“It’s the biggest bubbly harvest we have ever done at Steenberg,” winemaker JD Pretorius said this week. “We’re pressing around 20 tons a day and the loads of grapes being received in the cellar are usually spread over a two week period. That hasn’t happened because of the heat…”
The mercury levels comfortably spiking above 30 degrees, day after day, means that both winemaker and viticulturist Johann de Swardt get distinctly nervous. And extremely busy!
The grapes for the bubbly come from the sister farm, Madeba, in Robertson and are transported to Steenberg in insulated trucks to try and ensure the fruit remains as cool as possible. But with the trucks only arriving at 5pm it makes for a late night or early morning for cellar staff. “It’s easily 1am by the time we’ve finished doing all we need to and then cleaning up the cellar ready for the next day’s intake.”
But back to the weather: while beachgoers revel in the protracted spell of warm sunny weather Pretorius said this was probably one of the toughest harvests – weatherwise – he’d experienced to date.
“The initial growing period went according to plan and we all thought that it would be a late season. Then December was quite cool in comparison with other years. But that was followed by heat waves in January and February.”
The vines are taking the heat this summer at Steenberg!
Ultimately he, cellarmaster John Loubser and de Swardt have had to play a waiting game. “I’ve never seen such high acids but with proportionately high sugars too! We’ve just gotta be patient and sit on our hands until some of the acid drops out naturally.”
Then there are the other little “events” that happen to make the winemaker’s day even more challenging…like power outages! “We were busy pressing Pinot Noir for bubbly when the power went out. No problem to us – we’ve got a big generator for that very reason. Two… three seconds and the genie kicks in and we’re off again. Except that after about 20 minutes the generator stopped working as well! It had overheated…”
So, instead of having his focus on the grapes, Pretorius was frantically hunting around and phoning diesel mechanics for advice on what to do about an overheating generator. Ultimately, in true South African fashion “‘n boer maak ‘n plan” and the day was saved. “We got through it – with another story to tell.”
The good news is that – as of a few days ago – the first load of Sauvignon Blanc grapes made it to the winery and was tipped into the crusher/destemmer. Pretorius made sure he tweeted a picture for his Twitter followers to appreciate the moment!