Joining the Cloof cellar team this year as winemaker’s assistant is Goliat Booysen, who goes by the nickname Gollie (the “g” is pronounced like the “j” in Rioja). Occupying the senior assistant’s role is Frederick Kalumpie, who is better known at Cloof as Bolle (as in the George Gregan-lookalike Springbok scrumhalf).

Each of them is this vintage making a tank of wine without interference from winemaker Christopher van Dieren. The only requirement is that the resulting wine should be of a style and quality that justifies barrel maturation.

Gollie (in the white shirt) decided to make a Shiraz, which he has named Ubuntu, after the old African principle umntu ngumntu ngabantu, meaning “a person is a person because of other persons”. Despite being playfully ragged about occupying tank space for too long (he wanted extended skin contact), he stuck to his guns, and yesterday took a most attractive wine to barrel.

Bolle (in the cellar-friendly red shirt) is making a Cabernet Sauvignon, which doesn’t yet have its own name.

Rivalry is likely to be extremely keen