wines with great radiance and longevity.

The oldest producing vineyard on Weltevrede was planted by my great-grandfather in 1926. We select the vineyards for the three Chardonnays very carefully. The three Chardonnay wines are Weltevrede Calcrete, Weltevrede Place of Rocks, and Weltevrede Poet’s Prayer. There is a thread of minerality running through all three, although they have different levels of depth and individualistic expression. Calcrete is unwooded, Place of Rocks barrel fermented and matured for nine months, and Poet’s Prayer for 12 months in French oak barrels. The Cap Classique Collection includes Philip Jonker Brut Entheos, Philip Jonker Brut Rosetta Rosé, Philip Jonker Nectar and Philip Jonker Brut The Ring Blanc de Blanc, our extended-lees aged vintage Cap Classique.

I do a lot of grape tasting in the vineyards. Sometimes I may be found in the vineyards at 04:00 in the morning with only the light of my cell phone, picking berries and making final decisions about grape allocations and whether to pick at 06:00 or wait another day. Knowing your terroir is essential, and having inherited the experience of generations is such a blessing. I honestly do not know how you can make wine if you are only employed as a winemaker to spend, say, four or five years at a winery and move on. You will not even understand half of what your terroir may have to offer. After 112 years of working with the terroir of Weltevrede as a family, we feel we are only starting to find answers. The more we know, the more detail we seek. Every wine from Weltevrede is 100% estate grown, 100% hand-picked, and 100% whole bunch pressed.

Weltevrede Wine Estate has received an international award for Most Innovative Wine Tourism Experience, awarded by Global Wine Capitals. Also nationally, for Best Winery Architecture. Tell us about it.

After 110 years, it was time to execute a vision for Weltevrede Lindelize and I had carried in us for 21 years. We took all the scribbled notes and sketches of years and, with a masterly team of locals, started shaping the gardens, tasting rooms, restaurant, deli, and underground tunnel experiences. The heritage rose garden also hosts twenty individual bush vines, originally planted in 1926. We refer to them as living statues, each with its own name on a plaque, and a popular attraction during the Weltevrede Heritage garden tour.

There are two underground tours called Captivated by Chardonnay and Captivated by Cap Classique. These tours are prebooked, delve deep into the world history and terroir of these wines, and offer great, well-curated context to tell the whole South African wine story. Much of it I have written on the winery walls. It is humbling to think of all the amazing places in the winelands of France, Spain, Italy, California, etc., and here they have chosen Weltevrede as the place in the world not to miss out on. Another tour is called Create Your Own, where you can disgorge your own bottle of Philip Jonker Brut. Kapokbos restaurant and deli make the visit complete for someone who wants to spend the whole day at Weltevrede.

How has the South African winemaking industry evolved during your career? What future trends excite you?

The wine industry is slow to change but is ever-changing. Looking back over the timeline of Weltevrede, we see how we did follow international trends to some extent. In the twenties, my great-grandfather started with sweet fortified wine, Muscadel, Jerepico, Malmsey, sherries, and brandy. Internationally, the market was very much fortified and sweet wine dominated at the time. During the early 30’s, my grandfather started winemaking at the time of the Great Depression, which prompted him to innovate and sell wine in Weltevrede branded 8-gallon barrels. The oldest Weltevrede labels on wine bottles carry my grandfather’s signature and state Wine of the Union of South Africa, sweet wines marketed around the time of the Second World War.

After the war, international trends moved to slightly drier wines, mostly semi-sweet and off-dry. Wines from Germany, like Riesling and Gewurztraminer, were quite prominent when my father, Lourens, started his winemaking career. He also studied at Geisenheim after his B.Sc. Oenology degree at Stellenbosch University. The 70’s and 80’s saw the trend shifting to French varietals, and Chardonnay started claiming its place in the Robertson Valley. Cap Classique entered the scene in the early 90’s, and I joined Weltevrede in 1997. At that point, we still offered a very wide range of wines.

The past 25 years, however, have seen a strong move towards specialisation and attention to detail. Weltevrede has become one of the leading brands that focuses on one varietal, Chardonnay, and now also plays a role in leading the Robertson Valley to define itself around wines such as Calcrete and Cap Classique. I believe this is the future of the wine industry: more specialisation and a stronger definition of identity.

You are very involved in community development projects like the Jakes Gerwel Technical School. Why is this important to you, and what role can the wine industry play in rural communities?

As a family, we have been part of a community for generations now. We are friends with some families whose great-grandfathers were friends with our great-grandfathers. Many of us are related through marriage. Several farm worker families have worked on Weltevrede for several generations, and they have married and have a shared history here. We are a tightly woven fabric of a Bonnievale society that shares life together. Together, we find solutions to our needs. There are 1,500 teenagers in our area. We want to see children grow up with self-worth and hope. None of our children should drop out of school; all of them should form functional families; everyone can be trained up in career-aligned entrepreneurial education and become partakers of the economy.

In Bonnievale, we aim for zero youth unemployment by 2030. As a community, we work together towards these goals because our statistics have names and faces; they are our children. The community of Bonnievale stepped out in faith and took responsibility to change their own future. Have a look at Facebook and www.bonnievale418.co.za. On Sunday mornings, we invite the whole community for church fellowship in the winery. Culturally and socioeconomically, we are a very diverse family of faith that becomes one when we gather in worship.

This is how I changed and what gives me the appetite and capacity to see change in others. The winelands are not isolated from their neighbours or the status of the rest of the country and its people. The wine industry is an essential part of the economy and communities of the Western Cape, but it also has a vast network of relationships with a long history and strong bonds to use as a launch pad to affect change.

How did you get involved with helping the winemaking nuns in Uganda improve their wine? What was that experience like?

Back in 2005, I received an e-mail from nuns in rural Uganda needing help with their winemaking. I was fascinated by their story, as they had been making wine from vines planted by French missionaries in the 1970’s. I invited them, and they came and spent the 2006 vintage with us at Weltevrede.

It was my first encounter with Ugandans and my first encounter with nuns, but what a joy that harvest had been! We laughed so much and had so much fun; they were hardworking, keen to learn, and challenged me as I had to fit the content of a 4-year winemaking degree into one month. There was no end to their questions on chemistry and microbiology. They were impressive, and today they make the best wine in Uganda, by far. We remain great friends.

Your company, Afri.Can sounds very innovative. Can you tell me about those projects and your vision for the future?

A visit to Uganda led to our meeting with the Chairman of the Ugandan Grape Growing Association. You may ask how many grape growers exist in Uganda? They had more than 800 members. That probably boggles the mind a bit, but every small farmer who owns one or two vines in the garden may be a member. They bring their few bunches of grapes to one point, and there they make wine, even maturing the wine in wood, which in their case was a hollowed-out local tree trunk. They asked me to help with the import of wine equipment, but I just shook my head.

That night, however, I got the plan to build them a complete winery in South Africa in shipping containers. That was the first Afri.Can Microfactory project, a 10,000-liter winery well-insulated, air-conditioned with laboratory, stainless steel equipment, LED lighting, and a solar geyser, completely turnkey, from destemming the grapes to fermentation to bottling and labelling. This led to the development of various microfactories for the value addition of primary agricultural produce, with the vision to change the economy of Africa through turnkey small-scale processing and packaging.

We are privileged to be involved in a range of fascinating projects. Currently, we are building a state-of-the art high-altitude premium winery in the Rift Valley of Kenya, as well as equipping a new small training winery at a school in the Robertson Valley to be ready for the 2024 vintage.

What inspires your approach to winemaking? Is there a particular winemaking philosophy you abide by?

I like the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” When is a wine from Weltevrede successful? They are successful when they are kingmakers, playing second fiddle to good food. The wines of Weltevrede should serve to light up the table, spark joy in conversation, and make moments memorable.

If you could invite anyone, past or present, to enjoy a bottle of Weltevrede wine with you, who would it be, and what would you serve them?

Easy choice. Lindelize. The love of my youth and my barefoot bride. We have been married for 27 years, and to be honest, a wine like Calcrete I make for her. Sort of on demand. She prefers wines with such crystalline minerality. She might have salmon or a platter of sushi. I may have prawns and calamari. The bottle of Calcrete will be well chilled, frosting up the wine glasses as I pour it, and we’ll clink glasses, content. Weltevrede.

Thank you, Philip, for sharing your Chardonnay journey with us. We wish you and Lindelize every success in the future.

Crafting the Wave: A Designer’s Journey into the Black Sea Terroir

As a designer, I am always looking for that perfect balance of modernity and timeless appeal—that sweet spot where artistry and innovation collide. Crafting the label for “The Wave” wine range by Chateau Boshnakoff was a journey that led me to the shores of the Black Sea, near Varna Lake, where the waves and the wines shared a unique story.

The majestic wave serves as the label's centrepiece, representing strength, beauty, and the ever-flowing essence of the sea. To do justice to this remarkable region and its terroir, we needed a label that would evoke the same emotions that a glass of Chateau Bosnakoff wine inspires.

The wave on this label is more than just an image; I wanted to go beyond mere aesthetics and create artwork that you could literally feel. To achieve this, I used linear debossed patterns, adding depth and texture to the label. When you run your fingers over the label, you can sense the gentle ridges, making the label an embodiment of touchable elegance. I then added artistic, wavy curves that were stamped with hot foil and embossed. These curves not only complemented the linear patterns, but they also added a playful element to the design, creating a stunning 3D effect as the light danced across the waves.

The selection of paper was critical to completing the sensory experience. I chose a solid, thick paper with a smooth texture. This tactile quality contributes to the overall elegance of the label, ensuring that it, like the wine inside, exudes quality and sophistication.

I created a custom shape to enhance the label's visual identity, culminating in a wave-shaped top edge. This artistic choice was more than just an aesthetic one; it was a statement, a nod to the profound inspiration drawn from the sea itself.

At the bottom right corner, I carefully placed the Chateau Boshnakoff winery logo. I wanted this symbol to be more than just an emblem; it had to be a testament to the winery’s unwavering commitment to excellence. My friends from Dagaprint stamped it precisely with silver foil and strong embossing, ensuring that it’s a mark of quality and distinction.

"The Wave" brand name was actually our way of connecting the wines to their Black Sea terroir. These wines, like a new wave crashing onto the shore, represent a new approach to winemaking, a new perspective, and a one-of-a-kind experience that the Black Sea region has to offer.

Crafting “The Wave” label was a journey of creativity and artistry, where every detail was painstakingly considered. It was an ode to the Black Sea, Varna’s rich history, and the innovation that Chateau Boshnakoff brings to the world of wine.

This label is more than just a work of art; it is a reflection of the dedication, craftsmanship, and creativity that goes into each bottle. It is a visual and tactile experience that captures the beauty and essence of the Black Sea wine region, promising a sophisticated, innovative, and timeless flavour journey.

So, the next time you hold a bottle of The Wave, keep in mind that it is not just about the wine inside; it is also about the waves of creativity and craftsmanship that brought it to you. It’s about the artistry and passion behind the label—a journey that took us to the heart of the Black Sea, right into your hands.

Thank you, Jordan Jelev, the Labelmaker, for sharing your unique story with us. The Wave wine range hits that sweet spot where artistry and innovation collide.

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