Spatzendreck

One of the wine farms I am most looking forward to visiting with you in December is Delheim, on the Stellenbosch wine route.  I have very fond memories of going to this farm with my parents when I was a child.  Unfortunately I was too young to taste the wine, but I did enjoy the gorgeous setting, delicious lunch and cheeky humor of this particular wine farm.

Cheeky humor indeed!

An example of this humor can be found in the story behind the creation of a very popular late harvest semi-sweet white wine Delheim produces called Spatzendreck.  Here is an excerpt from the diary of the founder and owner of the Delheim Estate, Michael Hans "Spatz" Sterling.

(I have linked to the English translation of the German words he uses.  Click on the word for the translation to fully appreciate the story.)

And now for the story behind my beloved Spatzendreck, because I truly consider it one of my best pioneering efforts.

It was "born" on a Sunday afternoon in the year 1961.

It was a glorious weekend, blessed with many friends, who were more or less interested in the success of Spatz who entertained them so lavishly.

To impress those wine lovers who were frolicking around in the pool in all stages of undress and inebriation, I invited them to the production cellar to evaluate the latest - the best - of the past vintage.

At that stage I was experimenting madly as there were no local experts or laboratories to check one's wines, or many other producers to compare notes with.  My sole tool at that stage was a determination to somehow produce a drinkable wine and a great affection for this heavenly liquid.

All went well until a sample was drawn from tank No 13.

Immediately noticeable was the colour of this white wine was a bit suspicious.  It was not exactly that of the fateful "pink" Riesling, but somewhat more "brownish" and nothing that elicited any complimentary comments.

With the first taste, Sperling's efforts to show off backfired spectacularly with a remark by a visiting German friend, Hilla Geleynse, who exclaimed: "But Spatz, this is now really dreck!"

Was she indoctrinated by the activities of that Sunday afternoon?

But somehow, I doubted it and suspected a grain of truth.

Try again, forget about this failure (?) - don't cry Argentina.  Pull yourself together Sperling, failures are the base of eventual success!

Later, in the early hours of Monday morning, after a geműtlicher Abend, a consoling friend whispered in my ear: "Try again, succeed and then call it Spatz's Dreck!"

In 1979, have much improved and acquired a loyal patronage, my Late Harvest semi-sweet received the dubious honour from a leading UK wine magazine Decanter of being voted the "worst label of the year" award.

The label was the creation of artist and label designer Gunter Komnick.  With its portly, cheeky-looking little sparrow defecating into a wine barrel - Sperling is German for sparrow and my nickname "Spatz" is the diminutive form - the label remains a wonderful memory of the good old days when so many German immigrants came to the farm to enjoy our ribald weinigen humour.

But in 1985, official recognition of Spatzendreck's essential quality finally came in the form of a Superior rating by the quality control panel of the South African wine industry.

And in 1986 we celebrated the 25th anniversary of our cheeky little wine.