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The trials and tribulations of the historic
harvest of KZN grapes at The Stables Wine Estate
Nottingham Road -
Harvesting grapes to produce KwaZulu-Natal’s only Wines of Origin has proven
to be a massive challenge for The Stables Wine Estate, littered with
unforeseen obstacles, but blessed weather conditions that promise to deliver
exceptional 2007 vintage wines.
Under the careful control of winemaker Tiny van Niekerk and viticulturalist
Diederik Le Grange, the harvest moves to the Merlot crop from their new
vineyards outside Greytown, where they recently added 19 hectares of vines
to those available from their
Nottingham Road
base.
“It has been a rollercoaster ride that reflects the infancy of the wine
industry in
kwaZulu-Natal,”
said Tiny van Niekerk. “We have been monitoring the grapes and the wines
that we have started producing extremely closely, and the early signs are
very encouraging indeed.”
The hot dry summer that has been baking the province has also played into
the hands of the winemakers. “The average January rainfall is around 100
millimeters. This year we had 23 millimeters and the temperatures were
higher than average,” said Van Niekerk. “The grapes ripened quicker, and as
we monitored the grapes we realised that we would have to start the harvest
two weeks earlier than anticipated.”
That’s when the Van Niekerks started to bump heads with the lack of wine
industry infrastructure in
KwaZulu-Natal.
“We needed a repair to one of our stainless steel tanks, but unlike the Cape
the specialised technicians who do this are almost impossible to find in
KZN,” said Van Niekerk. “Thanks to the dairy industry, we managed to get the
right people to help us clear that hurdle.”
Their cellars at the new wine farm at Bracken Hills outside Greytown needed
to be properly cleaned before the harvest, and the only way to get the right
hygienic specialists to carry out this operation was to source them from the
Western Cape.
“Hygiene is paramount in winemaking, as wine is so susceptible to bacteria,
there must be absolutely no treated wood in the cellar, no insulation except
iso-board, no cardboard, chemicals, polystyrene, paint or anything that
could taint the wine,” said Van Niekerk.
With the harvest deadline looming Van Niekerk and his team prepared to deal
with the crop of ripening Sauvignon Blanc grapes, which need to be carefully
cooled after harvesting.
“Dry ice is essential in the making of Sauvignon Blanc as the grape is
extremely prone to oxidizing and potentially ruining the wine. In the Cape
this is not an issue for the winemakers as they decide to harvest they pick
up the phone and about an hour later there is a truck at the cellar
offloading the required amount of dry ice!” said Van Niekerk.
With no-one in the province able to supply 250kg of dry ice to cater for the
expected 25 ton Sauvignon Blanc harvest, Van Niekerk and his wife Judy hit
the road to Gauteng overnight to drive in an insulated bakkie-load of
dry-ice in time for the start of the harvest.
“On our way back on the nine hour round trip, we came across a heavy
snowfall on the top of van Reenen’s Pass, yet at both our vineyards in
Nottingham Road and in Greytown the sun was setting on another glorious
summer’s day, with no sign of rain, hail or snow,” said a relieved Judy Van
Niekerk.
For the next five days, a team of five worked twenty hours a day to weigh
the grapes were brought in, and then hand sorted twice, before being
destemmed and then immediately gently pressed into tank which was then left
to settle and clear before fermentation began.
But the challenges kept confronting the intrepid winemakers. In the middle
of the Sauvignon Blanc harvest, a seal on one of the tanks broke.
“Instead of being able to jump in to the car and within twenty minutes be at
the store for wine equipment, where you can have a quick chat about the
harvest and winemaking, possibly bumping into other winemakers and sharing
experiences, ideas and advice, we had to wait thirty odd hours on our own
waiting for the replacement part to be couriered from the Cape!” said Tiny
van Niekerk.
Just when it seemed like the harvest was back on track, an electric storm
hit the area on Saturday night, robbing them of electricity for three hours.
“Thank goodness we had not started the next press as all those grapes would
have had to be dumped as they would have oxidized in the time before the
electricity came back on again,” said Van Niekerk.
The rest of the Sauvignon Blanc harvest went smoothly, until, on the final
batch of crushing, trainee assistant winemaker Patrick Makhatini lifted a
lug box to empty it into the destemmer, and hit an overhead fan, shattering
the fan, and scattering debris into the press and Lug boxes.
“Everything had to be thrown away, and everything meticulously cleaned,”
said Van Niekerk. With fatigue setting in and tempers fraying, the final
press produced one further setback, as a tank overflowed during the final
press, leaving winemaker Tiny Van Niekerk with tears in his eyes as around
fifty litres of his carefully nurtured Sauvignon Blanc flowed down the
drains.
The juices were couriered to testing centres in the Western Cape where the
exhausted but excited Stables team were thrilled to learn that the Sauvignon
Blanc results were very encouraging.
“The Sauvignon Blanc grapes have turned out to be the sort of grapes that
winemakers dream about,” said Judy Van Niekerk. “With sugars of 23 balling,
which will give us an alcohol of 12.8%, PH of 2.89 and acid of 8.6, which is
perfect for an awesome wine, the juice has settled wonderfully.”
The Pinotage harvest was far smoother, including the production of their
popular Blanc de Noir Pinotage Clariet, after which the balance of the
Pinotage went into new French oak barrels.
While the Pinotage harvest seemed smooth, another unexpected hurdle
confronted the winemakers. The Post Office courier service failed to deliver
the yeast from their Cape supplier on time, resulting in an anxious day or
two’s wait until the yeast consignment was located and delivered.
“About 80% of our wines are fermented with French yeast but some is
fermented using a South African yeast that is only available in the Cape,”
said Tiny van Niekerk.
With the team of Zulu women currently harvesting the Merlot crop, the next
task will be the harvesting of the much anticipated Cabernet Sauvignon
grapes, followed by the
Shiraz
and Cabernet Franc grapes.
“This might seem surprising, as the Cabernet grapes are usually harvested
last,” said Judy van Niekerk. “The grapes have ripened exceptionally well
and at good pace in the warm weather, to ensure that they reach full
phenollic ripeness.”
While other regions have battled with heatwaves and then rain, hampering
their current harvests, the fledgling team at the Stables are optimistic
that they have successfully cleared all the hurdles from their historic
harvest, and anticipate that the current vintage of historic KZN wines of
origins will yield a range of wines that will boldly entrench the position
of the KZN wine industry, both domestically and internationally.
ENDS
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