From 1986 to 1989, Buks Nel wrote a regular wine column for Farmer’s Weekly entitled ‘Wine Notes’. A selection of these articles was later published as Sips for Wine Lovers (1991) and More Sips for Wine Lovers (1994).
“If your time is limited, make Sauvignon Blanc, and if you’re not in a hurry, make Cap Classique (bottled-aged sparkling wine in the style of Champagne). If, however, time is of no concern to you, make balsamic vinegar.”
This could well be the motto of octogenarian Buks Nel, whose family home I visited high up against the Helderberg mountain range in Somerset West.
I am three minutes late for our appointment, and he is already waiting in the road. His posture is strong, and he is neatly dressed with a broad-rimmed hat (more about this later).
I apologise for my tardiness, but he lets it go, and I realise that standing outside his smallholding overlooking the beautiful Helderberg Nature Reserve is a regular and enjoyable activity for Buks, whether he’s waiting for someone or not.
We walk into the large property, where an olive grove greets us and an enormous fig tree is bearing the first plump fruits of the season.
He apologises for Ros, his wife of more than five decades, not joining us, but she is out on her own mission recycling fridges and electrical appliances (this is a story for another day).
When Buks went to work in England in the 1960s, he fell in love with the 19-year-old daughter of the family he was lodging with, and then he “smuggled her back to South Africa”, where she first studied at the University of Cape Town but later focused on her real passion, studying at the Michaelis School of Fine Art.
The house is filled with paintings and sculptures created by both Ros and Buks. One of his creations is a tree trunk adorned with bokdrolletjies (buck droppings). He jokes that Ros produces fine art, but he just creates sh*t art.
Bubbly on tap
Before we even start talking, he opens a bottle of ice-cold Laborie Cap Classique and pours us each a glass.
“Ros and I have a glass or two of sparkling wine most days,” he says.
He takes me down a small staircase to an underground cellar, where riddling racks hold upturned bottles, and on the floor there are more crates of homemade sparkling wine waiting for disgorgement.
When Buks feels a bottle is ready, he places it in the freezer sur pointe (on point) for an hour so that the sediment in the neck of the bottle freezes, after which he pops the crown cap and the dead yeast cells shoot out, leaving the clear, bubbling elixir in the bottle.
Buks magnanimously opens a few of his creations, and they are all delicious, especially given the fact that no dosage (sweetening) is added along the way – the style that would be called Brut Nature in Champagne.
We taste a crisp Chardonnay and a distinctly fruity version made from Hanepoot (Muscat) grapes. The fact that no sulphur is added is a bonus for me, as I am prone to having an allergic reaction (asthma) to sulphur in most commercial sparkling wine.
Apart from his sparkling wines I spot some other incredible wines waiting for future enjoyment. A Domaine Dujac Clos Saint-Denis 2007 that, in today’s Burgundy-crazy wine market, would cost upwards of R10 000 a bottle, but fortunately Buks bought it for a fraction of that a long time ago.
A cellar of treasures
On the same shelf is a bottle from a classic Northern Rhône producer, Yves Cuilleron Saint-Joseph L’Amarybelle 2012. Also gathering dust are bottles of Hamilton Russell dating back decades.
It is evident that, apart from sparkling wine, Buks has a soft spot for Pinot Noir, and he tells me about a nickname that he acquired from one of his wine-tasting groups, the Time Wasters, many years ago.
At a blind tasting, he once not only managed to spot the variety of two wines, but even correctly proclaimed that both were from Nuits-Saint-Georges, and from then on this moniker was bestowed upon him by members of the group.
Buks admits to being somewhat of a wine snob and says that if he sees a bottle that he would like to drink, he is willing to splurge a bit.
Apples take over
We immediately fall into easy conversation as if we have known one another for many years. “Apples are actually my passion,” says Buks, and he tells me of his travels around the globe to meet other pomologists, even taking him as far as Uzbekistan in 2019.
A framed, handwritten letter hangs against on what could be described as an Uzbekistan memory wall with other artefacts and souvenirs from his trip.
I unsuccessfully try to bring the conversation back to wine, and we continue talking about apples. Buks still consults to a few apple growers in Elgin and Ceres. He brings me a clutch of books that came from his pen.
These include the wine books already mentioned, but also a text book entitled Deciduous Fruits and Vines: Pests and Diseases and Their Control, published in 1983, a family history Weltevreden se kinders se kinders se kinders, as well as two books co-authored with Henk Griessel about the history and development of apple cultivation in South Africa entitled Apples in the Early Days at the Cape, and The Newcomers and their Friends, dealing with apple varieties grown in South Africa from the early 20th century to the first quarter of the 21st century.
“The only one of the books that actually made some money was the boring text book,” he quips.
The big bucks discovery
In 2011, Buks serendipitously discovered a new apple variety that later came to be known as ‘Big Bucks’ and today is marketed internationally under the Flash Gala trademark. It is a wine-red Gala apple that ripens earlier than Royal Gala, and the rights to the mutation are mannaged by a company with Buks, Derek Corder and Anthony Rawbone-Viljoen as the shareholders.
Again, I try bring the conversation back to his Farmer’s Weekly column. I ask him whether he was paid to write the column and, if so, how much per contribution, but he can’t recall.
My wife, Lohra, a keen Nordic walker, returns from a hike in the gardens of the magnificent nearby Vergelegen Wine Estate and joins us for a glass of bubbly. We start talking about another one of Buks’s hobbies ‑ collecting hats. Out come an original Stetson all the way from Dallas, US, and a fox-fur hat from Uzbekistan.
Time in a barrel
As we realise that it is time to leave for another appointment, we start making our way to the front door and walk past a solera of small oak barrels on the staircase leading to the upper level of the house. It is another of Buks’s projects, Modena-style balsamic vinegar, and we get to taste the delicious, unctuous liquid, while I immediately resolve to start a similar process.
I ask Buks the secret, and with a wry smile he tells me: “Time, that’s all. You have to have lots of time. This solera has been going for around 20 years, so you had better start if you still want to taste your own balsamic vinegar one day,” he replies.
Next to the barrels, there is a neat row of containers with soil samples. He shows me the first one, and I wrongly guess that it is silex from Sancerre, while it is actually limestone from Champagne. The other jars contain samples from great vineyards Buks has visited, including, amongst many others, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Mosel, and Burgundy.
As we drive away, I realise I am somewhat jealous of this polymath I have just had the honour of meeting. A scientist, award-winning pomologist, writer, visual artist, maker of potions and elixirs, millinophile (hat collector), rock and soil collector, devoted husband, and father of three daughters, but also a jovial, humble human being. I am looking forward to our next wine-tasting. Cheers!
For more information, visit bigbucksapples.com.
