The British may have Meghan Markle, we have Lotte Wolf. The top sommelier and Wine Wolf Lotte is at least as exciting and fun as the royal bride. Just as ambitious, outspoken, classy , recalcitrant and involved. But Lotte has even a little more. Namely her own wine. A Touch of Dutch from Swartland, South Africa. Eat This , Meghan Markle!
Last Thursday, Lotte Wolf – Wine Director in Charge of Bridges – presented her three South African newborns to a small group under the name ‘Lotte Wolf: Touch of Dutch’. According to the biodynamic wine calendar on a particularly bad (carrot) day, while she actually firmly believes in it. And a few months later than planned. “The wines weren’t fully awake yet and of course you can’t make that if you’re a sommelier yourself.” But carrot day or not, her wines were impressive and – more importantly – tantalizingly delicious.
Pure nature
The names Weed Vergaan Nie (sémillon), King Arthur (grenache) and Die Bastaard (mourvèdre, cinsault) leave no doubt about their origin. Authentic Swartland, South Africa is Lotte’s second home. Where you can still hit the crib with your ass, make crazy jumps and just do what you want. “You make wine with your heart and not according to the rules. Unfined and unfiltered† I want exciting, naturally made wines with a beautiful story that starts in the vineyard. With the grape itself in the leading role, without the addition of chemicals and pesticides.” Despite her busy sommelier life, Lotte spends two months a year with her South African grapes. That’s where she says she finds her nirvana . “As a grapevine, I’d be happy here too!”
Lotte, the story
In De Nieuwe Garde (the NCRV program in which Lotte was followed as one of the young top talents on their way to the absolute top in their field), she can be seen as a thirteen-year-old drinking champagne exuberantly. But the wine-wine disease only really starts when she is backpacking through New Zealand at the age of eighteen. She bluffs herself into a job as a waitress at a four-star hotel. There wine appears to have everything that makes her happy: geology, nature and a high level of spectacle (at the table). Back in the Netherlands, Sergio Herman discovers her and the two have been working together for six years. During the same period, she goes through three winemaking internships. After her departure from Oud Sluis in 2015, she started winemaking with Swartland Cowboy Johan Meyer and started at restaurant Bridges of The Grand in Amsterdam. A year later she is ready for the real work: producing wine under her own name (with wolf logo).
Wild white Bordeaux and stuff
The Sémillon, the Grenache and the blend of mourvèdre and cinsault are intended to frame a complete dinner. The Sémillon (603 bottles) – from cooler, ferruginous vineyards in the Hemel en Aarde region – has spent nine months in 300-litre barrels and is bottled with a minimal amount of sulfite for flawless transport. The result is exuberant and outspoken. A kind of wild white Bordeaux. Intriguing and utterly gastronomic.
The King Arthur Grenache (672 bottles) is a tribute to her complex uncle Peter Arthur (who passed away in 2016). He was closed, layered, but reachable at the right time. Just like Grenache actually. That is why Lotte soaked these grapes for two weeks. And personally every day with bare feet stamped the hat through. Quietly waiting for the grapes to open. Then matured in two-year-old French barrels and bottled again with minimal sulphite. It turns out to be worth the wait. We taste King Arthur slightly chilled: fresh, delicious blackberry sour, open and elegant. Which a little family experience is not good for.
Die Bastaard (672 bottles) got its name because the combination of mourvèdre and cinsault doesn’t really fit. But Lotte finds the combination magical. The grapes come from the same vineyards (ferrous stone, granite) as those of Eben Sadie’s Columella and are extra concentrated due to the dry vintage 2016. The wine has a pleasant structure, depth and good tannins, especially with the pleasant use of wood. Like the other two, this one is excitingly different.
Royal dream couple
Besides sommelier and winemaking (and a wine article here and there), Lotte also found time to meet her own Prince Harry. Bjorn van Aalst – matre sommelier at Vermeer in Amsterdam – and they have formed the dream team of the young Dutch sommeliers since last year. And where Meghan was divorced, Lotte already had three South African wine kids. And although they are not his own, Bjorn is now proud of all three and lovingly interferes with their upbringing. This wild South African wine rebel found her real love on Dutch wine soil.
“My ultimate dream is”, she told In De Nieuwe Garde, “to serve my own wine in my own wine bar in Amsterdam. And that people still like that…”
Dear Lotte, may all your dreams come true and even more!
