June 2003
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The Taste of Two Worlds After the excitement of our first tasting of TMV wine and with this fresh in our minds we set off to further wine tastings in SA and Bordeaux. Firstly the Fairburn Trophy winners and next the annual VinExpo. But first we had a bit of work to do in the vineyard to get things settled in before winter arrived in earnest. The first rain had really helped the cover crop, but winter was very late this year and there had not been nearly enough rain for anyone. The cereal farmers in the valley floor were tearing their hair out as nothing was growing. There was a real danger of losing the whole crop. We got some mulch from BrennoKem and laid it in those areas of the vineyard and wind breaks that have weed problems. Weeds are our biggest worry at this time of year. We hope the cover crop grows quickly enough to swamp the weeds or we will need to spend huge amounts of money and time laying mulch. For non-organic growers weeds don't even pop up on the radar as it is routine to blatt the whole place with Roundup.
Other tasks included cleaning out all the old dead trees from the farm and making things look neat and tidy. It was now getting really cold in the evenings. 2 to 4 degrees C on average. This was brilliant timing for the vines to put them into full dormancy. The day's were now getting cooler as well, not much over 20 degrees either, so chilling units can build up. We were also getting the vines ready for pruning (removing all the nylon tied to the vines from last year, etc). We ordered the rest of the wire to finish off trellising the young vines. Then, the first load of mulch arrived. We tackled it one block at a time. First doing the de-weed, and then put mulch down where the weeds were a problem. The biggest enemy was the kweek (kikuyu grass) in some of the blocks. Hopefully the mulch will help to combat it. J-C went to take some more samples in to see how the last few barrels undergoing malolactic fermentation were doing, as well as to check on the straw wine. Some of the barrels we inoculated were finished already, and the others are about half way. He measured the sugars of the Straw Wine last and found they were at about 50 degrees balling, meaning we've got to about 4% alcohol so far. Further on than we thought we'd be. We went to a tasting of the medal winners of the Fairbairn Trophy Wine Show. Quite a few wines, but all in all there were about 6 that we felt were outstanding. On the whites, Vergelegen's new 2001 White blend is a stunner. Without a doubt the best white wine J-C says he has ever tasted from SA. They also had their new Vergelegen Red which is classy and elegant, but no showy monster. All the other whites were unexceptional, except for Tokara's Zondernaam Sauvignon blanc. J-C also wondered why a wine like Mulderbosch's Sauvignon blanc went unrewarded. On the red side, we were most impressed with the Shiraz's, with Hartenberg standing out. Rust en Vrede's Guardian Peak Syrah, Mourvedre + Grenache blend is also pretty hot. It is very interesting to us that the varieties more associated with the Rhone and Southern Mediterranean areas such as Shiraz / Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre are showing so well. People in the SA wine press are always going on about finding a signature SA wine or blend, and many thought for a while that it could be or include Pinotage. As far as building up a single SA variety or blend is concerned we humbly consider that this is a waste of good marketing dollars. There are going to be sites in SA where Cabernet thrives, or where Sauvignon Blanc excels. It is a question of recognizing these areas, encouraging cellars to produce the best examples and then pushing them worldwide. It is interesting though that great examples of Rhone style blends are being produced by some of the up and coming quality cellars. For another opinion on the subject read James Molesworth in Wine Spectator 28th May 2003 "Leaving Pinotage Behind" http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Main/Feature_Basic_Template/0,1197,1723,00.html It seems that vintage 2003 was good for everyone in SA, if you believe a Wine Spectator article headed "South African Vintners Ecstatic Over 2003 Harvest". Full article on http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Main/Feature_Basic_Template/0,1197,1729,00.html There was a great quote in it from Jean Engelbrecht "If you are a young winemaker starting with your first harvest in 2003, you'll spend the next 20 years wondering what went wrong," said Jean Engelbrecht, who runs Rust En Vrede in Stellenbosch, one of the country's top wineries. "2003 was a one-in-25-years harvest." We pointed this out to J-C but he was not easily wound up. According to him 2003 had been ideal, but he sees no reason why we won't improve going forward over the next 25 years. Our vines are still infants, and haven't needed to dig into their souls yet. He reckons they have much more character to show in the future. Let's hope he is right. We were also busy with ideas, plans and quotes for the next phase of the cellar. The guys from Vintec came by for a friendly visit and gave a couple of opinions. Also two ideas arose after visiting a couple of cellars that we really respect. The one was to question the need for Munkador lining in the concrete tanks. These cellars reckon lining the tanks works, but is actually unnecessary and just another thing that can go wrong and will need replacing after time. We know a lot of the cellars in France ferment in cement tanks, without using Munkador or in fact any lining. They reckon giving the tanks a good washing with tartaric acid before use is all that's needed. Luckily it will be the last thing we need to put into the tanks, so would only be done in late Jan. J-C was going to join John M at the Bordeaux VinExpo and so he arranged to visit some of top French cellars to see how their tanks look. J-C also spoke to Tom Lubbe, who is fermenting in cement tanks without any Munkador or other lining in the South of France. He reckons it's the way to go, and says you must just make sure the builders do a quality job, and use more cement than sand to leave a polished finish. Then, we also touched on the wine press. We talked about the size of our tanks, and what would work best. Vintec happen to be the agents for the Marzola presses from Spain. So, obviously they tried to push this option. They explained all the features, functionality and durability of the press, but the really nice thing is the press can handle bigger volumes of grapes, so one or two press cycles would do per tank. The prices are obviously higher, but they are beautifully made pieces of kit. There are versions which have two or three wooden baskets that rotate around a central spindle so the cake of pressed skins can be emptied while the next batch is being pressed. They suit our style. Traditional methods but with a modern touch. We received quotes for the tank fronts, and Saturn Stainless are still the cheapest and best in our opinion. We scrapped the idea of sample cocks and temperature gauges on the tank fronts. Sample cocks are not very hygienic (and don't give very representative samples), and temperature guages are not necessary, as we will measure temps regularly when we take balling readings. The ball valves were also scrapped for butterfly valves, also for hygiene reasons. We had a braai to thank the vineyard team for the good hard work of the past few weeks. The farm was really looking neat and natural and the boys had worked hard to make it so. Now it's time for pruning in earnest and putting down the mulch. While Saansie and the guys had that to look forward to J-C flew North to Bordeaux where he had arranged to meet up with John M and about twenty South Africans from all over the world who were making the trip to the VinExpo. They hired a gite about 40 minutes drive out of Bordeaux and got stuck in to some great tasting and networking, as well as some good dinners. The weather was monstrously hot and some of the exhibitors had major problem keeping their wines at a reasonable temperature. The exhibition itself was so huge as to be rather daunting, but what the guys tried to do was explore a section or theme each day. There was no equipment on show which was a disappointment, but we suppose that just could not be fitted in. Anyway there were some outstanding wines to be tasted. A few that stood out were as follows: Domaine du Pegau (Chateauneuf); Domaine St Gayan, Domaine de Font-Sane, Domaine St Damien, Domaine La Bouissiere and Domaine Les Hauts de Montmirail (all Gigondas and all Fut Neuf); William Fevre (Chablis, all their wines); Jacques Prieur (Burgundy, all his wines, but his Mersault was J-C's best VinExpo red); Pierre Frick's Pinot Blanc (Alsace, and J-C's best VinExpo white); Domaine Piquemal (Perpignan, all their reds); Mas Julien (Languedoc). Copyright © 2000 Tulbagh Solutions. All rights reserved. |
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