Part 2 of 3 of my chat with Tom Lubbe of Matassa on the morning of his presentation at the Swartland Heritage Festival in Paternoster on 02.Nov.2018..
I wanted principally to talk to him about his time in wine in South Africa and in particular setting up The Observatory. We touched many subjects and we chatted for longer than planned, so I have split it up.
Tom is a mentor of some of the most exciting (young and old) producers in South Africa, worked under Charles Back along side Eben Sadie before setting up The Observatory in the Paardeberg in early 2000s. He then fell in love and moved to France and started Matassa
I was very hungover for this chat having enjoyed a dinner at Wolfgat in Paternoster the night before, so apologies if I sound a bit slow.
Tom and I covered many topics in the chat – some of them (and the mm:ss) are below:
00.02 More on Louise at Welgemeend
00.49 Henri Jayer, Cros Parantoux
02.13 Lalou Bize-Leroy
03.44 Tom hates most Burgundy
04.07 Tom rather drinks…
04.44 Honest wine vs natural wine
05.53 Georges Descombes
06.26 Henri Jayer’s winemaking
06.47 Denis Mortet
07.42 Inheritance Law
07.54 Premature oxidation in Burgundy
08.29 Claude and Lydia Bourguignon
09.45 Ending up at Domaine Gauby
10.18 Going further with organic farming
10.42 What Tom found at Domaine Gauby
11.44 Meeting Eben Sadie in 1999
13.06 Charles Back and Spice Route
15.16 First vintage of Observatory (2000)
17.21 Old vines
18.14 Converting old vines to organics
19.27 Brilliant wines from young vines (1961 Chateau Palmer)
21.28 Matassa Rouge (100+yo vines)
22.10 Working with old vines
22.41 Elevage vessels and journalists and worms
23.26 Organic matter levels in soils – a visit to Alsace, Domaine Julien Meyer & Domaine Ostertag
26.28 Domaine Leon Barral in Faugeres
27.24 Cover cropping
28.03 Picking early at Observatory
28.34 Buying the farm in Swartland (2003)
29.19 Why the Paardeberg?
30.17 Shoot thinning, leaf plucking and malic acid levels
31.54 Lowering pH through farming – reducing the need for SO2
32.39 Oidium (Powdery Mildew)
35.44 More on Observatory
37.55 What is a winemaker? What is a vigneron?
39.16 Working in the Matassa vineyards
40.46 Importance of organics outside the vineyard
41.42 Tom is a dirty, lazy foreigner
42.37 Local cooperatives
43.17 Challenges of a dry climate (water and organic matter in soil)
44.05 Why aren’t more farmers increasing the organic matter in their soil?
45.20 Entropy and rain
46.26 Presence of the farmer
47.34 Philosophy of Antoine de Saint-Exupery
48.04 Respect for Didier Barral and Patrick Meyer
48.26 Patrick Meyer should be shot – dinner in Stockholm
50.36 Respect your neighbour
51.16 Physical challenges of farming
52.19 Farming equipment manufacturers
53.20 The end of The Observatory
54.05 The market for natural wines in early 2000s
54.50 Tom on his 2002 Carignan/Syrah
55.19 Problems with storage vs badly made wine – a case study.
