At historic La Motte wine farm they’re now producing ethereal oils as well as wine.

I’d always wondered about that tiny, tin-roofed, whitewashed Cape cottage. Set beneath two ancient, gnarled oaks in the middle of a sprawling vineyard on the road leading into vibrant Franschhoek, it sat quietly, solitarily and apparently uninhabited.

Then one day the vines were gone and there sat the little cottage, gleaming under a coat of fresh white paint, in a sea of purple lavender. Parked under the oaks was an immaculately restored old powder-blue Volkswagen Beetle. Lucky person, I thought.

Just recently my research for a book on some of the Cape’s leading wine farms, now offering visitors so much more than just wine tastings, took me to La Motte. It’s the beautifully restored, late 17th century home of internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg and husband Hein, who runs the farm. Next thing I knew I was being directed from the main homestead and cellar complex, across the road to the little cottage.

The ‘lucky person’ turned out to be Pietie le Roux, La Motte’s senior farm manager and viticulturist for nearly the past three decades. About four years before my visit he’d been tasked with establishing selected plant species to produce ethereal (aka essential) oils as an adjunct to La Motte’s thriving wine business. Replanting of mainly noble red varieties on the viticulturally more sound terroir of the mountain slopes behind the cellar, had left low-lying, marginal vineyard land fallow. These well-drained,  sandy, riverside soils were found to be ideal for plants producing good-quality ethereal oils with the phenolics most sought-after by local and international producers of perfume and other fragranced beauty products.

This was new turf for viticulturist Pietie, but, with the help of South African ethereal oil ‘guru’ Professor Aubrey Parsons, some 23 hectares of rose geranium, lavender, Cape snowbush and buchu went in. And Pietie – and his beloved 1972 powder-blue Volla – moved into what was surely the quaintest office in the Cape winelands. Built of stone circa 1712 and originally used as a livestock post (veepos), it was restored in the 1990s in keeping with La Motte’s dedication to preserving its historic heritage.

Pietie took me walking in the soft grey-white sand between the tightly pruned, rotund little bushes of lavender in their precisely symmetrical rows. Come flowering time in November and December, each produces a mass of long, upright stems topped by deep purple, multi-tiered, furry floral heads. This carpet of colour is a sight to behold as you approach La Motte on the R45 leading into Franschhoek.

Much as specific clones of different grape varieties planted in varying terroirs bring distinctive aromas and flavours and quality of wine to the glass, so the Lavandula x Intermedia hybrids from the common English lavender are rich in ethereal oils. La Motte’s research showed that, while the Lavandula x Intermedia grosso is the most commonly used worldwide, the Lavandula x Intermedia abrialis would thrive here – promising a particularly high quality of oil.

The other species of similarly carefully selected aromatic plants are typically Mediterranean and mostly indigenous. Cape snow bush (Eriocephalus punctulatus) – colloquially called kapokbos – buchu (Agathosma betulina) and rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) are producing soupçons of fine oils. Also planted in La Motte’s nursery is thyme (Thymus vulgaris).

To recover the oil, the flowers and stems are harvested, bunched and quickly transported across the road to the small oil ‘distillery’ on the La Motte homestead. It’s a surprisingly delicate process, where time and speed are of the essence (as it were). The fragrances of oil-rich plants are highly volatile and start waning rapidly immediately after picking. Hence ‘ethereal’ is a far more evocative and apt descriptor than ‘essential’ when it comes to these olfactory elixirs.

The pickings are steamed by half-ton batch in a stainless steel pot. The distilled oil is then stored in well-sealed aluminium cartridges in which it can be kept for 10 to 20 years. “Aluminium is used because most other materials have been found to react with the chemical compounds in the oil,” explains Pietie.

He opens clear-glass sample bottles of the oils for me to ‘nose’. Visitors to the elegant, richly refurbished wine-tasting room should be sure to ask for a whiff. The lavender is immediately recognisable. The buchu surprises with a pure blackcurrant aroma, and the kapokbos is deliciously fresh and fruity on the nose.

As it is increasingly with La Motte’s vines, cultivation of the farm’s aromatic plants is organic. No synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides or weedkillers are used. Nor are they required. That’s the power of plants grown in places where they belong naturally. And it’s what has earned La Motte its status as one of a handful of Cape wine farms recognised as a Biodiversity in Wine Initiative ‘Champion’, a farm committed not only to farming in harmony with nature, but to spending time, money and labour on reclaiming and conserving its natural environment.

I saw this in action on a subsequent visit to reconnoitre a new hiking trail on the Wemmershoek Mountain behind the cellar. Dressed in his trademark ‘bush’ shirt, shorts and walking shoes (recommended for the hike), Pietie led me out of the tasting room and across a suspension bridge over a still pond. We skirted a dam, strode up a slope beside one of La Motte’s premium, south-facing sauvignon blanc vineyards, and started the short, quite steep climb up the mountain. The going soon levelled off to follow the contour through the pristine fynbos that makes up La Motte’s 30ha private conservancy.

Taking anything between one and two hours, the hike is the first such readily accessible mountain walk in Franschhoek proper and offers rare views of the valley. La Motte’s vineyards and cellar lie directly below. Across the road nestles the little cottage in its plantation of purple. The eye travels down the length of the valley from Franschhoek Mountain in the east, along the Groot Drakenstein range to the distant Simonsberg peak.

Several of Pietie’s home-hewn wooden benches invite rest stops on the 5,5km circular route, but my guide kept me on the move, pointing out some of the rarities to be seen. Chief among these is the Aloe plicatilis (bergaalwyn). Distinctive for its candelabra shape, it’s one of the few aloes found in among the Cape Floral Kingdom’s fynbos. You’ll see the kapokbos growing wild, so too some of the 250 varieties of pelargoniums indigenous to South Africa, as well as the Serruria rosea, ‘bridesmaid’ to the much-loved ‘blushing bride’ (Serruria florida), cultivated on La Motte and supplied to Woolworths stores.

Next time, I promise myself as I settle down for some serious wine tasting, I’ll do it at a more leisurely pace. Armed with a plant species list (available from the tasting room) and possibly a picnic backpack from La Motte’s deli (scheduled for opening in mid-2010) and definitely a crisp bottle of La Motte’s zesty, organically grown Sauvignon Blanc.

La Motte Wine Farm 021 876 3119
Phone ahead for the hike and provisions,
or bring your own picnic.