about the harvest: The 2019 harvest was our most challenging harvest to date. The preceding three years drought has been the driest years in recorded history in the South African Wine producing regions. The effects of which could still be seen in our vineyards during this harvest. Fortunately, due to our unique topography,we had enough water for all the normal requirements of our vines during and after harvest. We also experienced extreme weather conditions with a heatwave towards the end of winter leading to premature budding of the early varietals.
There were cool temperatures and higher than normal rainfall during February and early March, putting a lot of pressure on the disease control of the vines. It has been a harvest like no other where we visited all the vineyards at least once or twice a day to monitor the ripeness and determine the perfect harvest window. Due to the weather conditions, the crop levels were a little lower than normal, but our overall quality is deemed very high as much of the loss in overall volume was due to smaller berries and bunches which, conversely, lead to a greater concentration of flavour and colour in the 2019 wines.