January 2003
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Countdown After the frivolity of the December holidays we realized that our first proper harvest was a matter of a few short weeks away. Time to sober up and get down to business. At once exciting and frightening. Depending on the weather we were expecting to harvest at the end of February and there was a huge amount of work to be done before then. The cellar was a shell. J-C looked around and, although he didn't, nobody would have blamed him for panicking. Instead of the exalted vaults of several of the most elegant, established and prestigious winemaking facilities in South Africa that he was used to he had four bare walls and a pile of wishful thinking. Clear thought was required. Priorities had to be drawn up. A budget had to be worked out. Contractors had to be cajoled into producing the goods on time. Equipment had to be procured. Any mistake in organization or communication could be fatal. Of course, as ever, money was the root of all problems. The fact that the Rand had rallied like crazy since this time last year meant that all the expensive cellar infrastructure was looking more expensive in dollar terms by the day. This was a new and unexpected problem. We had got used to drawing from the well every year and seeing the bucket coming up fuller, but this year there was a hole in it.
The priorities were: Cooling. Vital items for this year were the cold room for the crates of grapes as they come in from the vineyard, cooling for the fermentation bins, cooling and humidity control in the malolactic cellar, cooling in the lab and ventilation in the chemical store. This included chiller capacity to cool the barrel cellar and bottle storage room, as it is not economical to split the chiller into smaller units. When we wish to cool these two areas we can add the extra blower coils. The thinking behind this planning was to be as capital conscious as possible. There was no point in spending money on ambient cooling for the vast interior of the cellar, including offices, fermentation area and large barrel store when with this year's small harvest these areas were not going to be fully utilized. This vintage will be matured in the malo cellar, so climate control was only required there. It is smaller and closed off from the main barrel store by a large thick wooden door. We would have to install chiller capacity for the whole cellar, but as further capacity was required we could add blowers and put in a division between the fermentation and main barrel store. The cold room was a must. It is vital to our hands on strategy. At the risk of being repetitive we intend to hand pick every grape that goes into the crusher, not just the bunches that go into the destemmer. This will involve careful temperature control of the bunches, and triage. It is vital to pick grapes at the optimum ripeness. The timing of picking cannot be dictated by the capacity to handle the grapes in the cellar. We cannot be waiting around to pick or be rushed in the triage process. That is why a cold "holding" area is necessary. The grapes will be picked in the early morning (picking will start at 6.00am with ambient temps around 14 to 16 degrees) directly into small "kissies" the size of milk crates each weighing only 18kg when full. The latest we will pick to is 11.00am when temps reach 22 degrees, but because the vineyard is in the mountain shadow until 7.30am the grapes will still be cool. The bunches will not be thrown into large bins where they may be damaged or squashed. Within minutes of picking they will be in the cold room still in the crates being chilled to 5 degrees. There they will stay until the cellar is ready for them without any danger of spoiling. Of course if the guys are ready then as soon as they are cool they will be taken out still in the crates and, crate by crate, put into the destemmer. We have no disease at the moment so bunch sorting is not required. Then the berries will be sorted on the conveyor and crushed directly into the fermentation bins. The cold room is vital for another reason - cold maceration. The ambient temp in the cellar is around 25 degrees and fermentation will not start until 18 degrees so we expect the crushed grapes to soak in their own juice for 2 to 3 days while they slowly warm up to the required temperature. By cooling the bunches lower than 5 degrees we can extend the cold soak if need be. Triage. As explained above the separated destemmer / crusher strategy allows for berry sorting and is vital for our hands on approach, but the equipment has to be custom made and is not ready yet. Barrels. This is easy. Order your barrels and pay a lot of money. But they look lovely.
The lab. All winemakers need their laboratory, and our winegrower is no different. Installation of the desk, benches, shelves and cupboards still needs to be done. The fridge, the pH meter, beakers, pipettes, hydrometers, etc all have to bought. So once the priorities had been worked out and the quotes accepted we had a plan and a budget for the year. Stage 1 complete.
In the vineyard things were accelerating. The main irrigation pump broke (again) but we managed to get it fixed in a couple of days, so no serious harm done. In the first week of Jan we gave all the blocks 4 hours irrigation equating to about 10mm (our system delivers 2,5mm/hour). There was an overcast and humid period early in the month, and though our varieties are all rather botrytis resistant, we gave a final spray before the bunches filled out at veraison. Veraison started at the top of the older block of Syrah on the 9th of Jan and slowly moved down the block over a couple of days. By the Sunday evening the block was into veraison all round. The older Cab was also showing early patches starting. This was very exciting, as we knew that the harvest was only a few short weeks away. It is strange but we somehow didn't dare to believe that our vines would do what all others do until we actually saw it happen. A bit like having a child and, being really proud when it starts crawling, telling everybody (who can't understand what all the fuss is about) and they say that you were actually quite an interesting person before you had little Freddy etc etc. We had 18ml rain on the 15th, which was a welcome surprise, and it was followed by nice dry weather, so there was no disease worries. Wildlife was a concern though midway through the month, and we spent 2 days making sure the fence surrounding the vineyards was intact to limit access to the duikers and reebok that were seen testing the berries on a few early morning strolls. The baboons also seemed to be taking a greater interest in our efforts, and to distract them from the very top block of Cab (where they are well hidden), we sent 2 staff to patrol the block every day. They worked in the vines at the same time, so as not to waste their time. This seemed to work, as there has been no damage done by them to date. As we suspected last month the wind damage was too much on some vines for there to be adequate leaf area for the crop size especially in the older Syrah. We are not worried about getting a high yield but will be really worried if the vines can't ripen their crop so mid way through the month J-C had to get the team to work through the blocks twice reducing the crop. The first time they did not drop enough. It is difficult to get guys to drop bunches on the floor, but when they see you mean what you say and aren't going to have a fit at lost yields, they do it properly. J-C was careful that the bunches we dropped were those that were behind in terms of veraison, and this will help to even out the ripeness levels come harvesting time. Where the vines had a balanced yield, but ripeness levels within the blocks were not even, J-C marked the less ripe bunches with yellow clips. These bunches will be harvested separately after the other bunches with the aim of avoiding greenness in our wines as far as possible. In between all of this, we were still tying down arms, tipping a few shoots that were still showing signs of vegetative growth, and applying some more compost to the weaker vines in the older blocks, as well as removing weeds from the rows. So really quite busy in the vineyard.
As far as the cellar was concerned, and with the budget agreed, J-C ended the month as happy as a Mrs. G-W in Prada with a Gold Card. He ordered the cold room and cooling system to be installed. He ordered built in lab benches and shelves for his lab from a local carpenter. He asked people to come to give quotes on improving our phone lines (into all the houses and cellar), on sealing the floors in the barrel cellar, and on the weather station and soil moisture reading system. He ordered many many things. Too many to list. They include harvesting crates, harvest bins, liners (to ferment in) and lids (had to get some designed), a pallet jack, all the lab equipment (pH meter, burettes, pipettes, etc), cleaning chemicals, a high pressure cleaner, steps for the cellar, the sorting table designed and built, cooling plates, pigeage sticks, timber for barrel racks (must still be built) etc etc etc. The local suppliers thought Christmas had come all over again. We had promised to upgrade the staff cottages so work was started on Saansies house. J-C spent quite a bit of time keeping the builder equipped with doors, bricks, cement, etc. Eventually, the brickie's good wages got the better of him, and he came to work drunk a couple of times. Third time was unlucky, and we dropped him off on the other side of town and finished the work without him. By the end of the month, after much hard work, everything was falling into place. If the suppliers were as good as their word we would be ready. The farmers on the warmer valley floor were already into their harvest and so it was only a couple of weeks away for us, less if the weather stayed hot. We look forward to a fun filled harvest, our first of many. With J-C now full time and bigger projects in the valley beckoning Manie and Jane decided that it was time to move on. Manie is a project guy, a builder of infrastructure and a turner of ideas into reality. There had been a huge influx of outside investment into the valley in the few short years that we had been there and when one of the biggest, but as yet underdeveloped, farms in the valley changed hands the buyer needed a man to turn it round. Manie was the perfect guy for the job and with the support of all of us at TMV he took up the offer. We shall miss him and Jane on a day to day basis but we are very grateful for what he did for us. Over three years of hard work he built an organic vineyard and a cellar on budget and on time with no major mishaps. He was always helpful and courteous even when confronted by the most ridiculous demands. Anyway he is still consulting for us and at the end of a phone. If TMV is a success we will want to do it all again somewhere else in SA or Europe and we shall seek Manie out again. Manie and Jane will always be thought of as part of the TMV team. Copyright © 2000 Tulbagh Solutions. All rights reserved. |
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