Pinotage skins caught in the act of releasing their last drops of wine
We started our harvest programme with Pinotage.
That sugar-rich white juice is now dry, red and headed for the barrel.
Most of our white varieties have been picked in the meantime.
Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio (with its red skins), Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Viognier are all somewhere in the fermentation process.
Shiraz and Merlot are also still fermenting while the Cabernets still carry on gathering ripeness in the vineyard.
We have varieties that almost always ripen earlier than others. And we have vineyards in locations (terroir) that influence and modify this.
So there are blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon on the rolling hillsides of Darling, near the sea, that have already finished fermentation and Sauvignon Blanc (our earliest white) in Stanford, also near the sea, that is still on the vine.
Which part is science and which part is art?