Episode 41 – Oppie Solder ‘Kakkies’

Technical Information:

Producer:	Alluvia
The Wine:	Viognier Straw Wine
Vintage:	2017
Wine of Origin:	Stellenbosch
Alcohol:	10%
Bottles:	528 half bottles
Released:	September 2023

Episode 41 comes in two guises. Both wines originate from the same cellar, Alluvia, located on the summit of the Helshoogte in Stellenbosch. Both are straw wines, produced from bunches of Viognier grapes, picked perfectly ripe but then allowed to desiccate slowly on straw mats for a period of several weeks which helps to concentrate both the sugar and acidity before the grapes are crushed and fermented.

The only difference is these two wines come from consecutive vintages. That, along with the fact that their profiles are in complete contrast. For those anoraks among you, this 2017 vintage carries 146 grams per litre of residual sugar and is slightly sweeter and much darker in appearance than its counterpart. Rick might also concede, if pushed, that this is the slightly more complex of the pair, despite being lower in alcohol.

Both wines were made in the cellar at Zorgvliet, a neighbouring property which is under the same, wider family ownership. Unlabelled half bottles were found languishing in a dusty, spider-ridden, wooden bin in a different cellar in Stellenbosch’s Jonkerskloof valley in May 2023. Apparently, they’d be sent there after they’d been bottled and then simply forgotten about. Rick was in the Jonkerskloof cellar on other business when the half bottles caught his eye…

Whilst both releases share the same label design, Rick decided to distinguish the two wines by referring to each as ‘Bakkies’ and ‘Kakkies’, an Afrikaans term he learnt on his last research trip to the Cape.

The saying is best translated as meaning pots and shit, and mostly associated with South Africans found wandering aimlessly through provincial antique shops, looking at stuff that nobody wants, or for the unwanted flotsam and jetsam consigned to peoples own oppi solder (attic) which, coincidentally, is where many of the grapes used for straw wine are also placed to dry.

Rick thought that Bakkies and Kakkies would be an appropriate footnote to best describe this latest pair of releases.

See also: Episode 41 – Oppie Solder ‘Bakkies’