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Vintage report 2024

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Merlot 2024

The 2023/24 season was an eventful vintage, a year of extremes. AND it was also the year of our personal energy transition.

Anyone who follows developments in South Africa knows about the problems of Eskom, our state-owned electricity supplier. Eskom is plagued by corruption and mismanagement, produces with a totally outdated infrastructure and is over-indebted to the tune of 400 billion Rand. After the problems started in 2008, things have gotten worse in recent years, with several daily electrical outages - here euphemistically called "load-shedding" - of 2 to 4 to 6 hours each, which makes life very difficult. So we started early on, first with a diesel-generator in 2009, then in 2012 with some solar panels and a battery as an emergency back-up. But now we have taken the plunge, greatly expanded our solar system and kissed Eskom good-by. To top it all off, we also switched to an electric car and are now sailing into the future with 99% green energy - by the way, as far as we know, as the only wine farm in South Africa. What a great start into 2024!

In the vineyard, the vintage 2023-24 started with the wettest and coldest winter we ever experienced here, culminating in heavy storms with devastating rainfall at the end of September. But as wet as the winter was, the growing season was just as dry: from October to the end of February, we only had 25 mm of rain in total. Luckily, the temperatures were moderate, and after a very early bud break, our vines developed a beautifully balanced canopy. In keeping with the early bud break, there was also an early harvest, the earliest ever. But after all, it brought a healthy crop with a crisp natural acidity and the typical aromas of ripe dark berries.

Reports from the 2023-24 vintage

1st of March 2024 - Topping off!

On March 1st the time had finally come and we were able to harvest the crop for our red wine at optimal ripeness.
This is always followed by an intensive time in the cellar, with the vinification of the new harvest, with the transfer and preparation of the previous year's barrel wines and finally with the bottling, labeling and release of the new wines into the trade. This must be well planned, materials must be obtained in a timely manner and the work must be well organized to ensure optimal treatment of the wines. But the joy is even greater when everything has worked out once again and there is another good vintage in the cellar!
And last but not least, we are pleased that we got through the harvest very well with our solar system, without power interruptions and, above all, in an environmentally friendly way :-)

February 2024 - Waiting for the right moment

As dry as the last few months have been, there were several rainy days in February, the ripening month, though with never much rainfall at once, but a total of 26mm. Thanks to our southern slope location and proximity to the sea, the temperatures here were within the usual range, with cool nights (14-18°) and warm days (25 - max. 35°), but further inland the winegrowers complained about extremely hot days. Accordingly, the ripening process slowed down for us, but this ultimately benefited the quality of the grapes, as we will see.
However, we had a different problem this year: a huge flock of starlings was infesting our area and pecking through our vineyard every day, which of course reduces our yield and means even more work when sorting out - well, there's always something ;-)

January 2024 - an early start to the harvest

After three dry months with comparatively moderate temperatures, things got really warm around the turn of the year, with temperatures up to 35° each time.
The harvest finally started earlier than ever before, on January 12th with the grapes for our Bubbly. The quality was great, the grapes with small, concentrated berries, which promises a lot for a great red wine harvest. And as it began, it continued, namely at high speed, with the grapes for our Rosé already coming in on January 29th!

December 2023 - we're going off-grid!

Anyone who follows developments in South Africa knows about the problems of Eskom, our state-owned electricity supplier. Eskom is plagued by corruption and mismanagement, produces with a totally outdated infrastructure and is over-indebted to the tune of 400 billion Rand. After the problems started in 2008, things have gotten worse in recent years, with several daily electrical outages - here euphemistically called "load-shedding" - of 2 to 4 to 6 hours each, which makes life very difficult. So we started early on, first with a diesel-generator, then in 2012 with some solar panels and a battery as an emergency back-up. But now we have taken the plunge, greatly expanded our solar system and kissed Eskom good-by. To top it all off, we also switched to an electric car and are now sailing into the future with 99% green energy - by the way, as far as we know, as the only wine farm in South Africa. What a great start into 2024!

Weather-wise, December continued to be rather cool and dry, with only a short rain (1.5mm) in the last week of the year. However, thanks to the rainy winter, the soil had enough water reserves, so we didn't have to irrigate for the first time until the end of December. This was at the same time as the onset of veraison, the color change, which came significantly earlier this year, corresponding to the early budding.

October-November 2023

As wet as the winter was, it has now become very dry: in October it only drizzled once with a total of 1 mm of precipitation, while in November we had a few showers, though with a total of just under 25 mm. But that was apparently enough to encourage downy mildew in some parts of the wine country, which needed special attention. The temperatures, however, were moderate, so our vines have developed ideally so far, with good fruit set and beautifully balanced foliage.

September 2023

Throughout September, the weather remains wet and cold! And as I write this, on September 24th and 25th, severe storms with torrential rain are sweeping across the Western Cape. As a result, there were dams bursting, widespread power cuts and flooding of streets, low-lying settlements and townships. Almost 200mm of rain poured down on Stellenbosch on that weekend (read here more about it).
Yet interesting enough, the vines are budding much earlier this year, despite the cold weather. A reason could be our earlier pruning, but maybe they simply had enough cold-units and are now longing for an early spring like we are.

August 2023

The early onset of winter meant we were able to start our winter work earlier. So by now, all the vines have already been pruned and we would actually be ready for spring. But the weather remains wet and cold!
A touch of sunshine brought about our trip to Switzerland for a stylish Wine & Dine in the beautiful Wenkenhof Villa in our hometown of Basel - with the most sunny summer weather :-)

June-July 2023: is this the deluge?

After the autumn rains already came early at the beginning of March, it was only the first sign of the deluge, that was to come! Around 600mm of rain has already fallen here since, more than ever before in this short period of time. Driveways were washed out and vineyards damaged by mud slides, and even in Stellenbosch town some quarters were under water. And all this at unusually low temperatures. The returning El Nino shows his muscles!

Previous reports have been condensed to vintage reports for each year and can be looked up there.