Richard Hilton realised his dream of becoming a vintner. Now, he is inspiring other wine lovers with his Greatest Cape Wine Tours.

After aborting Bristol Polytechnic in 1989, I applied to enrol on a French language course at L’Université Stendhal, Grenoble. This was the first time I had ever made a conscious decision to embark upon a path that I really wanted to follow, and it was a fresh start in my life. I was listening to my heart for once, rather than my head.

Removing myself from any English speaking person, - except for one or two Scandinavian’s - I quickly immersed myself in all things French. I completed the first part of my course before jumping on a train to Nice to find some summer work to earn some hard cash over the mid-year break. Back in Grenoble, my Savoyard friends found my newly acquired southern French accent very entertaining but admitted my fluency had come on nearly miraculously.

The next few weeks saw me scribbling away to hundreds of various Champagne, Bordelaise and Burgundy wine producers, but sadly, with no positive response. I packed my bags and took up an offer to stay with an English girl in Paris who I’d met during the last few months of my séjour in Grenoble. I had no idea what I was going to do there, but came to the conclusion that I would only find an opportunity in the French wine industry by actually being in the country itself.

I found a job working for a bureau de change for a few months and enjoyed the Champs-Élysées branch before being posted to look after the Chatelet outlet at the Metro station. This redefined my understanding of boredom as it was their least active office. I continued writing to French wine producers, and having all but given up, was elated to find a message on the answer phone one evening from a prestigious Burgundy House who requested I come and meet them for an interview. I grabbed my wine atlas and thumbed to the back to look up references to Louis Latour. Founded in 1797, family owned and run, seven generations all named Louis from father to son (recently achieving membership to the esteemed Hénokien Society, that only welcomes companies with a minimum two hundred year history, and who are still currently run and owned by the same family name); this was the opportunity I’d been waiting for.

After the quickest interview I’ve ever experienced, I was offered the post of PR to all foreign agents, importers and journalists. The fact that I knew zip about wine was of no concern to this veteran producer, they were simply impressed enough by my French. I was whisked off to their 19th century winery at Domaine Latour, in the village of Aloxe Corton, and was gobsmacked on arrival by the history and traditions of this beautifully designed 1832 masterpiece. Lunch in a restaurant called La Ciboulette in Beaune (still owned by Alban & Martine Demougeot) was my first ‘real’ gastronomic experience – oeufs en meurette, lapin au moutarde, and sabayon, washed down of course with Volnay ‘Santenots’ from Louis Latour was my first Burgundian meal – now I know why they refer to Champagne as the soul, Paris the head, and Burgundy the stomach of Gaul.

My first 3 months at Latour were directed at learning as much as possible, as fast as possible. Harvest began with their plant in the Ardeche, followed by the harvest in Burgundy (literally treading grapes), stints in the cellars, bottling lines, cooperage, label printers and pruning in the vineyards at -4 am, before entering the Public Relations department. This was a magical introduction within one of the most complex wine regions in the world, and the ‘holy grail’ for most new world winemakers. My thirst and hunger for lapping up as much knowledge in areas of viticulture, geology, winemaking, local history, tasting (!) and the traditions of wine, consumed me for the next 10 years and also involved working for Olivier Leflaive and a diplome in the ‘Commercialisation des Vins et leurs Dérivés’ at the Lycée Viticole in Beaune.

The proposition of working in the Cape of South Africa came in 1996 through an old friend of mine who offered me a job at Longridge Winery in Stellenbosch. With Apartheid abolished in 1994 - strangely enough I remember adding my name to a petition demanding the release of Nelson Mandela whilst I was at Marlborough - and a whole new horizon on the cards in a country that first crushed grapes in 1655, I decided to embark upon this new adventure. After landing at Cape Town International - although why this was called ‘International’ when it was a quarter of the size of Stansted, amused me - my first images of this rainbow nation were the shanty towns of Guguletu and Khayelitsha on the outskirts of Cape Town. The contrasts on this continent couldn’t be more extreme and it makes for a wonderfully diverse yet challenging society. But I won’t continue on that political path right now! After Longridge, marketing positions with Darling Cellars and Dominion Wine Company added to my ‘wine’ development.

Eleven years on, and having become a resident of this beautiful, if sometimes precarious country, I finally made the step of making my own wine in 2003. They say in this game that to make a small fortune, you have to start with a large one – that is no exaggeration. Even the billionaires who construct monumental wine estates as the final crowning glory to the success of their empires still wince and moan at the money thrown at making these viti-vini businesses turn. Forced by economics, I’ve opted for the alternative route – working closely with the people that matter; the farmers among the 5,000 odd who grow the best fruit, sourced from their best vineyard sites, and using a private winery facility in Stellenbosch to make the finest I possibly can: Syrah (aka Shiraz) and Viognier, two varietals originating from the Rhone valley which are particularly well suited to the climate and granite soils of the Cape.

I call my micro-production Pax ‘Verbatim’ Vineyards www.paxverbatim.co.za and distribute through exclusive hotels and restaurants. Currently gearing up for the harvest (or vintage for those who prefer) in Feb / March 2008 I am very excited to be crushing the increased volume of 12 tons. Next week (mid December) I’ll be crop thinning one of the vineyards I’ve contracted with the aim of lowering the yield and concentrating the bunches into fruit that will hopefully make me something more akin to silk and velvet.

2007 was an extra special year for me, as I finally tied the knot with Fi; co-incidentally sister of 3 OM’s of my era: Tim, Nick and Andrew Jackson. We live outside of Stellenbosch over-looking the vineyards, and daily thank our lucky stars to be living in an area that I’ve heard visiting wine importers refer to as “the most majestic wine region in the world”.



The word ‘boredom’ doesn’t exist in the Cape’s dictionary, there is simply too much beauty and activity here to see, taste and enjoy. As a result, I have launched a new operation that specialises in luxury ‘Gastro Wine Tours’ to the Cape. These 13 day trips occur three times a year in the months of April, October and November, and are personally escorted by myself. The visitor will walk away with an eye-opening holiday of a life time, encompassing all the great sights, wine estates and vineyards of the Cape, laced with gastronomic delights, and complete with a two night stay on a Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park on the return home. I call it the ‘Greatest Cape’ www.greatestcapewinetours.co.za - and can proudly assure travellers of an unforgettable experience.

Richard Hilton
PAX 'Verbatim' Vineyards
T +27 (0)21 855 5244
F +27 866 184 089
Cell: +27 (0)83 650 5661A

richard@paxverbatim.co.za

www.paxverbatim.co.za