Achim touched both of our lives from an early age. I knew him first in 1959 when we were two fairly insecure 13 year olds at St Andrews in Grahamstown. It seems that there was a shortage of accommodation in the normal houses and an extra dormitory was built at the home of one of our masters, Anton Murray. Achim, who would have been in Espin and I, nominally in Armstrong, were both boarded there in our first year at the school. I remember him as this tall, unconventional and quite shy young German boy with longish, floppy blonde hair. The shyness would change with time.
Lynne first met him at a beach party in Clifton in 1966. He asked her if she liked champagne and, having received the affirmative answer, took her to his Citroën and opened the boot which held a selection of bottles, part of his wine education, the results of which are part of South African wine history and the start of their friendship.
He first came into the limelight after his studies at Geisenheim, when he started making wine at Boschendal, where he introduced the Blanc de Noir blend and then the first Boschendal MCC, but his biggest impact on the industry was when he built the wonderful underground Haute Cabrière cellar in a mountainside just outside Franschhoek, which specialised in his favourite grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot noir, producing the Pierre Jourdan range of Cap Classique sparkling wines
All produced under his philosophy of "Sun, Soil, Vine, Man" and that wines should always reflect their terroir, the place of their birth. And he would never want to be called a "winemaker". He was always a Cellarmaster
The underground maturation cellar with its chandelier of Dom Perignon bottles
is one of the most iconic sights in our wine world
Achim, in the years after he left school and built his wine career, was always a bit larger than life and one of the great characters, tempered and kept on the road by his wonderful wife Hildegard and his elder son Takuan and, undoubtedly, behind the scenes by their daughter Tanya who is now CEO of Haute Cabrière.
He was multi-faceted, not just an innovator in the wine world but a karate master, a published poet and an artist. His paintings decorate the Haute Cabrière cellar. And always a huge character. We will never forget having lunch with Achim and Hildegard after he'd had a leg amputated and he appeared with the leg of his jeans cut off to display his prosthetic leg.
Our hearts and sympathies are with Hildegard, Takuan, Tanya and all the other members of the family
can be opened from the archive list near the top of the column on the right of this page
