Dear friend of Muratie
It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the 8th month of the year. The year seems to have passed by in a haze.
In spite of Being caught up in all the doom and gloom about global depression, global warming, labour unions wagging the dog and losing the Super 15, we at Muratie have been rather industrious, particularly on the marketing front.
I guess getting a little older one starts to realize how the smaller things in life become a little more important to spend more time on. Living on one of South Africa’s oldest Wine Estates, change does not happen overnight. Sudden changes are absolutely forbidden!
Over the past 22months we have looked at our Muratie labels, Corporate logo and decided to evolve a little.
We took a step back and realized that we have such a wealth of history and stories to tell pertaining to Muratie that we should make more use of it. After all, the stories are all true and all the characters that we have used have played some part in Muratie’s rich history.
Sitting under one of our 325 year old oak trees one cannot help but think about the trials and tribulations of Laurens Campher and Ansela van de Caab 325 years ago. George Paul Canitz would have been sitting pretty close to this tree when he and his friend Prof Abraham Perold decided to plant South Africa’s first Pinot Noir on Muratie, 80 odd years ago.
My late father Ronnie Melck would have been sitting pretty close to the same tree when he use to come and talk to Miss Alberta Annemarie Canitz about procuring her much sought after grapes for SFW where he was a young winemaker. ( Alberta Annemarie must have seen something in Ronnie in order to phone him some 37 years later to offer him Muratie!)
Armed with all the history, our new labels have captured all of these stories. I am really excited about this development. The quality of our wines have become legendary and our overseas markets are still growing. We are really focusing on producing elegant wines with character and personality. Our main focus is to let the wine and the soil speak for itself.
It must be a pleasure and huge excitement for each and every Muratie disciple to serve our wines with conviction and feel that they are part of our history and passion.
Our wines are still not readily available all over the country, this can be attributed to various factors. The best you can do is to ask for it by name. If this is still not possible, please contact us and we will send it to you!
Our pruning is taking a little time this year. This year, the rain and cold reminds me of Stellenbosch when I was a youngster walking along the Eerste rivier, listing to the rolling noises made by the rocks in that fast flowing river!
Our tasting room is still one of the must see destinations on the wine route. I have been fastidious about keeping the classic old cellar feel. The wine route is blessed with many new tasting rooms with architectural genius and expression but not many of them are surrounded by 350 year old oak trees and warn doorsteps.
The tas
