This annual wine festival celebrating the harvest will
be held in Durbanville over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of March. We attended
the media launch of this festival on Tuesday and were told that we would be
helping with the harvest, so we had to arrive early. The initiative on this day
was for each farm to pick one ton of its Sauvignon Blanc grapes; these were
then delivered to Diemersdal wine farm, where they were pressed and the juice
from all 12 participating farms is now in tank fermenting and will be released
as a single wine at the October
Durbanville wine festival, The Season of Sauvignon. We hope to see lots
of you at both festivals.
Different
groups of media were directed to different farms. We were told to report to
Klein Roosboom at 6.45 and were warmly welcomed by owner/winemaker Karin de
Villiers and met fellow writers Giles Griffin of the Wine Tourism Handbook and Denene Erasmus from Farmer’s Weekly. We had some juice, coffee, muffins and fruit
and then it was time to join the pickers
They started
picking really early and, by the time we arrived, they were on the top row of
the Sauvignon Blanc bush vines and had already picked a ton. Klein Roosboom was
also contributing to Durbanville Hills' input, so they picked another ton.
Farm road
through the vines with a misty view of Blaauwberg
Vernon Julies, one of the friendly, skilled pickers on the farm. Watching the team work made for a very good experience. They were fast
pickers and we didn’t envy them the tangle of the bush vines, where they had to
get right inside the low bushes to find the small bunches of grapes. Back
breaking work,
searching for
bunches over a nearly full lug box
Heading for
the van with full crates. And a lovely
view of Table Mountain over the Durbanville hills, with its South Easter
tablecloth growing. This brought us very hot weather
Durbanville
Hills winery is just across the road from Klein Roosboom
Healthy vines,
full of grapes. Not all are ripe yet, so harvest will take place over the next
couple of weeks
Klein Roosboom
owner/winemaker Karin de Villiers with her workers
Sweet grapes
with a little botrytis, noble rot
Vineyards make
great patterns on the landscape
All done, we
have picked two tons. It is now getting warm and the workers will only come
back when it is later or earlier and cooler. Karin believes that it doesn't make
sense to pick in the heat of the day; the grapes are badly affected and then so
is the wine.
They head off
for Diemersdal, where the grapes are to
be crushed and put into tank with the other grapes from the other farms. Lynne
was able to pick two bunches, so we can feel we were involved in the making of
this wine, even if in a minimal way.
Walking in the
vineyards
Spraying to prevent rot in
some of the other vineyards
A fluffy
Muisvoël (Speckled Mousebird, Colius
striatus) on the top of a tree in the gardens of Klein Roosboom. This beautiful
bird is only found in Africa and is not related to any other species. You see
lots of them in the Cape, especially if there are fruit or berries nearby
Beautiful
Sauvignon Blanc grapes about to go into the de-stemmer
Stems are
ejected and are put into the compost,
while the grapes
are pumped into the press
and the fermentation tanks
On our way to
brunch
Diemersdal
Manor house, rebuilt in 1903
A gathering of
winemakers and media. Charles Hopkins of De Grendel sits opposite Martin Moore
of Durbanville Hills. Next to Charles is Thys Louw, Diemersdal winemaker, who
will supervise the making of this quintessential Durbanville wine
A saucy sign on the patio
Table are laid
under the vine pergola while we wait for brunch
Not only
grapes are fruitful, here is an oil date palm
Diemersdal has
mixed farming
Durbanville Hills cellarmaster Martin Moore
and TWS Media editor Maryna Strachan in black shirts
Farm road and a Durbanville hill
Grapes go into
the hopper
When it is
full, the machine is turned on
and the grapes
are moved into the de-stemmer
from which the cleaned grapes and free run juice are pumped into the press
After going
through cooler coils, the juice ends up in the large tanks behind Etienne Louw
Altydgedacht winemaker (and chairman of the Durbanville Wine Valley) and Thys
Louw, Diemersdal winemaker (no relation!)
What you need
to know before you go into a cellar on a wine farm
Nitida's
Winemaker Brendan Butler was also part of the celebrations and picking
Brunch is on
its way as we cool off under the pergola
Benny Howard
of Meerendal gives us a huge treat, as we get to taste the free run juice from
the tank, which will become the wine once fermentation has taken place. It was
glorious. Fresh smells of figs, granadilla, limes, pineapple and litchi and
beautiful balanced crisp acidic and sweet fruity pineapples, guava, ripe figs
and nectarines on the palate. Could drink this all day. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
All of the
farms involved put some of their Sauvignon Blancs on the tables for us to drink
with brunch. While there are very different styles, they are mostly very
identifiable as Durbanville wines.
Etienne Louw
tells us he has been voted as Chairman of the Durbanville Wine Valley for the
next two years and receives a big cheer.
Each table received
one cheese platter, several bread platters and a couple of bowls of really good
sliced duck breast and ham salad with roasted grapes, ripe figs, cheese and
rocket. There were chutneys and roasted
grapes and fresh grapes on the cheese platter.
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