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Introduction
The most publicised effect which Danie de Wet had on the South African Wine Industry arose in the nineteen eighties from his speeding up, through his own channels, of the importation of Chardonnay clones which by law, were unavailable to the famer in that country.
As a result of a Presidential Commission (Klopper Commission, 1986) his clones were legalised and the bureaucratic 'Plant Control Board' regulations were amended eliminating most of the time restraint which had helped to keep the South African Wine Industry a few steps behind the New World's wine producers. A few years later he was appointed to the Wine and Spirit Board which had been responsible for reporting the whole affair to government. That was his heavily publicised act. However, it is only one in a life devoted to improvement of his country's vinous industry.
Also, though other notable acts will be discussed, it is certain that they are only the forerunner to many in the future. Such is the acceleration of this mover and shaker of the industry.
The Man
Part of the de Wet family of Hollands origin, arrived in South Africa in 1693, and inhabited the Windhoek, Worcester, Caledon, Aliwal and Robertson areas.
A fifth generation South African de Wet Danie was born on the farm De Wetshof in Robertson, Western Cape on the 27th of August 1949 to be followed by a sister three years later. His constant questioning of any and everything was a facet referred to, sometimes wryly, by his father Johann.
Danie went to a thirty pupil farm school locally, and in 1963 moved to Jan van Riebeek School in Cape Town, where he matriculated. He recalls family holidays three times a year, in Sea Point, Cape Town, Hermanus Cape and Rhodesia as highlights in a happy childhood with his Afrikaans father and German mother. At age twenty-five he was married to Lesca at the Groote Kerk, Cape Town (it had been his school church).
As the result of his farming exposure to activities such as horse breeding, Jersey studs, pigs and so on, he had wanted to be a veterinary surgeon, however, this was not to be. He does not feel the world owes him a living. His philosophy is bound...