Harvesting the grapes at The Vineyard Hotel

Picking grapes (and falling on face) at The Vineyard

It was time to harvest the grapes from our vine and some others at The Vineyard Hotel on Friday and we had to get up bright and early to get there by 07h30. Despite the strange el Nino weather this year, the vineyard produced some lovely grapes and it will be very interesting to see how good the wine is in future years. It will be vinified by Waterford this year. Winemaker Mark Le Roux says they will do their utmost to make the best single vineyard wine. We all delivered 135kg of healthy grapes from a very challenging site alongside the Liesbeek River. 89kg of Sauvignon Blanc and 46kg of Semillon

Hotel General Manager Roy Davies welcoming the pickers

The lug boxes awaiting the grapes

Kevin Arnold of Waterford wines talking about the harvest they will work with. Each row is sponsored by a different winery and they take turns in making the wine

Three girls from Waterford with winemaker Mark Le Roux

An early morning welcome glass of Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel MCC awaited us, Fresh orange juice for those who can't drink this early

Roy giving us our instructions

Jacqueline Harris is now the Sales Manager at Klein Constantia. Her husband, Craig, is Klein Constantia's viticulturalist

Kevin topping up the glasses. Shortly after this Lynne tripped over the end of row wire and knocked all the wine out of herself. She is fine, no bruises but a few aches

Our very fruitful vine. The bunches are not as large as last year's, but tasted superb

Getting down under the vine canopy to pick

Mark joins us on the row

A filled lug box of healthy grapes

The growing harvest

Libating it with some MCC

Owner of the Vineyard Lex Petousis, winemaker Mark Le Roux of Waterford and Roy Davies, GM of the Vineyard Hotel, with this year's grapes

Headman, gardener and guardian of the vineyard

The three rows of Chardonnay grapes we planted last season are growing well. These will only be ready to harvest in a couple of years time, when they are more robust

A view of the vineyard

Taking the grapes to the Waterford van

loading them for a fast delivery to the press

Reward for all the hard work was a lovely Vineyard breakfast

Something for everyone. Cold meats, smoked salmon, fruit muesli, yoghurt, pastries, cheese, croissants, rusks and bread, good coffee, tea, juice and some wine if you wanted

Hungry pickers

Time to relax and chat about wine and harvests

Deep in conversation are Eddie Turner, Ndaba Dube, Matt Dietschmann and Francois-Jacques Malan

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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