Harvest 2010

Well, it feels as if 2010 had only just arrived and, before we knew it, we were off with the harvest already. It kind of crept up on us rather quickly this year as, on the home front, we've been rather preoccupied with moving house. Thank goodness for Stiaan who is managing both the harvesting team and co-ordinating with the various cellars pretty much single-handed this year.

This year, we've started with the Pinotage - we're picking a bit earlier than in previous years - as it's all going to be made into Rosé so the sugar levels did not need to be as high as usual.

Unfortunately, however, in spite of harvesting earlier while the berries were still nice and plump, the tonnage was very low - even less than we suspected it would be - after heavy rains in November brought on a lot of downey mildew and prevented effective spray cover. This caused quite a few headaches for us all, not least for the workers, many of whom refused to come back after their first day as they had worked so hard for so little! Needless to say, we battled to get the grapes off in time for the cellars on our second day but, with some calm heads and mutual levels of understanding, we got through in the end.

Next in line is the Sauvignon Blanc!...