A WINE FARM STORY

In 1685 a German soldier employed at Cape Town Castle by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) applied for permission from the Dutch East India Company to go and farm an undeveloped piece of land in the Stellenbosch area, about 50kms from Cape Town. He was given a lease by the VOC who commanded him to “bezaayen, beplanten, bepoten, betimmeren”
Loosely translated, he was required to sow seeds, plant trees and shrubs, grow potatoes and build a simple dwelling. 
The work was hard and lonely and especially hard for Laurens as he was was deeply in love with a girl he had left behind in Cape Town. She was a muslim slave girl from the Dutch East Indies called Ansela. From time to time he would leave the farm and, without a horse, would  take several days to walk back to the castle, presumably then falling at the feet of Ansela!
Their unlikely love affair produced three children, who stayed with their mother. As a muslim slave Ansela was forbidden to marry or to be released to work on the farm.  However, after 10 years of demonstrating their enduring love a solution was found. If Ansela agreed to be baptised as a Christian the lovers could marry and live together on the farm which in those days was called Die Driesprong. 
Laurens was now granted a lease of ownership and on their arrival at the farm in 1695 they celebrated their love by planting an oak tree outside their dwelling. The mighty tree still grows today at the entrance to what is now the farm’s wine tasting room.
There is a sequel to this story. Over many decades time the farm eventually failed and became a ruin. The name for such a place in Afrikaans was Muracie. In the 1920s another German, an artist called George Canitz was riding in the valley and saw the ruined farm and decided to restore it and make it his home. He slightly changed the name to Muratie, its name today and planted pinot noir vines. On his death the farm became the property of his unmarried daughter, Alberta, who continued to live on and work the farm into her 80s. She then sold it for virtually nothing to the descendent of one of its owners from the 1700s on condition that for the next three generations the buildings must be untouched. The Melck family have honoured her wishes and if you come with me to Muratie on one of our Wineland’s tours I will show you a very old tasting room with a roof which looks a little unstable and very old cobwebs (and spiders) on its windows and outside, you may taste their wine under the shade of an even older oak tree, three hundred and thirty years old! Love is wonderful. 

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