Growing up in a family with a rich winemaking heritage, brothers Peter-Allan and Andrew Finlayson were destined to swirl, sniff and sip their way through life.
With an illustrious reputation as a winemaker, Peter-Allan and Andrew Finlayson’s dad, Peter, is an industry legend. But the family’s love affair with wine began a generation earlier when Peter’s parents, Dr Maurice and Eleanor Finlayson, bought Hartenberg in 1948. They established a dairy on the farm and planted vineyards and fruit trees. It’s also where they raised Peter and his brothers Walter, Graham and David.
Walter became the farm’s winemaker and in the late 1960s marketed the wines under the Montagne label. When Walter moved on, Peter, who’d graduated in oenology at Stellenbosch University, took over the reins as winemaker. He’d also completed a postgraduate practical wine technology course at the Geisenheim Institute in Rheingau, Germany.
Unfortunately, the family lost the farm in 1979, and Peter was headhunted as the first winemaker for Hamilton Russell. “No one thought it was possible to make wine in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, but it turned out to be an excellent place,” Peter-Allan says. “My dad was quite the visionary.”
In 1989, Peter left Hamilton Russel to start his own business, Bouchard Finlayson. The family has subsequently sold its shares in Bouchard Finlayson.
After matriculating, Peter-Allan swapped his school textbooks for cocktail shakers while working as a bartender in London. In 2001, he began studying oenology and viticulture at Stellenbosch University but switched to philosophy and economics in 2003. “The science behind winemaking was a bit too much for me,” he says with a laugh. “I was way more into the hands-on fun of actually making the wine than getting lost in all that theory.”
Andrew studied architecture at the University of Port Elizabeth (now Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) and graduated in 2001. Coming from a family with a rich winemaking history, launching a wine brand felt like the most natural thing under the sun. Crystallum was launched in 2007. The name is derived from the Latin for “crystal” and is a nod to Crystal Kloof, the farm they once owned and planned to use for winemaking.
Andrew now has a role as part owner, while Peter-Allan wears the winemaker hat. He has multiple harvests in Burgundy, France, and Priorat, Spain, under his belt. He’s also visited the winemaking regions of Portugal and Austria, so it’s no wonder he’s a master of his craft.
Crystallum’s first vintage was made in 2008 at Creation Wines’ cellar. It was a family affair as Creation co-owner Carolyn Martin is Andrew and Peter-Allan’s cousin and Andrew had designed the cellar. Production went from a few bottles annually to nearly 85 000 bottles a year today. In 2014, Crystallum found a new home at Gabrielskloof which belongs to Peter-Allan’s father-in-law, Bernhard Heyns.
Crystallum comprises the dynamic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir duo. Peter-Allan’s winemaking philosophy is all about low intervention, wild ferments and low sulphur levels. “We’re trying to highlight the region and vineyard in our wines that are South African in identity but also mirror the qualities of a classic kind of Burgundy and Old World wines,” he says.
Altogether 70% of their wine is exported to 20 countries, with the United Kingdom and Japan being their biggest markets. Other foreign markets include Scandinavia, America, Taiwan, South Korea, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Estonia.
The goal is to expand their 8.5 ha vineyard empire, Peter-Allan says. “We aim to refine our winemaking process, the type of oak we use and the amount of stems we add from the various vineyards,” he says. “Our goal is to keep the winemaking simple while making small adjustments each year.”
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