Winemaker's Series: Delaire Estate

Morne Vrey brings us another update from Stellenbosch....

"All grapes are in and whites are nearly done with fermentation!


Our Sauvignon Blanc’s are looking very promising and we are very excited about the progress thus far. Fermentation process of Chardonnay is complete and is showing beautiful citrusfruit with rich minerality – it’s definitely a good Chardonnay vintage.

Rose is undergoing very slow but steady fermentation – we are very happy with the flavours, it’s going to be a beautiful wine!

Last grapes picked were our Cabernet Sauvignon, which is undergoing fermentation. Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Franc has been basket pressed and put in barrel for malolactic fermentation.  All in all, it has been a short but intense harvest and we very much look forward to the next couple of months, closely monitoring the progress…"

Winemaker's Series: Delaire Estate

Morney Vrey, winemaker at Mr. Graff's Stellenbosch interest, Delaire Estate, has his whites in the winery and finds himself in the middle of an "interesting but challenging " red vintage....

"All Sauvignon Blanc’s from different areas are in tank and fermenting-looking promising
Durbanville fruit is showing best potential and was harvested and crushed just before the current heat wave.

All Chardonnay is in the barrel.
Beautiful Cabernet Franc Rose, timing of harvest was perfect, juice is showing great promise: stunning fruit flavours – raspberries, strawberries.

Sudden heat wave last week lifted sugar levels on red varietals rather unexpectedly .Harvesting decisions are therefore being determined by fruit flavours and phenolic ripeness rather than chemical analysis.

It’s certainly an interesting but challenging vintage for reds. "

Winemaker's Series: The new world harvest

At this time of year, whilst the Northern hemisphere's vines sit dormant, enjoying their time off, in peaceful reflection prior to the verdant onset of spring, the action is all a-happening south of the equator. This is business time, a hive of activity, for the vast majority of our new world producers will be bringing in grapes right about now.

The first of our contributions comes from the highly talented Morne Vrey, winemaker at Delaire in South Africa's Stellenbosch. They have begun bringing in their Sauvignon Blanc already, a wine recently voted the number two example of its type in South Africa.

"Harvest started about a week ago. Our Sauvignon Blanc vineyards were revealing interesting ripe flavours, earlier than expected. Consequently we rushed to harvest the grapes that we source from the Stellenbosch region. Our Chardonnay too has been picked and is now in barrel, fermenting away.

Into our second week, things have slowed down due to some unseasonal rainy weather and the cool start to February which slowed the ripening of certain varietals. However we are awaiting a delivery of Sauvignon Blanc from the Walker Bay area later today-hopefully this will get the momentum up again."