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Spring weather warms hopes of bumper KZN wine harvest
Nottingham Road - Favourable weather conditions and the effect of best
practice vineyard management has resulted in a bumper crop being
expected at The Stables Wine Estate in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, with
winemaker Tiny Van Niekerk anticipating a 50% increase in yield over
last years record crop.
“We are hoping to produce 150 000 bottles from the fruit of our
vineyards in Greytown and Nottingham Road, which will be a significant
milestone for us,” said Van Niekerk.
With the highest vineyards in South Africa at 1450m, the colder climate
has been very conducive to good grape production. “There are so many
similarities between our vineyards and Burgundy in France, which is
ideal to produce big reds, Sauvignon Blanc’s, Chardonnays and Pinot
Noir,” van Niekerk added.
With the 19 hectares under vine in Greytown thriving and another four
hectares of Pinot Noir, Pinotage and Sauvignon Blanc planted at the
estate in Nottingham Road, the winemakers are gearing up for the
anticipated record harvest in February and March by installing several
new 5000 litre tanks and cooling equipment.
“The Greytown vineyards in particular are looking superb,” van Niekerk
said. “They have responded extremely well to our care. The rains came at
just the right time to get the spring growth going, and with the
prospect of a hot summer, we are excited by the coming vintage.”
Much of the coming harvest with being channelled into Method Champenoise
production, following the success of the initial releases of the bubbly
produced from the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir from KwaZulu-Natal
grown fruit.
“We also believe strongly in the concept of vintage wines,” van Niekerk
added. “We don’t blend across vintages and we will release our Method
Champenoise by vintage.”
This summer four new hectares of vines are being plated at the
Nottingham Road farm, which in a few years will provide grapes from of
two different clones of Pinot Noir, Pinotage and Sauvignon Blanc vines.
Tiny and Judy van Niekerk were in the Robertson are when the devastating
floods ravaged the vineyards in that region earlier this month. “My
heart broke for the farmers there because the flood damage was awful,
followed by the nightmare of trying to get into the vineyards to spray
for mildew.”
“We are fortunate that we pre-emptively spray for mildew, and we don’t
have to worry about that problem, and have disease free vines,” Van
Niekerk said.
Van Niekerk called in the World Wildlife Trust to deal with the problem
of buck eating the vines in the vineyards. “This was becoming an
increasing problem, and we were determined to handle this as sensitively
as possible.”
“The WWT came up with a completely unexpected solution in the form of
small bags containing clippings of human hair which are suspended in the
vineyard, and have been very successful in keeping the buck away,” said
van Niekerk.
The Stables Wine Estate is also enjoying interest in their wines from
across Europe and the United States. “While the novelty of wine from
KwaZulu-Natal is a factor in this interest, it seems that the quality of
the wine we are producing is making an impact,” said van Niekerk.
More information is available at
www.stableswine.co.za
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