Peter Finlayson’s harvest notes provide an insight into the creation of each vintage and clues to the future character of each wine.

Click for notes from the following years:
2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002

Harvest 2011
 
Timing has been of the essence and this year with Pinot noir being the first grapes to the cellar!  My analogy for 2011 is that of sailing a racing yacht in ever changing strong winds and turbulent seas.  All manner of tricky weather and opportunistic bugs have waited in the wings to upstage this years harvest.

The grapes were not in pristine condition, but I reflect back on previous years, where we have enjoyed some of our best winemaking from these not so perfect grape years.
A later ripening experienced this year compared to previous years has led to good mouth feel and expressive aromatics.
 
The overall tonnage has increased, however a significant yield reduction was experienced for the Crocodile’s Lair/ “Kaaimansgat” Chardonnay grapes.  The berry size for this vineyard has been very small and thus resultant wines are concentrated and rich aromatically.
 
2010 was relatively dry in the winter months in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and then in December we experienced an unusual amount of rain for that time of the year, leaving us with a wet month.  January and February, of 2011, yielded some wet days and this left us with concern as every third day we experienced some moisture – perfect weather for all kinds of opportunistic mildews to attack the photosynthesizing sites of the leaves.  Luckily, due to a well-organized preventative spray program, the possible damage was reduced to a minimum considering the difficult climatic circumstances.
 
For our Pinot noir, this vintage year is promising, even though grape spoilage was a threat with these difficult weather conditions and the Chardonnay grape quality has been very good!
 
When natures deals us the cards, we aim to make the best of the deck – in the end it is about technique, timing and success in the cellar, but most important is to develop the feeling for the vintage and then craft where necessary in the cellar, to end up with a good hand!
 
Cellar work was orchestrated by Chris Albrecht and ably assisted by
Jessica Saurwein and Mackensie Brisbois.
 
 
 Harvest 2010

Winter 2009 was characterized by a relatively warm July month which set the Chardonnay off to premature bud break! Spring 2009 was quite wet and cold, this prompted the careful control of downey mildew. Early summer, very heavy SE winds early November which impacted on flowering. Perhaps the strongest winds in decades! As our own harvest is completed before end Feb we are not impacted by late summer. This period suffered virtually no rain which meant the four central summer months were essentially without any real rain. Essentially this vintage was plagued by “Joker” weather conditions, strong winds, warm July month and very dry summer. The crop was overall reduced by 25% against 2009 (a good year). Worst performer was Chardonnay where we will be 35% below target.

Resulting wines this year are very good but polyphenols are high so astringency levels in whites will need to be closely examined and reduced where necessary. Pinot noir also offered poor juice recovery rates with wines having relatively high alcohol levels – all indication of small and concentrated berries - no green harvest required. Excellent intensity in youthful Pinot wines which bodes well for the future. Sauvignon Blanc performed well!  The quality has everything going for it so looking forward to some classics from this vintage. Fortunately we have some 15% renewal Pinot Noir vineyards coming into production next year which should help improve production levels going forward. Perhaps this vintage just brings home the point that there is no predicting how rewarding any vintage is going to be. Nature still has the last say in events ! 


Harvest 2009
 
Perhaps best described as a “Non-Nervous” vintage! There have been few years which have offered such kind weather conditions. Essentially dry throughout the growing season with almost zero grape spoilage. This after a very wet early growing season where vineyard management forced key attention to pest control. The new vintage wines are displaying great promise and threaten to be every bit as good as the highly rated vintages from 2007 and 2008 (if not better). The first wine to have been bottled is the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc which is right on the “button”! This points to 2009 offering success with both the white and red wines! 


Harvest 2008

Every Vintage is a pack of cards! In 2007 we were dealt the perfect hand and great wines followed. 2008 has presented different elements and challenges but has resulted in some outstanding wines –particularly Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Having said this we had to play a tough poker game in the process! It was a testing vintage, unusual in that weekly rains fell throughout the growing season. Strong growth in the vines with abundant soil moisture crafted a generous vintage with surprisingly pleasing fruit. Grapes did display some symptoms of the weather but nothing to panic about, in our case as we applied early mildew control which saved the day.
 
Our domain Chardonnay crop was markedly improved –reflecting against poor tonnages from 2007. Implication here is better supply of Missionvale for 2008. Pinot noir also presented an improved yield –perhaps ascribed partly to new vines coming into production. Sauvignon Blanc is much the same as for 2007 but quality very pleasing.  The other varieties have managed to present rewarding wines.  An overall characteristic will be lower alcohol levels predicted for 2008 wines.


Harvest 2007
 
The vintage commenced with Pinot Noir on the 23rd January. 29 tons were harvested over four days under unusually hot weather conditions. This placed pressure on all concerned as rapidly rising grape sugars posed a potential winemaking pressure point, but fortunately all wines have fermented to dryness. Sauvignon blanc was fourteen days later, interrupted by two inches of rain which perhaps stalled the advent of a near perfect pick. Sauvignon blanc was all in by 20th Feb, generally in great condition plus presented a fairly generous crop! Chardonnay from the Domain was in excellent form, a very miserly crop which aught to offer notable quality. The only down side was the aspect of rain on numerous occasions but no rotten grapes resulting from this net effect has been superficial.
 
The latter part of the vintage produced no surprises. The Sangiovese harvest was well balanced and shows excellent promise in the young wine. Nebbiolo although modest at 1.8 tons has offered a superb wine. Our supply of Chardonnay from Kaaimansgat maintained its reputation of excellent quality.
 
From a general perspective vintage 2007 must be considered well accomplished with excellent promise. Conditions were not ideal but we anticipate that 2007 will prove to be a most encouraging vintage!!
 
The cellar has been most ably managed by Teresa Fourie with help from Nicola Biasi from Tuscany and from Guillaume from Beaujolais! Approximately 200 tons was in the cellar by end of March.


HARVEST 2006

The Hemel-en-Aarde Valley experienced a cold and wet 2005 winter. This gave the vines a good start. While the season remained cool, little notable rain was recorded after mid October. It is said that vintages with large crops bless the grape growers while vintages with reduced crops bless the winemakers.

The 2006 vintages certainly fell into the latter category. The grape varieties which fell short on decent cropping levels were mainly Chardonnay and Sangiovese. Pinot noir and Sauvignon blanc also fell short of their intended tonnages. Perhaps it was some days of particular strong South East winds in October which caused the crop reduction – impact on flowering and also damage to shoots.

It is anticipated that that the highlight of 2006 will be the Chardonnay grape. Pinot noir is also expected to be great but time is required to seriously predict on the quality of this cultivar. Experience has emphasized that Pinot noir does not enjoy early predictions. Grape sugar levels were excellent, particularly with the Pinot noir pickings which also reflect good pH levels and fine natural acid support.

The growing season was cool which initiated late flowering. This was followed by lower than usual temperatures between December and February resulting in gradual ripening. The heat of February and March ensured that ripening was brought to a happy conclusion.

Cellar staff were not pushed this year and generally a mood of relaxed competence prevailed over the harvest. In total 185 tons were produced which has bearing on a potential 12 000 cases for the year.


HARVEST 2005

The 2005 vintage was early, approximately ten days earlier than on average. For many growers in the Cape this will be remembered as one of the driest seasons in history and news reports have stated that there is going to be a shortage of white wines this year.

Fortunately here in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley the climate is a little different to the rest of the Western Cape. We did experience a number of showers during the crucial month of February. Anxious moments? Yes!  But fortunately the rains definitely did us a great favour and helped our season when others were desperate.

Looking back at the early part of the growing season we experienced one of the driest winters ever. Conditions were saved by timeous rains in October 2004. Additional rains in November in fact created problems with mildew which had no serious effect on the crop. The summer season was generally moderate in temperature, which ensured that the fruit arrived at the cellar in excellent condition. Another feature of the vintage was the fact that the grape acidities were higher than for the previous two years; this is normally a positive quality indicator.

The different varieties all performed well, with Pinot Noir looking very promising, having excellent colour and good mouth feel! I further made a conscious effort to lower the hardness of the Pinot this year - it appears to have paid off! Both Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay wines have good acidities. In the case of the Chardonnays it will be beneficial to allow malo-lactic fermentation to take its course. The late red varieties for the Italian styled Hannibal are encouragingly pleasant. It just seams weird that once again it is an odd numbered year where the wines show great promise.

The cellar functioned well with the support of an excellent team. Silke Wildhagen was back for a month from Germany for the third time. Another lady, this time a final year student from Stellenbosch University namely Inge Hoffman, also contributed to the smooth running of the harvest event. The heavy work was handled by the young and fit Barry du Preez who appears to be finally accepting that a career in winemaking may be a better prospect than the law degree he is currently pursuing!

Happenings during the vintage? Mostly everything functioned very smoothly, having the new wine press made our lives much easier - particularly in that the delivery loads from Kaaimansgat seem to get bigger each year - one of these such loads did in fact not make it entirely all the way to the winery, we got a call one Friday morning to inform us that the rear wheel of the truck had burst with the consequence of the full load of Chardonnay landing on the tar outside Hermanus. It took us about an hour and half to pick this up by hand using our full picking crew, we saved about two thirds of the grapes, perhaps this year to be called ‘Crash Chardonnay.' Another happening was my receiving a full blast of grape juice under pressure from the press. I certainly look forward to the day the new house is finished, providing the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful hot shower when such inconveniences occur - must just remember to keep a fresh change of clothing at hand!


HARVEST 2004

The lead up to the harvest was characterised by a rather warm winter, followed by the heaviest ever snowfalls in the Cape in August, and an unusually cold snap in September. The dry winter conditions ensured that there was very little root stress – Pinot noir does not like getting its feet wet - while the cold snap delayed what appeared to be early bud break. The fact that we are close to the ocean and get rain from the northwest and the south-east protected us from the drought conditions experienced in the winelands beyond Walker Bay.

For all intents and purposes harvest 2004 has been predicted to be one of the best prospects in years; that was until 13 February, when 2 really hot days hit the Cape. The situation was not too severe here in Hermanus and I must admit that I do not feel that we have too much to complain about!

The water demand in the Bouchard Finlayson vineyard has been relatively low. Sauvignon Blanc vines have needed a bit of irrigation, while the Pinot noir has been fine this year. Rain has interspersed the harvesting activities – more of an irritation that a serious downpour.

Generally the crop has been healthy, with no disease suffered during the growing season. Green bunch cropping was done on the Pinot noir, and appear to have been perfectly on the mark – the emerging wine is looking very exciting.


HARVEST 2003

Waiting for the harvest to begin is like waiting for new children to be born!  Right from the onset the vintage looked promising.  Weather conditions had been relatively cool.  The excessive early crop, characteristic of this vintage, was managed by implementing a crop reduction action known as green harvesting from mid December. Remaining grapes were healthy - early analysis of the fruit pointed to good sugar versus acid ratios. The picking team and the cellar team were ready and eager…

3rd – 7th February was the week of the Pinot noir harvest. We started picking on Monday, and made a stout effort to get the full crop in before the forecast rain of Friday!  As the rain started falling we brought in the last grapes! The Pinot total crop was in excess of 40 tons, marginally more than our excellent crop of 2001.

The tempo of the pickers was not restrained as sometimes happens in vintages of rot. Paired with the enthusiasm of Craig Harris, who had the pickers starting at 06h00, we were half way through the harvest in terms of grape tonnage picked, by 14 February. Scarcely a week after the Pinot noir, we had taken in the entire domain Chardonnay (Missionvale) and most of the Sauvignon blanc. Rain was once again forecast for the weekend, incredibly considerate of the rain gurus to allow us the full week for harvesting twice in a row!

By Friday, 21 March, we took in our last grapes, ending with a small crop of Nebbiolo. Prior to bringing in our ‘Hannibal’ grapes (Sangiovese, Mourvedre, Barbera and Nebbiolo) Chardonnay from the Kaaimansgat (Crocodile's Lair) vineyard were delivered in 6 successive days.

The last four weeks had been very dry – not too many extreme heat days, but simply long periods with little rain.  Water reserves were tested but vitis vinifera is designed to function best in Mediterranean climates – climates where it does not rain in summer months.  Total rainfall for 2002 was 30% below normal expectations. 

Tireless Jacqueline ably assisted by just as hard working Julien Schaal, a trainee from Alsace in France, admirably handled cellar work. I must admit that I was quite relaxed – while pumps and machinery were running continuously, I spent my time planning, checking, motivating and remaining calm in the face of tired and hyped up folk around me. My attitude with cellar work has always been to guard against exhaustion.  The six-week harvest event sees the handling of all the fruit that the whole rest of the year offers to process! There is a distinct disadvantage to bad planning and pushing too hard - it is important to appreciate that fatigue leads to mistakes, loss of motivation and accidents.

We handled a total of 180 tons of grapes of which 57 tons were red grapes all from our own vineyards. The balance being white, consisted of 57 tons of purchased grapes with the remaining 66 tons also from our own domain.

One of those clichéd philosophers once said: “In life there are two kinds of disappointments, one is when you don’t reach your goals while the other is simply when you reach your goals”. In winemaking there are also two kinds of disappointments. The first is when you know you had a bad vintage while the second is simply when you know you had a good vintage but still do not achieve great wines. Where do we stand with vintage 2003? We know it was an excellent vintage – I simply have to remind myself that there is some way to go before I get the wines into the bottle!


HARVEST 2002

Vintage 2002 produced one of the most complex Pinot noirs to date. Is this the result of a high rainfall in January prior to harvest? One effect of wet weather is a reduction in crop; it also questionably ameliorates the flavour profile of the wine.

For the Chardonnay it was a difficult vintage, after experiencing one of the wettest January months on record, resulting in an uncomfortable and challenging harvest. Selection was essential and much frustration was experienced with the problem of having to wait for greater fruit maturity. Grape sugars of less than 23ºB illustrate the winemaking philosophy of not producing overripe Chardonnays, but rather capturing the style of wines which will age well, as practised in the classic Burgundian white wine preparations.