Iona 21st vintage celebration

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By Andrew Gunn

Some history

2022 is the 25th anniversary of my purchasing the farm Geelbeksvlei which I changed to Iona as a nod to my Scottish and Viking ancestry. The 2021 vintage marks the 21st of our first wine, the Iona 2001 Sauvignon Blanc.

I was brought up in Vereeniging and went to school in Potchefstroom, after which I studied for a Civil Engineering degree at Wits. In the mid 1980’s when international companies were fleeing South Africa in their droves, I had the opportunity of buying a materials handling business on favourable terms. After building it up I sold it to a listed company and after a few years in the corporate world bought an ailing medical suture business, and once again built it up and sold it.

This was 1996; I was inspired by Nelson Mandela’s vision of the new South Africa, where all would work to together to make the country great. I decided to invest in something that I could do for the rest of my life. I’d always loved the idea of being a farmer and saw a Lime farm for sale in Franschhoek in the Financial Mail which started my investigation.

I visited Franschhoek on a hot February day, close to 40 degrees, this coupled with the fact that my vision of a farm is where you can’t see your neighbours, started looking elsewhere.

The Elgin Valley was the last area I visited after looking at 20 odd farms in the Cape. Driving down the N2 from Cape Town one has no idea as to the extent of the Elgin Valley on the right-hand side of the N2 which stretches fifteen kilometres to the Atlantic Ocean in the south and is quite beautiful.

When I visited the Valley in March, the trees were laden with apples and pears, such bounty I had never seen, and I was convinced I could make a living farming fruit. The estate agent, finally showed what I thought was a viable apple farm, called Geelbeksvlei, surrounded by state forestry and the Kogelberg Biosphere, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the south and the Elgin Valley in the north with the nearest neighbour 6 km away.

It was love at first sight, I made an offer, more than I should have, and moved down to the farm with my then partner Rosa Kruger. Apparently amongst the most stressful things you can do in your life, is get divorced, start a new relationship, change jobs and move, I did all four in a year!

Little did I know the industry was approaching a severe downturn, interest rates were 24%, the market deregulated and British supermarkets as a result were putting unrealistic quality pressure to bear on sellers and farmers alike. The farm was planted to the wrong varieties and the trees were old. I faced the prospect of losing everything I had worked for.

Being an engineer, I have always taken a pragmatic and analytical approach to business problems. I had been reading Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine which maintained that great wines are made in “cool to intermediate climatic conditions” and wondered whether the farm was suitable for wine grapes.

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I put temperature loggers on the farm and over a three-month period compared the hourly temperatures with a weather station in Grabouw to find that we were consistently lower. I extrapolated this information to create what I thought would be the long-term climatic conditions on the farm. With the assistance of my uncle, a Professor of Geomorphology from England compared this to the great wine growing regions of the world. We concluded that our climate was somewhere between Burgundy and Sancerre in France where great Chardonnay; Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc are grown.

I visited Professor Archer, head of viticulture at Stellenbosch University, whose first reaction was “sorry to disappoint you but South Africa is a warm to hot wine growing region”. After going through my rationale, he became very excited and offered to become our viticultural consultant, we planted our first vineyard in 1997 and for the next 4 years Eben was involved in planning, executing our plantings, and training our staff, who up until that stage had only been involved in apples.

Circumstance, luck, and good fortune

My father was a product of the Great Depression in the 1930’s, with a PhD in chemistry, he applied for 400 jobs and the only job he was offered was in South Africa with the Cullinan family in Olifantsfontein which resulted in me being born here in 1949 just as the Nat’s came into power. I am very conscious of the privileges I enjoyed during these times and how they have contributed to where I am now.

This invites introspection and acknowledgement of some people who have contributed along the way to the success of Iona in so many ways, which on a personal level has been my sole endeavour for the last 25 years and continues to be.

The business consumed much more cash than I anticipated and for some time operated at the limit of my overdraft. I solicited prospective partners and investors to no avail, at one stage I was prepared to sell 50% of the farm for R2m but there were no takers —— thank you to all of you!

During my research into the wine business, I visited the late Ross Gower at Klein Constantia to discuss cool climate wine making, he became intrigued with Elgin and as a result bought a farm on auction. I attended the auction where I met Gyles Webb who at the time was involved with GT Ferreira at Tokara, he offered to make our wines at Tokara for 3 years and as a result I sold 35 ha to GT which provided me with the capital to build a cellar and fund the development of the business.

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Niels Verburg our first winemaker in 2004 who didn’t have a cellar and I didn’t have a winemaker, a wonderful 5-year relationship until he built his own cellar and I employed Jean Smit. Jean had a problem with a 20000-litre tank of Sauvignon Blanc and Sophie te’Blanche was born.

The extended Iona family which includes the 20 workers that live on the farm, our wonderful winemaking, farming, office, and sales team, our customers without whom we don’t have a business as well as critics and commentators, and of course my immediate family, I am deeply indebted to all of you, thank you.

Meeting and marrying Rozy my highly intelligent, evolved, energetic and committed wife, brought up on a sheep farm in the Karoo who studied for a master’s degree in fine arts at Cape Town University brought another dimension to my life

She has a real affinity and connection to nature, this is expressed in all she does, from being a mother, wife, partner, and farmer. She gave up a promising career as a sculptor to devote herself to our endeavour. She continues to give me a balanced view and perspective of what is important in life. The way she approaches her farming endeavour for the Solace and One-Man-Band from her Brocha property provides for a rigorous exchange of ideas, practices, and enthusiastic banter across the whole team.

Where to from now?

I am very conscious of my mortality and my father always said three score years and ten is good innings, but I do still have the energy and desire to continue being the custodian of this special property whilst I can.

The wine business is all consuming, dynamic, and alluring, you can never say you’re on top of it. I do however believe that as our vineyards get older and we learn more about them, we tread more lightly with integrity and respect the environment, the best is yet to come.

We have a wonderful young team in the vineyards, cellar, sales, and administration, all highly committed and competent and it’s unlikely that I’ll be around to celebrate the 50th anniversary, but I suspect Rozy might.

Thank you and enjoy the wines.

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