Vintage report 2022
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Merlot 2022
Compared to the previous two years, which were rather difficult due to Corona, this vintage was rather easy going.
A capricious winter was followed by a cool and rainy spring. At least, this brought about sufficient water reserves for the unusually hot and dry summer that followed and lasted well into the harvest season. All in all a very good year, culminating in an ideal ripening season for our Merlot.
This year also ended on a happy note, as in June 2022, our Little Merlot 2019 was voted one of the 10 best Merlot of South Africa in the new Merlot competition of the same name.
And one more thing: After our first MCC 2021 was so enthusiastically received by our customers, we were able to continue this success with the 2022, luckily this time with a larger production.
- Bein Merlot 2022: The grapes for this wine were
harvested on March 9, 2022 in
top condition. Vinified as a pure Merlot, this wine matured for 12
months in small oak barrels of top French cooperages (30% new). Bottled on April 4th,
2023 in 3170 x 0.75L bottles and 365 Magnums, it is allowed to
mature in the bottle for another year before release.
- Alc 14.7%, RS 2.3g/l, TA 5.0g/l, pH 3.65 - Similar applies to our Merlot Reserve 2022, which, however, is aged in 100% new French oak barrels for two years. So this wine is currently still maturing in barrel towards its perfection - and we hope for a great wine!
- no Little Merlot has been produced in 2022
- Pink Merlot 2022: Harvested on February 15th and, as always,
carefully sorted and processed, it was slowly cold-fermented over three weeks and
then only racked once, in order to preserve the delicate fruit flavours.
3140 x 0.75Lt bottles were produced from this vintage
- Alc 12.96%, RS 1.4 g/l, TA 5.0 g/l, pH 3.46
- Best drinking pleasure until 2026 - MCC brut rosé 2022, our sparkling wine, produced in the classic
Méthode Cap classique, of course from Merlot grapes! Harvested on February 2,
2022, and bottled on 16th of June for the second fermentation, it was disgorged 9 months later,
on March 16, 2023. By deliberately keeping the time on the lees short, we
strive for more fruit and freshness - and it was a success!
- 2270 x 0.75Lt bottles produced
- Alc 11.76, RS 10.4 g/l, Sre 5.9 g/l, pH 3.2
- Best drinking pleasure until 2026
Reports from the 2022 vintage
June 2022: ending on a happy note!
The 2021-22 vintage ends on a happy note, with our Little Merlot 2019 being recognized as one of South Africa's Top 10 Merlot, selected in the new eponymous competition :-)
And one more thing: After we released the MCC in May, it was quickly sold out. But no worries, the 2022 was bottled on 16th of June and is busy with its second fermentation.
April/May 2022 - there's a lot to do!
Although the cellar work is less than that in the vineyard, it is mainly concentrated on the few weeks after the harvest. Now it is time to bottle, label and certify the new wines. At Bein Wine, this means a lot of tedious work, as all is done by hand with us. The MCC also requires special attention with disgorging, i.e. removing the lees that collects in the bottle after the second fermentation. And packaging new formats like the bubbly is another challenge! As a reward, we can now offer new wines again, namely the already mentioned MCC brut rosé and the new vintage of our Merlot Reserve.
March 2022 - main harvest
On March 9th the time had come and we were able to harvest wonderfully ripe and healthy grapes for our flagship Merlot. The quality is promising, and after fermentation, the young wines went straight into barrels for completion of malolactic fermentation and further maturation.
February 2022 - Harvest begins!
It
is an open secret that our wine family has grown! The new kid on the
block is a Bubbly, to be precise a sparkling brut Rosé MCC (for the insiders, this means
Merlot Cap Classique ;-)
The harvest started early this year, namely on February 2nd with the grapes for this very MCC.
For the base wine, these must be harvested very early, for a lively acidity and low alcohol. The grapes
for the Pink Merlot followed on February 15, while the grapes for the main wine are allowed to ripen
further for another three weeks.
December/January 2022 - Midsummer
Midsummer this year came with warmer than average temperatures and, above all, very little precipitation, in January just 2 mm in total! At least we didn't have any extremely hot days as in some other wine regions further away from the coast, which were really suffering under the heat. On the other side, this advanced the ripening of the grapes, so we expect begin of harvest on the usual dates again, despite the late budding.
November 2021 - early summer
At the beginning of November flowering started as expected, beautifully even. Unfortunately, right then there was again a heavy rain of 25 mm, which was rather undesirable in this delicate phase. At the end of November, however, we see a good fruit set with little millerandage only, and we are looking forward to a good harvest!
Our story told from another perspective
5 October 2021:
"The Merlot specialist with donkeys and drones" writes Chris Boiling in the on-line
wine magazine CANOPY of the IWC.
Read on here...
September-October 2021 - it's spring in the Cape
After this cold, rainy winter, spring itself was characterized by comparatively little rainfall and moderate temperatures. These are ideal conditions for budding, which started slightly delayed, but very evenly in mid-September. Last but not least, there was again a decent rain at the end of October, certainly a good booster for the dry summer months to come.
July-August 2021 - the rainy season!
Winter is the rainy season in the Cape. Fortunately, after several dry years,
we got some decent rain again. And this winter brought so much that for
the first time since 2014 all water dams in the Winelands were full. But it was cold too, very cold - a real
Cape winter!
However, we had an unusually warm period in June. Even the birds were
surprised and started breeding in vineyard and garden. The weaver birds
began building nests, and the first chick of
our Dikkop family (Burrhinus capensis) hatched 3 months earlier than usual! A pair of Hadedas
(Bostrychia hagedash) also tried their luck and nested in the acacia in front of our house.
At the end, however, the cold came back with the first heavy winter rains, and only the little
dikkoppie survived the miserable weather.
Previous reports have been condensed to vintage reports for each year and can be looked up there.
