March 2002
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Fire, Building and Bugs On the 5th of March we were given a strong reminder of the power of the natural forces around us, and how vulnerable we are on our little farm. There was a huge fire on the mountainside above us that at one stage threatened to engulf us completely. It started due to one act of stupidity. Contractors, who were clearing scrub to plant wheat on our neighbour's farm, lit a fire which was soon out of control. Fanned by the breeze it was suddenly up the mountain behind us, sweeping northwards along our boundary. Any change in wind direction from Southerly to Easterly would have swept it down the hill, through the vineyard, the homesteads and onto the next farm. All the local farmers turned out to help defend our boundary. They brought special bakkies with fire hydrants, tanks of water, pumps and manpower. Such is the spirit of mutual support that the turnout was rapid and effective, but the fire was still raging in the nature conservation area, on the steep inaccessible hillside. Jane displayed admirable sang-froid. She turn on sprinklers round all the houses and turned the horses loose in case they needed to escape quickly. She packed up the car with the essentials from the house and took the baby to safety at her parents. Manie in the meantime had turned on all the irrigation to soak the vineyard and was soaking the ground on our Northern boundary. There was not much else that could be done except watch and pray that a strong Easterly didn't pick up. The fire was now moving within 200m of the top vineyard but fortunately getting no closer to us. The fire brigade arrived but there was not much they could do as access up the steep slope was impossible. The only way of stopping it was to bring a fire fighting helicopter in. Once their initial fright wore off Manie and Jane watched it at work from a safe distance. It would hover above our big dam and lower a huge bag into the water, which it would then empty onto the flames. We didn't begrudge the fire fighters a single gallon. Slowly but surely the flames were brought under control, but it had been a close call. We hoped that was our ration of fire excitement for 2002 and a few years beyond.
The day after the fire the earthmoving for the cellar was completed. The site looked awesome with a huge pyramid of earth on the South Western side.
The builders started straight away on the foundations, using pneumatic drills to dig into the bedrock. As the foundation progressed it looked like the early stages of an archaeological dig.
The guys were working like men possessed. Soon they were erecting the steel frame, just like a huge Meccano set. They had obviously done this before, which was reassuring.
It was becoming evident though that one part of our original plan for the cellar was not going to work. We had decided to put a ramp in the centre of the floor between the fermentation cellar and the (lower) maturation cellar, but this was proving to impossible to do without using up too much working floor space. It was decided the most practical thing to do was to put six steps near the malolactic cellar and leave a clean break in the centre. We needed access at that side anyway. We also decided not to fix the wall in place between the maturation cellar and the fermentation cellar until the whole thing had been built and we could really understand the practicalities. We decided to put arches between the supporting pillars to separate the cellars. Perhaps huge wooden doors could fill the arches if needed at later stage. The great thing about having such a flexible plan (and a flexible builder!) was that these things could be looked at as we went along.
As the walls started to go up, the building we had visualized started to take shape. The big drop between the two cellars (our solution for gravity flow) was a big feature. We hoped it would be practical.
As far as our wine making was going for the 2002 harvest it was very slow progress. Originally we had decided not to have a harvest at all and to cut off the bunches when they were still small. We did one pass through the shiraz and then decided (as there was a decent amount of bunches) to leave the rest and have a go. We estimated that we would end up with 0.5 tons of shiraz and 1.5 tons of cab from the 4 hectares that we had planted in 2000. This would probably make about 1900 bottles altogether and although we wouldn't try to sell it would be interesting and enjoyable to drink and keep for the future. If it tasted OK we would have ready made presents for friends and family anyway. Manie, the Jack of all trades, decided he would have a go at making it, with the help of a few friends who actually know what they are doing in a cellar. His plan was to harvest the bunches into small crates in the early hours of the morning and bring them to the forced cooler at Uitvlug (kindly loaned by Redvers Buller). He would then drive them in the crates down to a friend's cellar de-stem them, crush them and pop them into 500l wooden barrels for fermentation. He planned to buy some second fill barrels for maturation. The plan depended on there being space in the cooling room and the cellar we were kindly offered. But the way things were looking it would be mid April before the shiraz was ripe and maybe even later for the cab, so cellar space would not be a problem. Everyone else had long finished their harvest. This was either very worrying or great, but it was certainly unusual. Was it the cooler temperatures at 500m elevation or the immaturity of the vines? We were wondering if the grapes would ever ripen. We were looking at a harvest on the same schedule as areas of much higher latitude such as New Zealand or France. The great advantage of a long slow ripening is the chance that balance can achieved between sugars and acids. High temperatures cause increased respiration which lowers malic acid levels quickly before the required sugar levels have been reached through photosynthesis. High temperatures also can cause photosynthesis to slow down. The balance is to have plenty of sunshine for photosynthesis but not such high temperatures to overdo it on the respiration side. The aim is to have sugar ripeness with low ph levels. Acidity is important for taste, colour, and the growth of the yeast. "Elementary my dear Watson" you may say, but we are loath to draw any conclusions at this stage of the life of the vineyard. Back in the vineyard we had an attack of red spider mites on the windbreaks and then an attack of the weirdest looking bug...the Red Citrus Dog Worm on the vines. Definitely a candidate for the lead role in "A Bug's Life II".
After waiting a few days to see if any natural predator would turn up (we concluded that these freaks had no natural predator) Manie put in a call to Agro-organics to see if they had any concoction to repel them. When he got the prescription Manie very wisely decided not to tackle these monsters single handed and called Mike and Bob in to help him. After offering all sorts of incentives to decide who was to be the point man no volunteer came forward so, leading by example, he pushed through the vineyard blatting them with Expellar. After this hazardous mission was complete the problem was at least contained, if not eradicated, and Manie earned another medal for valour from a grateful nation.
Just for interest's sake, for the record, and to see if any of our loyal readers have any feedback John M would like to share a list of 6 wines he has had recently that are definitely worth trying.
Happy Drinking!
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