S3E3 South Africa: The Wild Side with Pieter Walser & Peter Allan Finlayson

D’Amato & Szabo: Wine Thieves

The Thieves embark on a South African “wine safari” with Pieter Walser of Blank Bottle Wines based in Sommerset West near Stellenbosch, one of the most unusual and innovative wine businesses anywhere, and Peter-Allan Finlayson of Crystallum Wines and Gabrielskloof in the Bot River region. Finlayson is a third generation winemaker and the son of the man who pioneered Pinot Noir winemaking in the Hemel-en-Aarde region, Peter Finlayson, the first winemaker at Hamilton Russell and the founder of Bouchard Finlayson.
You’ll get a clear sense of the fun, irreverent, and innovative nature of the SA wine industry. There’s an entire generation currently scouring the Cape for interesting vineyards and old quirky varieties and crafting a range of exciting wines with little winemaking intervention. These mavericks are playing a vital role in keeping old vines in the ground and supporting small farmers, all the while breathing fresh life into this centuries-old industry and turning the establishment upside down. These radicals of the industry run parallel to the more storied, traditional wine farms of South Africa, some of which have been producing wine for over three centuries, creating one of the most dynamic wine scenes on the planet.
In the interview with Peter Allan and Pieter, John & Sara get to the heart of how this multi-faceted industry arose. They'll discuss the role of the KWV, the cooperative founded in 1918, which helped unite winegrowers during a challenging period, to its current state as a cooperative company structure. They'll discover how a kind of exploratory, guerilla-style winemaking took hold and why a good sub-section of the South African wine industry seems to be hell-bent on dispensing with so many of the wine world’s traditions. This spirit is exemplified by the Zoo Cru, a loose association of likeminded (similarly manic?) winemakers of which Peter-Allan Finlayson is a founding member,, as well as other “splinter” groups like the Swartland Revolution, who take fun and wine very seriously, but themselves, not so much.
And f you've ever thought about how to go about setting up a wine business, you’ll want to strap yourself in for this exploration of the wilder side of the South African wine industry.
This episode was produced in collaboration with Wines of South Africa.