The year 2010

This brings us to the end of 2010. The year 2010 will be remembered for a lot of great and not so great events. We kicked off with the terrible earthquake that hit Haiti. Wikileaks causing world wide controversy. The Chilean Mine disaster and the miraculous survival story. The Pakistan floods that displaced about 20 million Pakistanis and cost the economy $43 billion.The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But 2010 will most certainly be remembered for the fantastic Soccer World Cup, hosted by South Africa and won by Spain. This event opened the eyes of the world, so that they could see what South Africa is really about. Passion. Hospitality. Untamable spirit and a breathtaking nature and natural wonders.

But that is the world. This site's world revolves around Darling Cellars, its producers, the grapes and the wine. So what did 2010 mean to me with regards to the above?

One thing that comes to mind is the Downy Mildew knock we took. 17% of our crop was decimated by this fungus. Probably the disease with the biggest economical impact on the wine industry. This wasn't all bad though. It caused for a smaller, more intense crop. The result was very good grape juice, and great wines.

This year we had the craziest weather patterns. I still don't know what season it is! I don't know if it is global warming or just a break in the weather pattern, but it surely makes farming very difficult.

That is not the only highlights or low points, there are many more, but I am starting to bore myself with all this typing. Lets get to the pictures! I took some this morning. Veraison started on the Pinotage blocks already. To think, in 30 days we are harvesting again. Wow. It just sunk in.

Pinotage

Shiraz

Nouvelle



Sauvignon blanc

Thanks to everyone that followed this blog in 2010. Please mail me suggestions if you'd like to see specific things featured on here. Please register to the mailing list on the top right corner of the page. The blog updates goes directly to your mail box and saves you bandwidth.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Darling Cellars and enjoy the short break. Till next year.

Jaco

Desolate Earth

The subject may seem a bit gloomy, but in fact there are some positives in this post too. It describes the events that unfolded in Darling the past week while I was in Johannesburg. Tuesday Carel (our red wine maker) and I went to do a tasting in Johannesburg. That same night my Cellarmaster informs me that the hills in Darling is on fire. My first thought ofcourse was: "Snap!, our Onyx Sauvignon blanc is on that mountain, and some Shiraz and Pinotage!". It sounded really bad.

Got back to work today. I was a bit reluctant to go see what the damage was. To my surprise, the damage was minimal, to the vineyards zero. Relieved. The farmers pulled together and stopped the fire in its tracks. I must say, when there is a fire in Darling, the response and reaction from the farmers is amazing. You see true comradeship. (if that is even a word) Here are some pics:

So, the positive to this is the fact the some of the natural vegetation needs fire to germinate seeds. So in fact, this fire cleansed the field from alien species and the natural vegetation can once again thrive.

Christmas Braai

This afternoon we had our annual Christmas braai. Everyone exchanged gifts and we had awesome steaks and salad. My Japanese friend, Hirofumi, once asked me for some photos of people on my blog. Well Hiro, this is specially for you.

26 November

The vineyards are growing fast now with the increase in temperature. Most of the canopy management practices has been done. All that is left is crop control and then a quick holiday before the start of the 2011 harvest season.

Weeds seem to be a major problem for the past three years. This is mainly due to the spring and summer rains, which we are not used to. This pose a big threat for dryland vineyards like ours, specially in a dry year that we are experiencing this year. Not only does it take up essential moisture, but some weeds excrete toxic elements that can negatively impact on the vineyards.

Downy Mildew is under control up to this stage. There are some places in Cabernet Sauvignon and Mourvedre where there are some damage to the bunches, but it is hardly 1%. The spraying programmes were followed very strictly this year, and with great results.

I foresee a good harvest, but to make it excellent we will need about another 40mm rain. But we'll see what happens.

Earthworms

Nothing exciting happened this week. So what do I write about. Its been a while since I posted useful information. So I came across some photos I took last year in a vineyard. This was the most amazing piece of land. Fertile, rich in humus and had earthworms as big as baby snakes, but small in comparison to the worm you'll see in the video!!

So, what makes these guys so important for me to write about? Its just worms right? Right?

Not really. Here is the deal on earthworms:

There are approximately 2700 different kinds of earthworms. The South African Giant Earthworm grows to be up to 6.7 meters (22 feet) and is the largest earthworm known. The record-setting specimen was found beside a road in William's Town, South Africa, in 1967. The worms normally grow to only about 1.8 meters (6 feet).

Earthworms prefer neutral to alkaline soils. They travel underground by means of waves of muscular contractions. The whole burrowing process is aided by the secretion of lubricating mucus. Their tunnels aerate the soil and contributes to overall soil health.

Furthermore, earthworms converts large amounts of organic matter (e.g. dead leaves) into rich humus, improving soils fertility and structure. The worms breaks pieces of organic matter off, eats it and during the digestive phase it gets mixed with dirt and digestive enzymes. It is then excreted and the deposits can been seen on the soil surface as little granular heaps of soil called "worm casts" or "vermicasts".

Research has show that fresh earthworm casts are 5 times richer in available Nitrogen, 7 times richer in available Phosphates and 11 times richer in available Potassium than the surrounding upper 6 inches (150 mm) of soil. The casts has better porosity, aeration, drainage and moisture holding capacity than normal compost. This has an enormous impact on the immediate soil environment, especially surrounding the root system.

Having this information, we try to add as much organic material to the soil as possible. This is done by putting straw in the vineyards, or compost. The more organic material you have in the soil, the more food there is for the earthworms to digest and to convert into more useful nutrition.

Here are the guys I photographed in the vineyards:

Tipping

Tipping is part of canopy management and involves removing the top 2cm of the growth tip of a shoot. There are several reasons for tipping a vineyard.

Early in the season, vineyards that grow unevenly gets tipped to give the slower shoots a chance to catch up. By removing the growth tip you temporarily change the flow direction of nutrients and water in that shoot from upwards to downwards. This means that the other shoots gets a chance to grow to the same length so that you have a more uniform canopy.

This change of trans location direction also helps the shoot to attach firmer in the base eye. This helps the shoot to withstand wind a bit better.

Tipping also helps create side shoots. This is new growth with new leaves, which means new photosynthetic stations. It is important not to tip too early. You want to have a minimum of 5 leaves above the second bunch. Anything less will create a side shoot below the bunch and that shoot will take more energy away from the bunch.

Lastly tipping is done late in the season to stop/control vegetative growth in the vigorous blocks. This is to force the plant to contribute most of its water and nutrients to the bunches instead of new growth. Ideally, a vineyard block should be managed so that no tipping is necessary after Véraison (the onset of ripening visible through the change of color of the grape berries).

Tipping can be done with manual labour (the best way - better control as to the amounts taken off) or mechanically.

Here is a mechanical tipping mechanism.










That is pretty much the info you need on tipping. Here is a picture of a little warrior of the vineyard to end this post...