March 2007

Marching through the 2007 Vintage ...

By: Charlie Hardie (Cellar Master at Browns of Rivonia)

Initial reports from the Cape suggest that the 2007 vintage will probably be best known for the extreme vagaries of climate. Intense heat and then rain right in the middle of the picking season.

Extensive hot weather means the grapes will have no problem ripening, but acid balance becomes a problem. Without this balance wine becomes flabby and rather unattractive. There is also the real spectre of grape burn. Thus the hotter areas such as Wellington, even Robertson tend to be very careful.

Whilst rain is very welcome at any time, during picking season it tends to dilute the grape concentrate and by association the body of the wine. The other very real danger is a fine grey sort of powder, called Downey Mildew. Once the grapes suffer from the pest, then it renders the grapes useless as regards production. The only safeguard is extremely stringent canopy management, even to thinning out all the rotten grapes.

Those who picked after the rain, provided they had done their husbandry will produce more than reasonable wine.

To sum up this year’s harvest, the watchword needs to be “CAVEAT EMPTOR”

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