Tom Lubbe 2

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.

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