www.bloomberg.com banker toasts wine award pours money into south african farm

7/31/2019 Www.bloomberg.com Banker Toasts Wine Award Pours Money Into South African Farm

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Banker Toasts Wine Award, Pours MoneyInto South African Farm

Enlarge imageMichael Jordaan

First National Bank via Bloomberg

Michael Jordaan, Chief Executive Ocer of SouthAfricas First National Bank, is the owner of Stel-lenbosch wine farm called Bartinney.

Michael Jordaan, Chief Executive Ocer of South Africas First National

Bank, is the owner of Stellenbosch wine farm called Bartinney. Source: First

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Banker Toasts Wine Award, Pours Money Into South African Farm

National Bank via Bloomberg

Enlarge image

Bartinney Tasting Shed

Rose Jordaan via Bloomberg

The Bartinney tasting shed. The farm was ownedby the Jordaan family from 1952 until 1993. WhenMichael Jordaan made his fortune in banking hebought the farm back in 2006.The Bartinney tasting shed. The farm was owned by the Jordaan family from

1952 until 1993. When Michael Jordaan made his fortune in banking he

bought the farm back in 2006. Source: Rose Jordaan via Bloomberg

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Enlarge image

Rose Jordaan

Christoph Heierli/Rose Jordaan via Bloomberg

Rose Jordaan and her three daughters in the vi-neyards at Bartinney, South Africa. Rose, previouslyan architect, manages the farm. Her husband Mi-chael commutes to Cape Town from Johannesburgevery week.

Rose Jordaan and her three daughters in the vineyards at Bartinney, South

Africa. Rose, previously an architect, manages the farm. Her husband

Michael commutes to Cape Town from Johannesburg every week. Photogra-

pher: Christoph Heierli/Rose Jordaan via Bloomberg

Enlarge image

Simonsberg

Rose Jordaan via Bloomberg

A view of the Simonsberg, a range of mountainsabove Stellenbosch in the Western Cape of SouthAfrica. The grapes in Bartinneys vineyard grow550 meters above sea level.

A view of the Simonsberg, a range of mountains above Stellenbosch in the

Western Cape of South Africa. The grapes in Bartinneys vineyard grow 550

meters above sea level. Source: Rose Jordaan via Bloomberg

Banker Michael Jordaan is off duty and about toenjoy the fruits of his second job: wine farming.

Jordaan, 43 -- head ofFirstRand Ltd.s (FSR) retailbanking unit, First National Bank -- arrives for din-ner at La Cucina Di Ciro, a popular Italian restaurantin Johannesburgs leafy Parktown North suburb.Hes carrying two bottles of his wines, which heopens as soon as hes whipped off his jacket and tie.

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I am logical, rational, cash-ow-and-return-on-equity- maximized, he says, raising a glass ofwhite. A wine farm is exactly the opposite. Wineis irrational, the cash ow is bad, theres no returnon equity.

Jordaan is a banker who is using his wealth to in-dulge his passions. Other FirstRand executives havewine farms in the area. After two years in his current

banking job, Jordaan got the chance to buy backthe family farm, Bartinney, which had been soldby his dad. The business has long-term potential:His wine has already won an award. He hopes hehas the timing right.

Lenders were making a prot in 2006 as consumersborrowed money withinterest rates at their lowestlevels in more than a decade. Jordaans organization,the second largest nancial group in South Africa,suffered through the 2008 global nancial crisis

which forced customers to slow debt repaymentsas the country slid into its rst recession in 17 years.

Memorable Vintage

At Bartinney the grapes kept growing and SouthAfricas 2009 harvest, Jordaans rst, produced pro-bably one of the most memorable vintages ever,according to a report fromSouth African Wine In-dustry Information & Systems. Thanks to extremelyhealthy grapes, a cool growing season and loweryields, truly excellent wines were made from allthe noble cultivars.

Jordaan, who has short, curly brown hair, says thatwhile the farm isnt making any money, this isntthe whole story.

Ive tried to rationalize whats good about it andwhat Ive found is, at the end of the day we bankersproduce ethereal things, he says. I can show you onBloomberg that earnings have gone up, but theresnothing you can touch.

With a wine farm, theres a product and I knowwhere the grapes came from, what the weather waslike during the year that it was made, how it washarvested, what process it went through and howmuch time it spent in the barrel, he says. And hereit is and you can taste it and you can feel it.

Jordaan, who is permanently tanned with a lopsidedsmile, has invested in vines, labor, infrastructure,

French oak barrels and a wine maker, Therese deBeer.

Terroir Best

Bartinneys rstcabernet sauvignon, harvested byhand in 2009, went on sale in July last year andscooped the Terroir Award for the best cabernet inthe Banhoek and Jonkershoek wards ofStellenbosch,a region about 30 kilometers east of Cape Town andrenowned for its red wines.

The cabernet sauvignon is beautifully balancedwith good tannins and sexy mocha chocolate over-tones, according to Karen James, a South Africanwine merchant who tasted the Bartinney red. Fora virgin vintage its a spectacular effort.

Bartinney, which clings to the side of a mountain,belonged to Jordaans family from 1952 until 1993.His grandfather, also called Michael, was a physicianin Namibia until he went to Stellenbosch, traveledup Hellshoogte Pass, translated as hellishly high,and bought Bartinney where he retired.

A couple of years after my grandfather died my dadsold the farm and it was sad and I never thought Idhave it back, but I dreamt about it, Jordaan said,adding that both of his grandparents are buried onthe farm. And then about four years ago it came up.

Chardonnay, Sauvignon

Bartinney, which also grows and bottles chardonnay

and sauvignon blanc, is a small piece of land relativeto other South African wine farms with 27 hectares

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(about 67 acres), of which only 12 are under vine.Apart from the grapes, which are grown 550 meters(1,800 feet) and more above sea level, Jordaan andhis wife have spent time and cash overseeing theplanting of more than 6,000 trees, giving Bartinneycarbon neutral status.

After apartheid ended in 1994 the South Africanwine industry grew, with farms that used to grow

grapes for cooperatives turning to producing theirown wines.

Add to that the economic boom of the late 1990s andthe early part of the last decade, and a number ofcompany executives made enough money to buytheir own farms despite the capital-intensive natureof wine production.

Other FirstRand bankers have been bitten by thesame bug. Two of the companys three co-foun-

ders, G.T Ferreira and Paul Harris, have farms inthe Stellenbosch region calledTokara andAudaciarespectively. Jordaan, who commutes between Jo-hannesburg and Cape Town most weeks, also soldthe farm next door to Bartinney to FirstRands ChiefOperating Ocer Johan Burger.

Wine can be very pretentious and complex butin the end, its what you like, Jordaan says. Itsnot what somebody else says. If you like it, thatswhats good.

(Renee Bonorchis is a reporter for Bloomberg News.The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Renee Bonor-chis in Johannesburg at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ma-nuela Hoelterhoff [email protected].

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www.bloomberg.com banker toasts wine award pours money into south african farm

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