Hailed by Platter’s Wine Guide as Monsieur Sauvignon Blanc, Neil Pendock as The Sage of Sauvignon, by Tim Atkin MW as one of the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc winemakers and Jancis Robinson MW rated his Sauvignon Blanc her highest scoring white wine in a Chardonnay dominated Hemel en Aarde Valley.
Since the Eksteen’s ancestor, Heinrich Oostwald Eckstein (changed to Eksteen due to Dutch influence), settled in the Cape in 1702, the family have been involved in wine farming. At first in Bergvliet, Constantia and Loevenstein (Welgemoed) and later Franschhoek where Bartho’s grandfather first tried his hand at winemaking on the family farm, La Bri. Bartho inherited the winemaking passion as demonstrated by his successful career in winemaking.
In 1996, as a young – and first new era – winemaker in Bot River, Bartho won the General Smuts Trophy (South African Champion Young Wine). This was the first time it was awarded to a red wine from “the other side of the mountain” (a name for, new developing areas). He was a key figure in the rise of Wildekrans Wine Estate, consultant winemaker for Newton Johnson, Sumaridge and Raka during their first years of business. He was also the initiator / winemaker / director of Hermanuspietersfontein Wingerde (HPF) and driving force behind the demarcation of the Sunday’s Glen Ward.
A strong believer that a winemaker should spend as much time as possible in the vineyard, he sees the challenges of every vintage as a character building process which keeps you humble and on your knees. He believes unreservedly in the terroir of Hermanus and surroundings, one of the most extreme areas to cultivate vines in South Africa.
Post Hermanuspietersfontein, Bartho Eksteen created a 2-tier business model: Bartho Eksteen Wine Estate, crafting wines of distinction, and Wijnskool, now led by son, Pieter Willem, a wine academy for young winemakers and entrepreneurs.
Bartho and wife Suné are the founders of the Bartho Eksteen Wine Academy – WIJNSKOOL (Wine School), a unique wine concept where they impart the passion for the art of wine, the wine industry its challenges and the responsibilities inherent to this wonderful product to high school learners, the next generation of winemakers.
Bartho has been an ambassador for Sauvignon Blanc since 1993 and has been campaigning for the maturation potential as well as the noble status of Sauvignon Blanc ever since. According to him Sauvignon Blanc can easily be its own biggest enemy. Of all the South African grown white varieties it is the variety which delivers when it comes to young and fresh, rich and structured, as well as wooded and complex. It is because of its popularity as a young, easy drinking, lifestyle white that its wine qualities as a serious food wine as well as its maturation potential, is so often overlooked.
In the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near Hermanus, where the white wine focus is so strongly on Chardonnay, the Eksteens focus purely on Sauvignon Blanc. Here Jancis Robinson (MW), one of the world’s leading wine critics, reviewed the best that the Valley can offer. It was certainly a watershed moment when she chose Bartho Eksteen HOUTSKOOL, wooded Sauvignon Blanc 2021, as her top scoring white wine. “We couldn’t ask for a better platform to achieve such a great honour”, says Bartho.
Although a very talented and accomplished winemaker, titles, trophies, medals and awards now made room for four ultimate rewards, to follow his students’ successful careers in winemaking, to see his son, Pieter Willem (tenth generation) and his Mendoza wife, Sol, blooming as winemakers, to support his daughter, Shani & husband Arno, as far as possible, fulfilling their dream and as our brand ambassadors and for Shani as educator, becoming a MEESTER (master) in her own right.
The Eksteen winemakers focus on mainly three wine styles:
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Estate Pinot Noir
- Rhône-style blend
Sauvignon Blanc is his favourite cultivar, with blending as his other big love, with Rhône-style varieties in particular. The four Rhône varieties, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache and Viognier are used in his red wine and rosé.
The uniqueness of his Wine Academy lends itself to use elements of a school in the christening of all his wines in the Flagship and Signature ranges. As a proud ambassador of Afrikaans, as such honoured by Afrikaans.com, all his labels are printed in his mother tongue.
Attaquaskloof, which was the original name of the picturesque Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and the Eksteens’ farm from where Bartho, wife Suné and son Pieter Willem run their business, is situated 3,6km from the Atlantic ocean, near Hermanus, a coastal town in the Walker Bay wine region, dubbed South Africa’s own Monaco and best land based whale look-out point in the world.
The cool climate of this area is very beneficial for wine production. Gentle south-eastern breezes from across the bay make for longer, cooler ripening seasons than is generally experienced in most other South African wine regions. Grapes ripen to its full potential without dangers inherent to heat waves experienced inland; the resulting wines retain their fruit elements excellently, are extremely elegant and have soft, refined tannins and a long finish.
Hermanus is also famous for its abalone industry and the Eksteens honour the fact by using an abalone shell on the logo of their Flagship and Signature wine labels. Even the background of the labels reflect a very subtle abalone shell or mother of pearl shine.
