A FIRST-TIME visitor to South Africa from Holland, Marianne de Wal-Nederburgh, made a special stop-over at Nederburg in Paarl to learn more about one of her ancestors, who had spent part of his career at the Cape in the late 18th century.
Marianne is a direct descendant of the Dutch East India Company commissioner-general at the Cape, Cornelis Nederburgh.
Born in 1762, he was posted to the Cape in the last decade of the 18th century. It is after him that Philippus Bernardus Wolvaart named his property in Paarl, that was to become one of the best-known names in South African wine.
Wolvaart received the title deed to his Klein Drakenstein farm from the DEIC on November 1, 1771
Spanning, what was at that time uncultivated land between the Berg and Palmiet Rivers, it measured 57 morgen and 300 square roods.
Wolvaart planted vineyards after clearing the property and by 1804 had established 63 000 bearing vines.
Marianne and her husband, Chris de Wal, were accompanied by friends Gerrit and Elly de Swart. The four were entertained in the Nederburg manor-house, built by Wolvaart in 1800.
They toured the vineyards and the cellars and also visited the recently opened Old Cellar museum which celebrates the winery’s long history and where a reference is made to her forbear, who died in 1811.
She brought with her photographs of 18th century portraits painted of Sebastiaan Nederburgh and his family. These will be included in Nederburg’s wealth of archival material, together with a detailed Nederburgh family tree.
So taken were the group with the farm and the wines that they returned to the farm to buy wines to take home with them.
It is not known exactly when the “h” in the name Nederburgh was dropped but it was during Wolvaart’s lifetime. His correspondence pertaining to the farm is spelled in the way Nederburg is today.
