Slower ripening last week (as a result of a couple of days of rain) allowed our cellar to just about recover from the first 190 tons of Pinotage that came into the cellar in the first 10 days of harvest. But after a very hot weekend we were faced with several blocks that were ready to be picked. We kicked off the week by bringing in the six tons of Shiraz for Crucible, and then immediately got stuck into the first lot of Cabernet. Merlot is being delivered from a neighbouring farm, and then we’ll start on our main Pinotage. We’re hoping that Shiraz doesn’t deluge us next week!

The difficult thing, from a cellar point of view, is finding fermentation space if too many vineyards are harvested in too short a space of time. Flavour extraction is maximised by leaving the skins in the fermenting wine for several weeks. However, sometimes one needs to press earlier to make space for grapes coming into the cellar.

Thanks to strong south-easterly winds we’ve been able to avoid losses due to rot – a strong possibility when it rains during harvest. Nor has the rain resulted in diluted flavours.

At this stage the wines are looking very promising.