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...