Text by Jeanri-Tine van Zyl. Photographs by Toby Murphy
Source: This article was taken from the April 2011 issue of Wine Magazine
Spatz Sperling came from Germany to South Africa with little more than a pocket of cash.
He found a home in Stellenbosch, on a farm previously known as De Drie Sprang – now Delheim – and the local wine industry is the richer for it.
This is important to know. Sperling means sparrow, with Spatz being the diminutive, affectionate form. “A Spatz can come from nowhere, and it sits where it shouldn’t,” tells the man who is nicknamed after this “little naughty bird”. Spatz Sperling smiles at his analogy, sitting upright in his plush, olive-coloured chair in his Delheim home. Vera Sperling, his wife, weaves in and out of the room like a bird herself, clucking and teasing, but also guarding and praising the man who, she admits, “is an icon”. (“But please don’t tell him he is a legend, he’s got a big head already!”) In 1975, Spatz named a patch of vineyards on top of Klapmutskop, to the north-west of the farm Vera’s Cruz (meaning Vera’s Cross), after this ever-present figure in his life. “It commemorates the cross and suffering I’ve had to bear since marrying Sperling,” she teases, but they seem as inseparable as swans.
As a prologue to the interview, Spatz offers his apologies: “My heart is shaking today.” Pine trees are being felled in the farm’s pine forest and it has him upset. “I identify myself with trees; my family believed it is verboten (forbidden) to cut them down.” On his birthday, Spatz asks of guests to bring him a tree. “But not a yellowwood – they are overrated.” No wonder then that the gardens at Delheim are shaded by the lush canopy of preserved trees – some as old as 200 years. “It is the most beautiful farm in the Stellenbosch area,” observes Spatz. He isn’t exaggerating. Spatz – full name Michael Sperling – came to South Africa after World War II, in 1951, as a 20-year-old, to farm De Drie Sprang, a mixed enterprise which was later renamed Delheim (Del’s home) after Spatz’s aunt, Del Hoheisen, who was the original owner. “There was no work or labour and Germany was in ruins,” he answers when asked about the move. “I felt like water on the beach that can only run that far, and no further.
“The only limitation to humankind is our lack of powerful imagination,” he tells me. Spatz wasn’t one to be limited; he has been credited with pioneering everything from the Stellenbosch Wine Route to cheese platters at tasting rooms. Of course, Spatz has come a long way to become the well-known, respected man that he is. And if ever there was a man to enjoy his retirement with a fair amount of pride that comes with having a successful legacy, then he’s it. But even at his ripe age he is not sitting with his feet up. His pedantic involvement in farm activities, by Vera’s admission, “makes life tough for the children” – his son, Victor, being the viticulturist, and daughter, Nora, being involved on the marketing side of things – but his answer to his wife’s observation is just that broad, disarming Spatz smile.
For a German, with no winemaking background, it wasn’t easy to break into the tough and, yes, clan-based Afrikaans-dominated industry, he remembers. “But the name helped,” he laughs, sincerely. “Can you imagine people calling me ‘ Mr Sperling?” The industry was informal, he recalls, and by name and personality he blended right in. His gregarious nature is perhaps best relayed in stories featured in Delheim’s newsletters – personally written by the ‘vintner’ – at a time when these still arrived with a postage stamp.
From the 1980s emerges this lovely tale. Spatz, upon returning from the “first trade show under the equator”, in Kenya, writes to subscribers, relaying a conversation between vintner and visitor:
“Vintner: Red or white, dry or sweet? Visitor: Sir, I think to start I will choose something which tastes like Johnny Walker. (Down went a 1990 Shiraz, Wine of Origin Stellenbosch.) Vintner: What would you like to try next? Visitor: That is very kind of you sir, but this time I’d like to try something like a Captain Morgan. (A glass of Spatzen-dreck disappeared over the taste buds of a highly delighted wine discoverer from the heart of Africa.)”
‘Spatzendreck’ of course being Delheim’s ‘infamous’ sweet wine with the now oft-repeated history:
Entertaining a group of German experts on a day of “sauerkraut and swimming”, Spatz, likely driven by schnapps and wine-induced bravado, mustered up the courage to invite the experts, “some Geisenheim graduates among them too”, to a tasting of his latest efforts. It was a sobering event as the wine was of such bad quality that one guest observed: “Spatz er is noch dreck’.” (“This wine is really shitty”)
Initially stunned by the response to his efforts, Spatz was determined to have the experts drink their words. In 1961, he perfected this semi-sweet wine, but instead of giving it a flowery descriptor, he simply named it Spatzendreck, accompanied by an illustrative label depicting a little sparrow ‘ennobling’ the contents of the barrel with its droppings. This label, and wine, resulted in Delheim winning recognition – by means of local admiration for Spatz’s flair, but it also received international credit, if somewhat of a less flattering nature. In 1970, Decanter magazine bestowed Spatzendreck with the Worst Label of the Year Award.
In the 1970s, Spatz, together with Neil Joubert of Spier and Frans Malan of Simonsig, were known as the ‘three angry men with a cause’ due to their passionate campaigning for a Stellenbosch Wine Route. “We were self-made men,” says Spatz, repeating what Vera told me: “You can make wine with money, but you can’t make money from wine.” They started with nothing, “but we trusted in the potential of the land”. Finally established in 1972, the Stellenbosch Wine Route (which would lead to the founding of numerous wine routes in other regions) initially comprised only 12 farms, but has today grown into South Africa’s biggest and most well-frequented. Spatz was also one of the first producers to travel ‘north’ to the then Transvaal to personally host wine-tasting evenings. “I was embarrassed and frightened. People didn’t know who I was, knocking on their doors like a Jewish entrepreneur.” Of course, the names Spatz and Delheim didn’t remain unknown for long, and his tastings quickly drew numbers.
He’s outlived many of his fellow pioneers, he observes, and, as he lowers his index finger into a shaking fist, we talk of the present generation of winemakers – many of whom have been groomed by him. He refers to them – Josef Krammer, Kevin Arnold, Jeff Grier, Philip Costandius, Chris Keet, Kevin Grant, Martin Meinert and Conrad Vlok – as “super winemakers”.
“One of my greatest compliments is that these super winemakers came to my school, as I was never on a wine bench. But I was able, through my educational abilities, to identify young winemakers and make them flourish.”
In 1976, Delheim opened its famous Vintner’s Cheese Lunch Restaurant (renamed Delheim Garden Restaurant). Situated in a lovely corner of the property, visitors can enjoy delectable, well-prepared comfort food with views that span from a lush garden all the way to Table Mountain in the distance. Open daily 09:30 to 16:30.
In closing, not unlike a father figure bestowing his blessing, he says, “I have full confidence in the future of South Africa’s wine industry. The growth and achievement over the last 20 years has been unbelievable.”
He flashes that smile. “Congratulations”, he adds.
Delheim is located off the R304 outside Stellenbosch.
Tel 021 888 4600 www.delheim.co.za
Tastings, cellar tours and sales daily from 09:00 to 17:00.
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