February 2002

The cellar plans were nearly complete. We were determined to break ground before March to give the builder three dry months to get the foundations down, the walls up and the roof on. Hopefully the building would be complete before it started raining in June/July and all that would be left to do would be the internal finishing.

The plans were drawn for a double storey fermentation room capable of handling our Shiraz crop. We had planted roughly 5 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, 2 hectares of Mourvedre and 9 hectares of Shiraz. Hopefully these would be harvested at different times but we had to make sure we had enough capacity for the 9 hectares of Shiraz. Our expectations were for no more than, at the very most, 8 tons per hectare and there are 7 blocks of Shiraz. The idea was to have enough flexibility in the cellar space for fermentation of each block separately. This meant a separate tank for each block with each tank of 10000 litres capacity to allow for 1000 litres per ton maximum at 80% capacity. The tanks would need to be wide and shallow to allow good skin contact, but the wider they are the more space they take up, the bigger the building and the higher the cost of the building, the cooling plant etc.

We also thought it was important to create gravity flow within the cellar. The debate rages over this between advocates of gravity versus pumping and the reverse. Gravity flow fits our ideas of the least interference possible, but it is slower and tricky to achieve. The main concern is that pumping destroys the freshness and flavour of the wine. There are several types of pump on the market - centrifugal, diaphragm and peristaltic. Centrifugal pumps spin fast and do actually harm the wine so are not used, but we will avoid pumping if possible, except when we pump juice over the cap when fermenting the Cabernet Sauvignon.

We studied several methods of achieving gravity flow in the cellar, even thinking about a hole in the cellar floor with a huge scissor jack for lifting a tank up and down. We were lucky in that the cellar was being built on a slope and, in the end of the day, we decided on having the fermentation cellar on a higher level than the maturation cellar, albeit under the same roof. We would incorporate a 1.2m step in the cellar floor. The double story height of the fermentation cellar would allow us to place the tanks on a specially constructed steel frame to lift them off the floor to a height of 1.4m. The bottom of the tanks will be at a higher elevation than the top barrel in the maturation cellar, thus allowing gravity flow from tanks to barrels. For moving between the barrel store and the fermentation area there will be a ramp and a door wide and tall enough for a fork lift. In fact there will be 2 barrel cellars - one for malolactic fermentation and one for maturation. These two rooms will be separated from each other and from the fermentation area by insulated walls, allowing them to be held at different temperatures.

We have fitted this jigsaw together inside a simple rectangular building 35 m long, 13 m wide and 6.5 m high to the top of the wall elevation. It will have a normal pitched roof and a terrace on the north side and the west side leading to a terraced garden. The earth for this terraced garden comes from the excavation of the cellar space which is dug into the slope and then piled up again all round the lower part of the building. We hope this will provide the space needed for making wine in cool, clean conditions using the latest technology, combined with the traditional techniques of wood fermentation and maturation, total gravity flow, and sorting of bunches and berries by hand.

We also hope that we will have a lot of fun in our cellar. The farm itself has nowhere to really entertain in. The farm is also too far off the beaten track to have a "tasting room" open to the public as we would expect too few passing visitors. But we really want a well appointed room for entertaining people who are interested enough in our venture to give us a call in advance and say they are coming. We also want to entertain invited guests to a high standard. To that end we have planned for a mezzanine floor above the maturation cellar. This room will have floor to ceiling glass overlooking the fermentation cellar and access to the gantry that runs on top of the tanks. As you may have gathered if you are familiar with our story so far, we love good food and dinner parties, so we are going to build a fully equipped kitchen in this room, install a dining table for at least 20 guests, a fireplace and comfy chairs for winter days and have access to a 60 sq m terrace for al fresco lunches. We hope that by inviting the best chefs in the country to cook for us and by serving the best of South African and overseas wines we will make an invitation to TMV a sought after one. We certainly have a long list of people we owe a good dinner to for the help they have given us. We are also going to make sure there are facilities available for those guests who need a bed for the night! We hope that in time the " TMV Clubroom" will become renowned for stimulating discussions, great dinner parties, but most of all for the fun had in it.

We broke ground on February 19th - a momentous day especially for Manie who thought that it was to be the following week. There was a steel frame barn standing exactly where the D6 caterpillar wanted to start and so Manie had to "deconstruct" it. Trying to take the roof off a 5m high construction with only the aid of a socket set is not highly recommended. Anyway, after a lot of drilling, sawing and banging the old shed was down and work started.

It soon became apparent that the "cut" into the slope would be more radical that at first envisaged. We wanted to pull the building as far back from the farm track as possible and the original idea of access at the back was discarded. This meant that the building would be pushed further into the slope and the amount of earth to be shifted was substantial. A small supporting wall was needed to prevent slippage. Three attempts of getting the cut done cleanly were required. But in the end we had a flat area surrounded by some huge piles of earth with a cliff face at one end. We were ready to build.

Work of course had to go on in the vineyard. There would be no point in having a fantastic cellar if all the vines were dead. Again we were having trouble with buck eating the Cabernet at the very highest elevation. They were obviously circumventing the fence and sneaking in unannounced. It was one small stag that we often saw as we walked through the rows in the early evening. Our plight did not go unnoticed however and the illustrious editor of a well known wine magazine hearing of the problem mailed us with the suggestion of hanging stockings filled with human hair among the rows. Manie appeared the next morning completely shorn of his wild curly locks. Now that is dedication to duty! Even so work continued on the "game fence". The buck were taking the shoot tips on the cabernet, the result being that quite a few of the vines were becoming low bush like plants rather than elegant vines reaching for the skies. The opposite was true for the Shiraz and Mourvedre which were growing like crazy. Most of them were now up the cordon and being pruned and tied up. The "bush" Cabernet didn't worry us however. The main task for these guys was to send down their roots and establish themselves, and apart from their enforced stuntedness they were great healthy looking plants.

Tom G-W went to visit Flagstone winery in the Cape Town docks. Flagstone first came to our notice through their excellent website. Fiona Jack is the web designer (working out of New York) and brother Bruce Jack the winemaker at Flagstone. Their father was one of the visionaries who designed and built the superb V&A docks in Cape Town harbour which is surely one of the most pleasant shopping areas in the world. This enterprising family also runs a complete wine consulting business called Origin. Bruce was very kind to give of his time during the harvest to explain his philosophy. They have grown into a huge operation in just 5 years and have won numerous awards for their wines. Bruce is determined to establish successful brands through a modern product at accessible prices with attractive packaging that is going to compete on the supermarket shelves of Europe and the UK with the big Aussie names. He certainly has the product. He has access to a good supply of quality grapes and through sheer hard work and determination, good marketing and joint ventures is hitting it for six regularly.

Part of their winery complex includes an old tunnel that the original builders of the docks used to move stone through to the cliffs to reach sea level. This makes an impressive maturation cellar - and I am told a great venue for candle lit wine launches. Bruce and his team deserve all the success they can get for putting great wines at great value prices into Europe and flying the flag for SA. Good luck to them, let's hope they push some of the Aussie mega-brands off their pedestals!

Meanwhile the Merriman family was planning a holiday (their second in as many months, poor things). John had his itinerary all worked out and he was confidently plotting his route in his mind's eye. A swing through the Rhone Valley to follow up on a few recommendations followed by a trip back to his favourite wine place - Tuscany. We are looking at getting hold of some Grenache to plant at TMV so Chateauneuf du Pape was an area that he wanted to re-examine (all in the interests of research). Perhaps a visit to Andre Brunel at Les Cailloux who is apparently making a special cuvee from 100 year old vines this is superb. Perhaps to Domaine de Pegan where Laurence Feraud is producing a great new cuvee "Da Capo" in the traditional style. Perhaps Domaine de la Mordoree to taste the renowned rose that Christophe Delorme is producing.

Unfortunately Mrs. M's mind's eye was working quite differently. A little further north and with a lot more snow, her holiday plans had more to do with giant slalom than Grenache, bobsleigh than Barolo. Alpine sports are her thing so a compromise was in order. An agreement was reached, they would hit the slopes in St Anton as long as they could stay somewhere with a good wine cellar. Chateauneuf du Pape was postponed.

So it was off to snowy Austria, and no, not to hunt out the top producers of Gruner Veltiner in the Burgenland, but to the ultimate place for skiing and wine tasting in Europe, the Arlberg Hospiz at St. Christoph. It's not often you come across a fantastic a wine list at the best of times, but the wine list at the Hospiz is legendary. Although a bit dated and very Bordeaux-centric, the cellar has a very good selection of wines that go back over the last century. When the Merrimans sat down on the first night for dinner a German couple on the next table kicked off their evening by ordering a bottle of '82 Chateau Petrus and a '85 Chateau Mouton-Rothchild. A consequence of ordering these historic wines, apart from the dilemma of whether to start with the Petrus or the Mouton-Rothschild, was that a platoon of somber sommeliers appeared from nowhere and proceeded to spend the whole evening lurking at the edge of the table watching it being drunk and eventually venturing to ask how it tasted. Didn't seem to bother the Germans.

The Merriman pockets are not quite up to these sort of wines, but he did manage to locate some interesting other vintages that were hidden in the cellar and luckily one of his favourite Piedmont producers Gaja had made the grade and was on the wine list at a reasonable price. His well-balanced Sito Moresco ’98 won though to be John's wine of the week, despite being up against some formidable competition.

When heavy snow hit the resort two days into the trip and the family were cut off from the outside world John thoroughly capitalized on the Hotel's interesting selection of bin-ends, again in the name of research. From this near vertical Bordeaux vintage tasting he recommends Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou ’86, “a youthful super concentrated spicy wine, that is at it’s peak, but tastes like should last forever”. Interestingly one of the wines he had, was from the very classy Chateau Latour, the ’75, he described as, “still holding onto its tannins after a quarter a century, a backward tasting monster with a slightly cedary wood flavour”. Okay 1975 Pauillac was never great, and always had a tendency to be overly tannic, so it probably just needs another 5 or 10 years! And this from a classy shop like Latour, help! We just hope that the Tulbagh Tannins (sounds more like the local football team) won’t mean that we’ll still be sitting on a cellar full 2003 wines in 25 years, waiting for them to soften.

Austrian wine producers (the area lies on a similar latitude to Burgundy) are very much on the rebound, after years in the wilderness, being the wine equivalent of flat-pack furniture due to the mid 80’s “anti-freeze” scandal. They have been working hard to improve quality and get back onto the international map. Their main success has come in the form of producing ultra sweet apple strudel style wines, and some of these wines are without comparison, Alois Kracher from Neusiedlersee produces absolutely astonishing wines, especially his ultra sweet decadent Trockenbeerenausleses that can contain over 200g of residual sugar per litre. The advantage here is that you can spread any leftover wine on your toast at breakfast. Sommelier Ronan Sayburn at Gordon Ramsay's in London always pushes Kracher's sweet wine as a great accompaniment to their foie gras starter which is a match made in heaven, according to John.

John did manage to get a few other producers under his tasting belt while stuck in the hotel surrounded by howling gales and snow drifts. Weingut Velich Tiglat Chardonnay was a firm favourite with the ladies in the party, while Heidi Schrock's Elysium ethereal sweet wine was great with pudding. The sommelier, on the other hand, failed to produce a single Austrian red to impress the party, although not through lack of trying, so at least TMV is going to be safe from the Austrian competition!

So while the Merrimans rolled home from their energetic skiing holiday Bob the builder was doing his stuff in Tulbagh. The big question for March is, can he fix it?