In October last year I wrote a piece on this little vineyard that is getting a second chance. The post was called Vineyard Revival – The Beginning. With a lot of TLC from farmer André du Toit and his dedicated team of vineyard workers, this little vineyard produced a very small crop for the 2018 harvest, just enough for a 225 liter barrel. The magic of this is that it is the first time in nearly 20 years that someone has made wine from this vineyard! For almost two decades the vines where just left, and they became part of the landscape. That was until the new owner of the farm – André – saw them budding in the field and called me to come and see if we could save them – you can read the history in the other blog post.
The grapes turned out amazing and the wine is even better! I had the privilege to taste a sample last Thursday with Pieter Walser who made the wine. Pieter was on-board immediately when I called him and presented this challenge. This vineyard is very special and I hope that this story encourages other farmers and winemakers to make an effort to revive these forgotten vineyards – would you be so lucky as to find one!
Pieter Walser and André du Toit
Cover crops are going in soon and the next pampering phase is pruning – which is not an easy task with these neglected vines!
