About Boekenhoutskloof:
The name "Boekenhoutskloof" comes from the Cape beech, or Kaapse boekenhout, a tree indigenous to Franschhoek and once used by the Cape Dutch for furniture making. It is pronounced, not easily, bok-un-hoatscloof.
The winery's white-washed, Dutch-style farmhouse, dated 1771, once stood in an orchard; pears still plump up in the trees around it. Kent and his partners, including South Africa's consummate ad-men John Hunt and Reg Lascaris, have never advertised the wine. And still the bottles - each
with a sleek hand-torn label picturing seven different Capestyle chairs, one for each partner - keep selling out.
Kent is now studying to be a master of wine, one of three in South Africa taking the seriously competitive international course rather than the regional one. He's not got hubris enough to presume the post himself; he's already saturated in the business of making Boekenhoutskloof, as well as the winery's second label, Porcupine Ridge.
While he sounds casual about his craft
("It's a series of decisions, and when you make them"), small details give away his obsessive streak. His dogs are
called Petrus and Gaja.
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