During our visit to South Africa at the beginning of March, the harvest was in full swing. The very difficult, and prolonged, drought in the wine regions of the Western Cape affects the grapes of course. But most of the producers we met told us that although the volume in most places will be small this year, the quality is good, sometimes even very good.
Peter-Allan Finlayson at Gabrielskloof (where he is the wine maker and where he also makes his own wines under the Crystallum brand), says that 2018 will be a small harvest but of good quality. “We harvest early this year to maintain freshness,” he says.
At Springfontein in Stanford, wine maker Tariro Masayiti agrees. He is very pleased with the quality and maturity of the grapes. And at the biodynamic vineyard Reyneke in Stellenbosch, Johan Reyneke says that he will even have a good volume this year, perhaps thanks to the soil (granite and sandstone), perhaps thanks to the way they work in the vineyard (e g biodynamics).
We tasted the vintage 2018 during our tour, both as unfermented juice and after just finished fermentation. We all agreed it was of excellent quality!
South Africa is a treasure trove of excellent wines, many little known outside the country. Join us on BKWine’s discovery wine tour to South Africa in November.
And then there will be one more wine tour to South Africa in March.
