What happens after harvest?

A question often left out of discussion, but one of the most important phases in a vineyards annual cycle.

So, what does happen in the vineyards after harvest?

The answer is simple - a lot.

After the bunches has been harvested the vines continues the process of photosynthesis, but instead of transporting the carbohydrates towards the bunches, it gets stored in the root system and the trunk. A grape leaf will only contribute approximately 90 days of its photosynthetic cycle towards growth and berry ripening, where after it will change its trans location from upwards to downwards, in other words towards the roots.

So in basic terms the vine stores food and water for the next season. This is why after harvest fertilizing and irrigation is so important. Having water available is a massive advantage, but here at Darling Cellars we have approximately 95% dryland bush vine. We are completely dependent on the weather. We now wait for the first decent winter rains before we can fertilize, otherwise the fertilizer would be wasted as it can not get flushed into the soil.

When the conditions no longer favour nutrient uptake or the plant is saturated, the chlorophyll in the leaves start to break down and the leaves turn yellow. When leaves turn red it is either due to Leaf Roll ( a virus, but only shows red leaves on Red grape cultivars), or it is Teinturier grapes.

Leaf Roll Virus

A lot of other chemical processes are happening as well, but none that I can explain in a single blog entry. Maybe another time.

Last load of 2011

That's it. Done. Finished! The last load of grapes for 2011, Petit Verdot. Came in brilliantly. Healthy grapes, good pH and acid. Now the heavens just need to open and give us some rain.

It was a dry harvest, but not as bad as I thought. In fact, it was a rather good harvest. Now we can start working towards the 2012 harvest.

Composting

I started making compost in 2009. I use all the grape skins, pips and stems. So basically I recycle the waste product of the wine making process.

In 2009 I only made 100 cubic meters, just an experiment. It went very well, but there were still lots to learn. Last year I made 550 cubic meters. That went even better and I learned some valuable lessons. One of them were that the stems makes handling very difficult. It also causes the compost heaps to dry out too rapidly due to too much aeration.



So the stems are left untouched for at least a year so the the UV can break it apart a bit. This makes it brittle and it manages better the next year. The stems are an important ingredient in the mixture because it helps with the longevity of the product.

This post does NOT relate to static composting, which is a whole different story.

The key factors involved in making good quality compost are moisture, aeration, pH and C:N ratio. The micro organisms (MO) struggle to function at low pH. The grape skins naturally have low pH, and this gets adjusted by adding Calsitic lime to lift the pH to 6.5. They also need Nitrogen as "fuel", so that's why you need to add a food source like chicken manure (or any manure).

The MO also need moisture to function, and obviously air (oxygen). If you don't aerate the heaps they become anaerobic and will start to smell bad. Compost should never smell bad. Bad smell = bad compost.

I try to turn the compost every second day, but it is turned mainly according to the temperature readings. You need the temperature for the first week and a half in the 70 degrees Celsius region. This sterilizes the compost and kills off nasty pathogens and weeds.



After this fermentation phase the temperature comes down to the mid 40's, and will more or less stay in that region. (unless you get a lot of water on the heap, like you can see in the graph where it rained)




The process takes about 10 weeks.

In the cellar

Things are starting to slow down now. We are nearing the end of the 2011 harvest. It was a difficult harvest. Very dry and very hot. But the wines are looking good and as you can see the winemakers are quite optimistic about it.

Here are a few photos of processes in the cellar.

Hydrolic valves - used to open and close channels.

Fermenters

The cellar workers

Hopefully the next post will have some more text in. I am a visual guy, so the photos are satisfying. If there is anything specific you would like to see, drop me an email. Cheers for now

Crush day 2011

Saturday 26 February marked the 3rd annual Darling Cellars Crush Day. The weather was perfect. For the staff the day started at 06:00, for the guests at 07:30.

The guests arrived from seven o'clock, and breakfast was served from half past seven. Half past eight everyone was on the tractors and on the way to the vineyards.

The grapes was cut and I think everyone enjoyed it very much.












Back we went to the cellar and the grapes was stomped in pairs. Great fun!!

A traditional West Coast lunch was served (Snoek and Sweet potato) together with a nice glass of cold Darling Cellars Sauvignon blanc.

Thanks for everyone that attended and hope to see you back again next year!

The Whites

As promised, a few paragraphs from our white wine maker, Welma Visser, about this year's harvest up till now.

"Most of our whites are already harvested and almost finished with fermentation. Our Chenin blanc is about 35% down in tonnage in comparison with last year, because of the low rainfall. The whites also show very much promise this year, with a lot of guava and tropical fruits on the Chenin blanc.

The Sauvignon blanc is so far up in tonnage with 31% and we still have to harvest a bit more. They filled the cellar with passion fruit flavours during fermentation, but now that they have finished they are starting to show those nettles and grassy flavours. These wines also have a great mouth feel with an elegant finish. We can`t wait to start blending and combining the flavours.

We harvested about 30 tons of Nouvelle and it is always a treat to work with it, because it is a very fragrant cultivar and can easily be confused with Sauvignon blanc. This year I have a tank that has a perfume of green peppers. That is the only way I can explain it, because it is very forthcoming. It is always nice to have such a tank in the cellars to use as blending component.

Our Chardonnay is a hit once again this year with a lot of esters such as bananas and are starting to show more citrus. The Viognier on the other hand has more peach flavours and has a good palate weight.

I am looking forward to having our first 2011 wine in the bottle by April and I am sure it is going to be a great one."

We are harvesting the last Viognier today, here are some photos of the grapes

And the view from this block...

The harvest thus far

I asked our redwine maker, Carel Hugo, to give me a short description of how he feels about the harvest up to now. Here is what he had to say:

"Most of the Pinotage has been harvested, and now that Abe, Jaco and myself tasted most of them, I am very pleased with the quality. This year marks very good colour and intense fruit, probably due to the riper harvesting and the small berries caused by the abnormally dry year. I can hardly wait to see how they progressed after malolactic fermentation. It is only the Premium Pinotage that is still on the vines. We will harvest this on Wednesday.

Only two Shiraz tanks has been pressed, and the one already shows deep, dark plum with the other one showing good, deep colour with peppery hints.

Colour and fruit intensity looks very promising and is destined for your tipical award winning wines. 2011 Shows signs of "block buster" wines.

The Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon is busy fermenting and it is a bit too early to comment on them. I have a very positive feeling about 2011"

So there you have it. Overall the wines looks good. The Sauvignon blancs also look very promising, and I will try to get a quick chat with our white wine maker, Welma Visser for the next blog entry.

We are at 50% of the harvest now. Cultivars that still need to be harvested are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache, Tinta Barroca, Mourvedre, Petit Verdot, Cabernet franc, Shiraz, Carignan, Pinotage, Viognier, Sauvignon blanc and Cinsaut. So as you can see, still a pretty busy next few weeks ahead at Darling Cellars!

Carel on the left with Abe, our Cellar Master, on the right