IMPOSTER

A Dutchman from Barcelona making wine in the Cape. The name was there before I chose it.

Just before making wine in Stellenbosch, I was standing in the vineyard with my hands on beautiful Chenin Blanc fruit when I had a thought I did not like.

This was not my land. I am Dutch, I live in Barcelona, and I was about to work with grapes from somewhere else. I loved the fruit and I believed in what it could become, but I still found myself wondering: who was I to think I could work with these grapes?

That feeling stayed with me. It was not something dramatic, just a real doubt that sat there at the beginning. I did not want to ignore it, and I did not want to cover it up with a polished story either.

Then, in that moment, I remembered something I had known all along: the Dutch were part of the story of how vines came to South Africa. That did not make the land mine, and it did not remove the need for respect, but it did change the feeling. I stopped feeling as though I was simply taking something, and began to feel that I might be continuing something.

That is where the name IMPOSTER came from. Not as a joke, but from a real feeling I had to work through before I could move forward with the project.

The wines follow that same line. They are personal wines, made on a small scale, with respect for the fruit and for the place it comes from, and always with clarity and drinkability in mind.