A family from Belgium held a launch on 24 February to reveal
their maiden vintages produced at their new wine farm in the Upper-Hemel-en-Aarde-valley
where they will be producing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines.
Céline Haspeslagh and her husband Frederik Herten recently
launched Hasher Family Estate aptly named after the first three syllables from
their surnames hence the Hasher. “The names shows the coming together of two
families and building something for the future,” says Frederik.
The event attracted a number of local and international wine
enthusiasts, who were treated to tastings of the Fat Lady (the very last
vintage ever produced from a block of 24-year-old sauvignon blanc vines), the
Marimist (a wooded chardonnay that celebrates the Atlantic Ocean mist that
cools down the valley) and the Ernest (an elegant pinot noir named after
Frederik and Céline’s firstborn son).
Frederick has been coming to Hermanus for the past 25 years
and he never thought for once that he will end up in the valley.
“In Belgium I was a commercial lawyer. Celine was a HR
professional, and she comes from a family that has a agricultural business.
Through the years I developed a passion for wine but it was always n the side
and I never intended to do something professional.”
And then he became a sommelier.
“I started doing wine distribution in Belgium but then
Covid-19 hit and the world stopped. We are very busy and we have demanding jobs
with three children. So we finally got some time to contemplate,” says
Frederik.
This got the family thinking and they started looking at
agricultural opportunities in South Africa.
“We decided life is short and we should pursue our dreams,”
says Céline.
Frederik jokes and says when he is in a retirement home one
day then he wants to be the guy that is sitting and telling stories of his life
and not the guy who is left listening to the stories of others.
“Through some contacts we got in touch with some acquisition
opportunities in Stellenbosch and that is when I called JC Martin from Creation
Wines and I asked JC to come and visit the wine farm in Stellies with me. He
said yes but he asked why Stellenbosch? I said I looked at Hemel-en-Aarde but
nothing here met our parameters. JC then said that I should come with him and
knock on some doors in the Hemel-en-Aarde-valley.”
As it turned out the previous owners of Sumaridge Wine
Estate were thinking of passing on the wine estate but not sure and they said
that if the right person with the right values turns up they might be
interested.
“After three months of chatting they were ready to sell.
Before we knew it, we had signed a sale agreement for the farm and we moved in
last year August and in September the transfer took place. And as we speak we
are now in charge of this wine estate for six months,” says Frederik.
The first changes the couple implemented at Hasher Family
Estate was to appoint (for the first time ever) a farm manager and a sales and
marketing manager.
“We also decided to rebrand to Hasher Family Estate with a
newly designed logo. We will be focusing on chardonnay and pinot noir because
we want to listen to what the terroir is telling us,” says Frederik.
Terroir is a French word and when someone says that this
wine shows terroir, they actually mean that this wine tastes the way a wine
grown in a specific region should taste.
“What diversifies the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde from the rest of
the Hemel-en-Aarde-valley is we have decomposed granite that gives the wine a
lot of fruitiness. And if you do a blind tasting in Hemel-en-Aarde-valley you
will be able to pick up that this specific wine is from Upper-Hemel-en-Aarde,”
says Frederik.
Hasher Family Estate is also changing from a cellar driven
wines to terroir driven wines. “We treat our vineyards like babies. We
incorporate an intense programme of rejuvenation. This had to be done because
these vineyards needed love again.”
They will also be implementing organic farming methods and
they will step away from chemical fertilization. “We live on a farm, and we see
our kids running through our vineyards. That is why we chose to go the organic
route. We are not looking for an organic label for Hasher Family Estate, we are
doing it for the quality of the wine,” says Céline.
They are also planning on redesigning the cellar to go fully
on gravity feed. “In our cellars we want to do as little pumping as possible.
We try to avoid methods that are too brutal in the cellar.”
According to Frederik they are planning to allocate 50
hectars of the farm to wildlife and nature preservation. The farm will also be
part of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation champions. “We are also
planning to protect and nurture the 22 hectars of fynbos that we have on the
farm,” explains Frederik.
“We have been invited to a lot of braais and have been
accepted by everyone in the community. Every single farmer has come to
introduce themselves to us. According to us Hermanus is an extremely community
based town where everyone cares for each other,” concludes Céline.