Episode 44 – Mudlarking

Technical Information:

Producer:	Tierhoek
The Wine:	Flor Influenced Chenin Blanc
Vintage:	2023
Wine of Origin:	Piekenierskloof
Alcohol:	13.5%
Bottles:	1500 bottles
Released:	September 2024

Mudlark/’mAdlack/n.&V. L18.  (F.MUDn.i + LARK n.q) a N.
+ 1 A hog.slang. L18 – E20. 2 A person who scavenges for usable
debris in the mud of a river or harbour. Also, a street urchin; joe.
a messy person, esp. a child.  Colloq. L18. 3 A magpie-lark. Austral.
L19.4 MUDDER. Slang. E20. B. v.i. Carry on the occupation of
a mudlark. Also, play in mud. M19.

New Shorter English Dictionary

Rick certainly identifies himself as being a bit of a mudlark. Finding random pieces of broken pottery is not dissimilar to stumbling across discarded parcels of wine.

Our mudlarking label is an original photograph of fragments of pottery gathered from the Cape over several decades. The image represents the converging multi-culturalism which has existed here since the country was first colonised in the 15^th Century: Chinese porcelain, Dutch Delftware, Staffordshire plate, European clay pipes…

This flor-influenced Chenin Blanc resembles one of these pieces of abandoned pottery, found trodden into the bare dirt on a rustic cellar floor. Resting in old 300 litre oak, it was never the intention to allow the wine to develop this way. In fact, it had been condemned by the winemaker himself as being ‘faulty’.

But one man’s disfigurement is another man’s Kintsugi.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the breakage with lacquer dusted with gold or silver, thus highlighting any imperfection. As a philosophy, it chronicles the repair as part of the history of an object, being something to embrace rather than to disguise the flaw. Japanese aesthetics values the patina of time, keeping items around even after they have been broken. The philosophy of kintsugi can also be interpreted as a variant of the adage, “Waste not, want not”. Just like Rick’s new Chenin release…