SUMMER: The time when winemakers are not as palatable as their wines. This is a time when we are irritated, short tempered and just plain unpleasant to be around. We are usually stressed out of our shoes and we call this period of time “harvest”.
BUT 2009 has proven the opposite here at Knorhoek. Finally a year when everything came together. No sleepless nights, no breakage in the cellar and no work stress.
Such a pleasant harvest deserves a prize and the Emmy/Oscar goes to (drum roll), A GREAT CELLAR TEAM!!
This year we were assisted by two students from the University of Stellenbosch, Andre en Stephan. With an already excellent team consisting of Cornelius who finished his SKOP 3 course at Elsenburg and with over 30 years of winemaking experience; he was always somebody to count on and also my eyes when I was busy in the vineyards. And then there is Willempie who finished his SKOP 1 and also completed a year long government wine program. Willempie always ensures that the job gets done. The two students (Andre en Stephan) brought something new to the table. That extra something that is probably the most important aspect in winemaking: TIME.
The Sauvignon – and Chenin Blancs had a nice, long fermentation which is good for white wines and the reds had enough time on the skins, some for up to 37 days.
Time also allowed me to do some experiments which came out great. It gave me the opportunity to oversee everything to assure that breakage was kept to a minimum, to see that the grapes were picked at optimum time, to make sure that everybody knew what to do and to choose the perfect oaks for the wines. Time gave me the opportunity to do everything on time.
But of course, none of this could have been done without the team, I call them “The A-team!” My Oscar winners!
