Winemaker Jan van Rooyen is celebrating the South African cricket team’s fantastic performances against the opposition by using an anology to that sport, passionately supported by SA fans, for his tongue in cheek 2013 harvest report. For more in his own words, read on….
“On 4 Feb we tossed the coin and decided to send Hennie and his team to field first with the Chardonnay coming from block E5 to open our innings for 2013 and on that same day we klapped some more Chard from C5 as well as Pinot Noir for Vintner’s Blend from E2. We ended the day on 16.8 T and 991 kissies – not bad for the first day ?
On 5 Feb we ventured further down the order and the second white grape to come in to the batting crease of the cellar was our SBL from D5 to be followed by SBL C3 and Chenin from B3 over the next few days
Our cellar scoreboard reached the first 50 Ton mark on 12 Feb after more Chard, P.N and SBL dropped into the cellar and by Friday 15 Feb all the SBL was off the field
On Monday 19 Feb the white grape innings closed when the last of the chard came in from DA1 and the River blocks
The very next day we followed-on to the reds in all earnest as we klapped the whole Merlot innings over 2 days and in the process (on 20 Feb) the scoreboard showed our first century @ 111.849 Tons !!
On 21 Feb, with the grand total on 117.316 tons, after the last of the Merlot, our grape innings was interrupted/declared/put on hold and we went for a P-interval (P is for pumping-over-and-pressing-the-reds !!)
The next day of intake was 4 March for Cab Franc, followed by Shiraz, Ruby Cab and Pinotage – the latter coming in to face the pace of Goggie (Bradley) and myself on 12 March and at the same time to push our score over the 150 mark to 153.091 NOT OUT !!
To date all the Shiraz is in the cellar and 3 blocks of Cab Sauv is done too. We hope to be finished after the Easter weekend, and I can only say that the quality from the field has been great so far with no fielding errors. We have good, clean and healthy grapes giving me lovely flavours in the cellar – many thanks to the coach and her team…
