March 2004
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In the bin March was our month this year. In between Friday 27th February and Thursday 25th March we harvested, cooled, destemmed and crushed 16.9 tons of Syrah, 3.8 tons of Cabernet and 2.8 tons of Mourvedre from TMV's own vineyard on the farm as well as 2.3 tons of Cinsault, 26.4 tons of Syrah, 5.8 tons of Chenin Blanc and 5.4 tons of Cabernet bought in from the around the region. Pressing would probably finish in the first week of May. It was hectic. The grapes were all cooled in small crates in our cool room down to 5 degrees using big fan blowers, they were then destemmed and sorted on the table before crushing. Each ton of grapes took an hour to process. The grapes were all crushed into small portable open fermenters each holding half a ton. In all we had over 60 of these in use at any one time and on average they were all used twice. Punch downs were done every 6 hours around the clock and took 2 people an hour to complete. Barrels had to be cleaned and soaked overnight. Each fermenter had to be regularly tested for acidity and sugar and two weeks into the harvest pressing started in earnest. It was round the clock stuff for J-C, John and Pascale. This is when the cellar boys earn their keep, except that J-C still had to worry about the vineyard as well. Fortunately the team were well looked after in the food department by J-C's Mum who kindly stayed on the farm to feed them all. She practiced her well honed cordon bleu skills on the vineyard and cellar team. At first she was a bit dismayed that her Par Boiled Rognons in a Light Truffle Oil Drizzle and other Michelin 3 star delights didn't go down too well, so she went back to basics and lots of it. Soon the guys were actually putting on weight. As if heaven sent, a couple of angels in the form of Aureilly and Lucy arrived to relieve the pressure in the cellar. These delightful young ladies from France had been gaining work experience in other cellars round the Cape and, because they were friends of J-C and Pascale and TMV was quite late in harvesting, had finished with their original employers and came to help. The fact that there was no common language between them all, and that the girls spoke only a little English and no Afrikaans, did not inhibit the fantastic atmosphere of the cellar. Everyone worked together so well. Pascale would translate Afrikaans to English and then to French and the sound of girlish French laughter would ring out. Towards the end of the month when things slowed down a bit there was even time for some cheese making in the rustic French style. When Met day came the girls were told to pack their best clothes and jump in the car without being told where they were going. A day at the races was, for them, completely unexpected and a great treat at the end of a hard working few weeks.
After a hard day's work it was on for a hard evening of wine drinking with Tom and John who wanted the cellar guys' opinions on the many bottles they had accumulated in their recent travels through North America and France. Aureilly was surprised to find a bottle from the cellar she had worked at in California. Tom and John carried on late into the night as J-C and the rest of the guys did punch downs and barrel cleaning in relays well into the small hours, coming back to the house to find either another bottle opened or everyone asleep at the table. During the harvest at TMV you don't see much of your bed. Mrs. G-W was becoming an expert with the pojki pot, filling it with all sorts of goodies plus a bottle of TMV 2002 (which is definitely for home consumption only) and leaving it to cook undisturbed for 6 hours. Many great suppers and breakfasts were shared, as well as the occasional picnic lunch, usually held in a gale force wind at the top of the hill...all because of the view. Great times, hard work and a barrel of laughs.
By the 20th of March we had finished harvesting, with the Mourvedre as usual last. There had been no rain all month and the place was a dust bowl. By the 24th we had one more batch of bought in grapes to come, and that was it. From then on it was the pressing (all done bucket by bucket through our baby basket press) and spring cleaning to do. Some of the early TMV grapes were pressed and in barrel, and some TMV bins closed up for their post fermentation maceration. There was an interesting spread this year, with alcohols ranging from about 12,8% to 14,8% with the majority in the mid 13's. Some of the bought in grapes had some slight problems with acids and pH's. The TMV grapes however showed great analyses. As usual post harvest we gave quite a bit of water to the vines. They were stressed with the drought and wind we had throughout this extreme season. Extreme heat, extreme work and extreme fun. The month had passed extremely fast.
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