August 2004
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Annual migration July had been un-seasonally warm and dry. But August made up for that. Very cold, wet and windy conditions set in over the interior of Western Cape in the first week of the month. There was extensive flooding in Cape Town. Snowfalls occurred over the high ground. Heavy rain fell over the Cape Peninsula and the Winelands on Saturday 14th. Gale-force westerly winds as well as very rough seas occurred when a low pressure system was sitting over the Cape while a series of frontal systems were passing through the area. These systems led to very cold and wet conditions accompanied by strong gale-force winds due to the steep pressure gradient caused by the low pressure system positioned south of the Cape. There wasn't much that could be done on the farm except make sure the drainage and the culverts were all working and that the dams were filling slowly but steadily. It is always amazing to see so much water racing down the mountain after so many months of dryness. The power of it is quite frightening. We also had bad news. Lily the surviving sister of the two puppies we got from Stellenbosch pound was hit by a bakkie on the farm. Her jaw was broken but she was OK. Dogs don't have much luck on our farm. She spent 2 weeks in the vets in Ceres. Not her first visit. She had spent a week there a few months ago with her Achilles tendon surgery. In fact she made a great recovery, and except for having a rather flat face on one side she was still lithe, lively and beautiful. We recommend the Ceres vets for anyone requiring an extreme makeover.
Just as the winter started to close in J-C was off like a swallow on migration to warmer climes. The South of France no less. He had arranged to spend the three month harvest season in France at a top class producer in Bandol - Chateau Pibarnon. It is widely respected for consistently producing the most elegant and one of the most long-lived Bandols. By French standards it is pretty large, owning 40 hectares of vines, planted with mostly Mourvedre (80%), as well as Cinsault, Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, and a smattering of other red and white varieties. What makes it so special is the high limestone content of its soils, which produces a real oxymoron of tannins in Mourvedre grown there - seriously firm but velvety soft. Another important part of its terroir is the interaction with the Mediterranean Sea. The Domaine is perched on the top of a 300m high hill looking over the town of Bandol and the sea.
So pretty tough for J-C sunning himself in a Mediterranean coastal town brimming with posing tourists from Paris. But there was a good reason for him being there. One of the main reasons for him visiting Bandol was to learn about working with Mourvedre, and learning starts in the vineyard. We've struggled a bit at TMV trying to work out which is the best way to train our Mourvedre vines. As they are extremely erect growers, exhibiting strong apical dominance, they are really difficult to get to grow on a normal hedge based trellis. Bush vines are an option, but this could be a problem for us with our organic cover crops getting in the way of low growing bush vines. What they do in Bandol is a compromise between the two, with bush vines grown as goblets under a trellis system, solving both problems. Maybe this is something we can experiment with at TMV in 2005, and hopefully it will work here too. His hosts were once again very friendly and generous. Apparently the French are only stuck up when it comes to Poms. The owner, Count Henri de Saint Victor is a real character who lives for gastronomy. Every day at the usual 2 hour lunch he amazed the assembled company with a food-related story, about the day he ate 2 meter long spaghetti, or the tribe he hunted with in the Congo eating only monkeys, or the Englishman he once met who ate his beef well done. Thankfully J-C's French was not always good enough to decipher the Count's strong southern French accent, so he could focus on the great food and wine. He did however spread the word on SA wines by introducing the assembled company to the great Mulderbosch Barrel Fermented Chardonnay which we love and went down a treat with the Frenchies.
Actually we have it on good authority that in fact most of J-C's working time was spent in the cellar. The cellar was modern in style, with stainless steel tanks, etc, but it was not recently built. It was not the cleanest place he had ever worked in either. His first two weeks solid were spent cleaning the fermentation tanks in a protective wet suit - jumping in and out of tanks, dismantling all tank taps and fittings, scrubbing, scrubbing and more scrubbing - that is after all what they get harvest help for. No suntan yet, and maybe it was the smell of acid and bacteria that was putting the chicks off. Never mind - two months to go. Copyright © 2000 Tulbagh Solutions. All rights reserved. |
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