July 2004
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The Birth of "Theta" The "Christmas in Winter" festival is held every year at the end of June in Tulbagh. The idea is to have a party celebrating "Christmas" when it is cold and is probably a nostalgic hangover visited on descendants of Northern Hemisphere dwellers. This year it was freezing so the nostalgists got what they were looking for. For us it was also important to have this very cold weather. With snow on the hills above us we could guarantee dormancy in the vineyard. Dormancy is very important so the vine can rest and save its energy for the season ahead. It is also important so that pruning can take place. You can only prune them when they are asleep. Whichever way you want to prune your vines, the spacing between shoots, the number of buds, the shape of the vine etc. you cannot do it if the vines continue to grow and shoot after you have pruned. Falling asleep is also important for the vines so they all wake up at the same time and the rhythm of the growing season occurs for them all simultaneously. Actually the weather this month was strange. After the initial cold at the start of the month it warmed up. Driving down to Stellenbosch it was obvious from the bright green tint on roadside vineyards that it wasn't staying cold enough for dormancy to hold in the lower lying areas. There were shoots all over the vines, just when they should not have been there. Fortunately Tulbagh remained cool enough not to show this, and we have an extra margin of safety being high up on the mountainside and therefore cooler. But it was warm enough even on our farm to cause the poplar trees to start budding. We were worried that if the weather warmed up any more we would have a major problem. We were delighted that the rhythm of the 2003 vintage allowed us to do a very important tasting at this time. The big tasting to decide the final blend or blends for this vintage. Before the tasting we had no idea what actual style of wine we would have, what grape varieties in which proportions would make the grade, and whether we would have one, two or even three different wines. We set the ground rules before the tasting started. From 47 barrels sitting in the cellar we wanted to produce one wine that was a blend of only the very best of these barrels. A wine that truly reflects the best that our vineyard can produce in this vintage, and reflects the unique soils and climatic conditions of our chosen plot. The rest would follow on from that basic premise. We chose a name for this wine, and the name is "Theta". Apart from being the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet it is also, in financial derivatives, the change in value of an option with change in time to maturity of the option. In layman's terms it is the "Value of Time". Having worked extensively with financial options over the years in their banking jobs Tom and John thought it was an entirely appropriate name. The value of time could not be more beautifully captured than in a bottle of great wine. The name inspires us to produce a wine that will reflect the effort and time we have put into the building of our venture. This wine has not been rushed. By the time it is available it will have had 22 months in barrels and a further 3 months in bottle. If we thought it needed more time it would have got it. J-C, with the help of wine maker friends and various critical cellar visitors, had been tasting all the barrels regularly as they developed. In May / June time the wine, after over a year in barrels, was starting to really open up as the oak became more integrated. In particular some of the Syrah blocks were showing great character. It was a question of whether this character was prevalent or confined to one or two barrels and if it would benefit from blending with other blocks, or be lost. After much critical assessment it was decided that there were 19 barrels of Syrah that fitted the description. J-C then prepared a sample of a blend of these 19 barrels. He also prepared a blend of these 19 plus some of the Mourvedre, these 19 plus some of the Cabernet, some of the Cabernet and the Merlot we bought in, some of the Syrah not from the 19 top barrels plus some Cabernet, some of the Syrah not from the 19 plus some Mourvedre. In all he produced 12 combinations for us to taste blind in 4 flights of 3 wines each. Mrs. G-W produced one of her delicious potjiekos stews to sustain us and we kicked off. We decided in the end to stick with the 19 barrels of the Syrah to make our Theta. We felt this showed great character from the nose through to the lingering after taste, and we really like it. Not every year will be the same, and perhaps next year the Mourvedre or Cabernet will be blended in, but we feel overall we are on to a real winner with the Syrah in our vineyard. Every year we want a signature wine made exclusively from grapes grown on the farm. The wine must reflect the uncompromising attention to detail that we have employed. It must have great character and quality. It must be the standard bearer for our venture. At the time of writing we believe that in the 2003 "Theta" we have achieved that. Each vintage going forward will be assessed in the same way. We shall only commit the highest quality wine to Theta. The blend could be different each year but it will be of consistent character, reflect the unique environment and be of the highest quality. The barrels of Syrah, Cabernet and Mourvedre that were not of similar character or high enough quality for the Theta blend have been blended to create a Syrah / Mourvedre and a Cabernet / Merlot. We were lucky to have had access to some top quality Merlot grapes from the Elgin area to add to our own Cabernet. The Syrah / Mourvedre was sourced from our own grapes. We are very happy with these wines as well and they are also of very high quality. We are expecting to be able to release for sale no more than 500 twelve bottle cases of our premium blend "Theta", 275 cases of Syrah / Mourvedre and 325 cases of Cabernet / Merlot. Copyright © 2000 Tulbagh Solutions. All rights reserved. |
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