March 2001
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Putting the pieces in place....slowly! There was a rush on to get all the jobs done before the rain came. Last year the farm was a mess with water flowing and flooding everywhere. As we are the highest farm in the area water runs down a servitude to supply the farms below us. This had not been cared for and had fallen into disrepair. Basically it was so clogged up that when the rains came it burst its banks and flooded the pasture, the road and the garden of Manie's house. This in turn flooded the septic tank and the whole thing overflowed....Yukk! Water rights are jealously guarded and are codified in ancient letters of agreement between owners. Our farm, as so many are in SA, was once part of a huge farm 4x the size and when it was split between brothers a letter of agreement was signed. This ancient text is poured over every time one of the four properties changes hands and the rights are reasserted. The plaintiffs in these discussions are the owners of farms at the bottom of the hill. Because it was not in the interest of the previous owner of our farm to keep the servitude running free there was an argument brewing even before the hapless Manie arrived on the scene. According to ancient text (which is not part of the deeds) our farm was allowed one day's water in seven from the servitude. The only method of controlling the flow was a few strategically placed sandbags to divert the flow down "our" stream. The rest of the time it was to flow down the servitude and off our land. The ancient text said that Sunday was our day. If we wanted to avail ourselves of our rightful supply Manie would have to get up early every Sunday and walk a mile uphill to the start of the servitude and block it off, returning that night to open it again. All very "Manon des Sources" with French peasants squabbling over their precious spring water. It did not seem a very modern solution to the problem.
Up to now the mammoth operation of Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards was being run out of an annex off Manie and Jane's bedroom. After a lot of complaining about lack of privacy the office was moved to the old tractor shed. Jane was expecting a baby in Autumn and so the nest was being made ready. Manie made the old shed into a great office space and Jane was happy. So happy she even agreed to allow Tulbagh.com to hang their flag on the wall.
The pole planting started on March 12th just as they finished ripping the last of the 10 hectares, and was expected to continue until the end of May. A mammoth task. At the same time all the irrigation system had to be designed and laid out. We went for drip irrigation again after another round of discussion. We are in the foothills of the Witzenberg range and because the slopes are too steep at the top we had to build the dam at the bottom of the hill and the vines mostly above. Gravity fed irrigation would have saved us on all manner of pumps etc but it was not to be. As it is our top vines are going to be many metres higher up the hill than the dam so we had to find the most sensible solution for pushing water uphill! Our old friend Fanie de Clapmuts proposed the solution. Definitely a Class 6 guy. Always on the look out for cheaper ways of achieving a better result Manie was looking at a new soil supplement which can be better controlled. The compost and mulch we applied to the first 4 hectares was showing quite varied results through the vineyard and maybe more controllable application would produce better results. The product chosen comes as a root dip which is applied during planting and a post planting tablet application. This can be used with cover crops mown to provide mulch. All the time we were using huge manpower resources on weeding just the 4 hectares never mind how much we would need on the full 14. All very good for the casual labour force of Tulbagh but not for the budget. We were also trying to make best use of the other water resources on the farm so we wouldn't have to build another dam. There is a perennial stream running into a very small dam on the far side of the farm and by some clever hydro engineering Manie could get this to flow down to a central collection area and be pumped up to the main dam. By a system of trenches, pipes and pumps we could get another 40,000 cubes per year, instead of watching it seep away into the paddock. There was a big debate as to whether to leave the vines that were up to the wire or cut the whole vineyard back to start again next year. Paul Wallace from Vine Wise gave us his views. He has done a lot of work in Australia where they are really into "sunlight into wine". Paul suggested the Scott Henry trellis system and wider spacing of the rootstocks. The great thing about having access to all these experienced guys is, like anything, to find a solution you are happy with by weighing up all the many opinions. There was lots of debate as to whether our vines were too vigorous, but I perhaps naively think that vigour is better than weakness and putting down some good roots in the early years before the vine is expected to produce a crop must be good. The debate goes on! The drainage for the new vineyard had to be planned and dug. There would be run off from the unripped soil into the soft ripped areas which would cause erosion of our soil so this had to be thought about. Manie and Jane took a week off. The first they had since they took over managing the farm and it was thoroughly deserved. Gordon's Bay is beautiful in the late summer and April will be a busy month.
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