We are 70% into the season, and the vines are really taking shape now. With a cool and wet spring/summer the soils was abnormally cold and wet, so the young vines struggled to get out of the [...]
Weltevreden is a historic wine estate situated on the North West side of Stellenbosch. The estate has a rich history dating back to 1692. It was acquired by the Bezuidenhout family in 2012 and [...]
Its been almost a year since I last posted. Now we have finished our 2021 harvest (it went very well) and we are looking to getting new vineyards in the ground in 2021 and planning those for 2022 [...]
In September 2019 I posted a few updated pics about this vineyard. It has now gone through its first growing season, and we are very excited to get the first grapes in a year or two! I [...]
In 2017 I started working with Eben. Our viticultural views, philosophy and passion aligned one evening in his cellar, while we sat ontop of some barrels discussing our views and passions till [...]
I have had little time to sit down and reflect on what is going on at the moment. It has been a hectic 4 months. In my last post in May, I was very excited about all the vineyards that we would [...]
Ok, time is an uncontrollable steamroller at the moment! With so much happening in the vineyards and the viticulture scene, there is little time to sit down and write about everything that is [...]
With the 2019 harvest almost upon us and being struck down with tick-bite fever for the fourth year in a row, I have some time to reflect on 2018 and wonder what 2019 will bring. 2018 was a [...]
I haven’t posted in ages! I will try to get back to regular posting again! Our 2018/2019 season is already half way. Chardonnay and Shiraz vineyards are very uneven – mostly due to [...]
2018 is already half way. We had a challenging harvest with the extreme drought, but since April we saw normal rainfall patterns return – a good sign that we will have a good winter. I [...]
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 [...]
Early last year I was confronted with an unusual request from one of my clients. While discussing a NDVI image, I realized that we were not on the same page… Turns out he is red-green [...]
I wrote a blog post in March last year about Echalas vineyards in South Africa. More and more of this stunning trellis system is popping up all across South Africa. One of the most amazing [...]
I’ve had a lot of people ask me to do an updated video of the Ghost Vines of Theewaterskloof. So I headed there early Friday morning. This time I didn’t struggle through the sludge, [...]
The ongoing drought in the Western Cape is not only crippling the agricultural sector, but also having a major socioeconomic impact on South African, Zimbabwean and Malawian citizens. With [...]
2017 is almost at its end. This has been a tough year in the vineyards. Very low winter rainfall saw the groundwater at just about 70% in some regions at the start of the growing season. This put [...]
It was around 14:00 on Monday the 25th of September that I received a phone call from farmer and wine enthusiast André du Toit, the same guy that enjoys and embraces my energetic (and mostly [...]
Most vineyards are growing at a blinding pace by now. Varietals like Sauvignon blanc are slow starters – but watch out, they catch up VERY fast in the mid-term. With the dry season that we are [...]
