Description
The wine is named after my chance meeting with a little boy called William on the Witzenberg mountains. Its been a fascinating story from the start, but became even more bizarre at the end of last year, with another chance meeting"Little William reloaded!In January 2016, I was driving back from a tiny little vineyard in the Koue Bokkeveld (Ceres Plateau). Cruising along at the 100km/h speed limit, I came to a very winding stretch of road leading towards the Witzenberg pass. Suddenly, for a split second, I thought I saw something in the middle of the road. I had just come through a super sharp bend and had to jump on the brakes with both feet. When I finally got my 470 000-km-on-the-clock Toyota to stop, there, on the white line in the middle of the road, stood a little blonde boy. I guessed him around a year and a half old. He was in his nappies and had a white T-shirt on, perfectly camouflaged on the white line. Unsure of what to do once Id taken him out of the road, I thought it a good plan to prompt him and see which direction he takes off in (with myself of course right behind).About 200 meters further along the road he (we) crossed a little bridge heading towards the other side of the canal. He turned up a dirt road which led to a farmhouse about 300 meters up a hill. Keeping up to his snail-like pace, we arrived at the house more or less 10 minutes later (in my experience with farm dogs, it wouldnt have been wise to carry him). When the gardener saw us approaching, he called out to a woman at the house and judging by her reaction, she mustve been his mom and he mustve been missing for a while.It was a bit of an emotional and chaotic environment so, knowing he was safe, I just turned around and left without introducing myself.So each time I present a tasting with Little William wine as part of the line-up, I get the same question: Why is it called, Little William?, followed almost without fail by: What does the family have to say about you calling a wine, Little William? My answer is always the same: I never went back, they dont even know the wine exists. But I am convinced there will be this one day where Id be sitting at some local bar in Knysna, drinking a beer all by myself when the young guy next to me turns to me and introduces himself as William from Ceres. And Ill be able to tell him: Eendag, lank, lank gelede het hierdie oom jou lewe gered!For 4 years I had the privilege of telling the story of little William. Until last year. When Chapter 2 happened.In November, we took our youngest son for a minor operation at Panorama Mediclinic, Tygerberg, Cape Town. The lady at reception looked at us with a puzzled look on her face. We later learnt that there had been a mistake on the paperwork and they were under the impression that he was an adult. They had subsequently booked him into an adult ward. The man next to him had drunk a cup of coffee at 6:00am that morning with milk in. His operation therefore had to be postponed and he obviously missed his theatre time slot. He had to wait almost the whole day for the next slot. He and Sebastian eventually left for the theatre at more or less the same time. I went to get us a cup of coffee, and as she always does, Aneen started making conversation with the milk-in-the-coffee guys wife. On my return Aneen said: They are from Ceres, tell her the little William story. I cringed, thinking: Why would I do that?? I tried to let her comment slide and filled the awkward silence with useless words. We carried on with the small talk and she ended up telling us that she is a vet and her husband is a farmer. Where do you farm in Ceres?, I asked. In the Witzenberg mountains, on a farm called Blah-blah-blah, she answered.And, as youve probably guessed by now, that was the name of the farm where I dropped little William that morning. It started dawning on me that it might be my Knysna-bar-thing moment happening in a totally bizarre, different way. Do you have a son called William? I asked. No, she replied, but my nephew is called William and they live on the same farm, in the house nex
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