Harvest Update 2022

Sitting here in sunny Franschhoek, thousands of kilometres from the carnage being inflicted on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, I am struck by the relative calm underpinned by a nervousness about how this will all end.

At times like this a good glass of wine can have a heartening effect – a meal with family and friends or a glass of wine with your partner at the end of the day.

Just two years ago COVID was becoming a factor in our lives and we were faced with the prospect and being unable to complete our harvest due to government lockdowns.

 

The 2022 harvest is proving to be bountiful in terms of both quality and quantity. We have harvested syrah for our rosé wines, chenin blanc and chardonnay and have Semillon due to be harvested tomorrow and the grenache and cinsault for rosé towards the end of this week. Our harvest team then gets a bit of a breather until around mid-march when we will start to harvest the merlot, cabernet franc, syrah and lastly the cabernet sauvignon here in Franschhoek.

 

There has been much industry talk about this being a later season but the impacts of the warm weather through much of February has contributed to rapid phenolic ripening leading to earlier ripeness at lower sugars which will see slightly lower alcohols. Juice yields have been strong and our tanks and barrels are full of newly fermented wines starting their journey until one day they end up in your home ready to help you enjoy that special occasion. Wishing you all an enjoyable end of summer month with March and a peaceful end to the hostilities in Ukraine. Yours in wine Gerard