All our white grapes are now in the cellar and we are just waiting for the last bit of Viognier from Casey’s Ridge. The farm workers are spending their time between Vrede en Lust and Ricton at the moment and harvesting Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.  We are expecting the last of the red varietals from Elgin to come in during the next two weeks.  These will be Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

Susan and her team are working at full capacity now and there is no time for rest in between – the biggest challenge now is making sure there there is enough space in the cellar for new grapes coming in while also managing the rest of the winemaking processes.  Careful decisions needs to be made and thousands of liters of wine are moved between tanks for optimum use of our space.

I managed to grab Susan for a second for the latest news from the cellar and was told that we are now busy with the blending and bottling of the Jess 2013 and that the Jess fans can expect the release in spring.

For now I am staying out of the cellar to make sure I’m not in the way of all the hustle and bustle and decided to rather pay a visit to the vineyards.  I managed to get a few smiles there:)

From now on there is nothing pretty about harvesting anymore …  I sneaked a peek into the cellar yesterday as the team was busy with pressing and was really overwhelmed by all the hard-work happening in the cellar.  Here, there are no difference between men and women – everyone is doing their part and everyone has to do the heavy lifting and shifting:)

Let’s hold thumbs for Susan, Etienne, Ansone’ and their team for this week in the cellar as it is sure to be a busy one!

Etienne and Norman discussing the next load of grapes to arrive.

Beautiful Pinot Grigio

The first week of harvest is behind us and what a busy week it has been.  Susan and her team have been working around the clock and is very excited about the results of the first week’s harvest.  It is a treat to walk into the cellar and experience the daily hustle and bustle of everyone working at their fastes pace.  The cellar smells wonderful and the aromas of the grapes fill your senses when you take a walk through the different processes going.  I can’t help but smile when I’m in the cellar as no one is really looking up from what they are doing and you can see everyone is really focused.  I’m always popping in for some news and feedback and I think a good sign is that Susan is always smiling and looking very calm and composed:)

The grapes are looking magnificent and we can expect great results.

More than 90 tons of grapes were harvested and we started off with mostly white cultivars.

This morning at 6am was the moment we have all been waiting for a while now.  The excitement was palpable during the past week and today the wait is over – we are in full harvest mode!  The trucks from our Simonsberg-Paarl farm arrived and we’ve taken in almost 15tons of Chardonnay today.  The quality seems excellent and a great start to our first day.

Most of our premium range grapes will arrive this week and we are expecting the Chenin Blanc for Sarah and the Pinotage for Jess to be next in line with possibly the Malbec as well.  According to Susan and Etienne we can expect excellent quality grapes this year due to a much colder winter than usual.  This had a direct impact on the budding of the vines, especially the Chardonnay and Shiraz.

We also took a preventative measures this year for pests in the vineyard and thanks to these actions we had a pest free season and luckily no Mealybug.  This improved the set of the vineyard and therefore we can expect a higher production in volume this year.

For now everyone seems really calm and excited in the cellar and there are smiles all around, but as we all know, harvest is a very stressful time of the year for winemakers and there are always the usual challenges that only good logistics and planning can solve.  With two farms between which we have to coordinate, space is always a problem in the cellar as there is just no holding back when the grapes are ready and on its way to the cellar.

We wish Etienne, Susan and Ansone’ a very blessed harvest and hope that all their hard work will pay off in the form of excellent wines.

Our cellar team for this year:

Etienne, Susan & Ansone’

Baron, Jeremy & Anthony – our cellar workers

Dirk Tredoux – winemaker & harvest intern

Anthony Sandivo – student from Stellenbosch university and harvest intern

Juliana Person – winemaker and intern from USA

It literally looks as if Rudolph the red nose reindeer sneezed all over Vrede en Lust… We are completely in the spirit of things and every inch of the tasting room and entrance have been decorated with Christmas trimmings.

Since our colour is red it is just normal that all of us absolutely adore Christmas at the estate.  First, we would like to thank all our loyal customers who have supported us through this year which has indeed been a wonderful year for Vrede en Lust.  So much has happened and so many successes have been celebrated and none of it would have been possible without the loyal clients of Vrede en Lust.  We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a blessed festive season with family and friends.

To show our gratitude we are running a wide variety of specials during the festive season and would like to invite everyone to pay a visit to our “Christmas tasting room”.

Bin-end Specials (only in our tasting room):

Casey’s Ridge Viognier 2010

Barrique 2010

Pinot Grigio 2010

CCV 2010

Buy 6 bottles for the price of 5:

Sarah 2010 (Unwooded Chardonnay)

Casey’s Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2011

White Mischief 2011

Accommodation Specials for January and February

Jonkmanshuis Cottages:  R 650 p.p.s.p.n - normal rate R 890

Manor House: R 1500 p.p.s.p.n - normal rate R 2270

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The Vrede en Lust wine club currently consists of 1144 members who receive an array of benefits from the estate. We offer up to 20% discount on our wines and luxury accommodation as well as discount on lunch and breakfast at Cotage Fromage. Most of the wine club members are so loyal to the Vrede en Lust wines that they regularly order extra wines from the estate on top of their shipment, which they then get delivered to their doorstep free of charge.

Our members are always the first to receive new releases and this shipment is no exception – members will be the first to receive (this even includes the staff members) the brand new Artisan Range Single Vineyard Kogelberg Chenin Blanc 2011, Artisan Range Babylonsig Pinotage 2011, Red Lady Merlot 2012 and the revamped Sarah 2012 among their wines. Only after all wine club members have received these wines will they be available to the general public!

Should you wish to become part of our wine club and receive all these wonderful benefits, please click here or contact us directly at the estate.

It has been an amazing awards season for winemaker, Susan Erasmus and her team.  Their hard work and efforts have been recognized in the past few months when medals have been awarded for some of our newest wines.

It has all gone by so quickly but every now and again we would hear a whoop of joy from the to celebrate one of our wines being recognized by a medal.

Here, the reason for Susan and Ansone’s big smiles the past couple of weeks:

Syrah 2009:  Gold Michelangelo 2012

Marguerite 2011: Gold Veritas 2012

Artisan Chenin blanc : Gold Michelangelo 2012

Barrique 2011: Classic wine 2012 Top 6

Casey’s Ridge Viognier 2011:  Silver Michelangelo 2012

Apart from the excitement of our awards we are all very proud of the new vintage of Mocholate that has been released.   The 2012 Red Lady will follow shortly – we know some customers are anxiously awaiting this release.  Two wines which I am very excited about and which I think will create quite a stir with our clients is our brand new Kogelberg Chenin Blanc and the Babylonsig Pinotage. The grapes used for this Chenin Blanc were of an extremely high quality and from a single vineyard block which was specifically chosen by Susan and Etienne and named Kogelberg in advance of the harvest. As mentioned this wine has already been awarded a gold Michelangelo this year and we are expecting more great things to come.

The Babylonsig Pinotage was a project initiated by our management to empower the cellar and farm workers, thereby giving them a project that they could take ownership of. This is also the first Pinotage ever released by Vrede en Lust. With the close guidance of Susan, the farm and cellar team were allowed to select and care for a section of the Pinotage vineyard and took charge of the winemaking process of this beautiful, one of a kind Pinotage.

Kogelberg Chenin Blanc

Babylonsig Pinotage

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Duncan and his team from Cotage Fromage looked after the food side, Susan and her team provided some wines on tap plus the ‘Feddeerweiser’, Anneke and her team previewed the new releases and two bands provided lots of entertainment. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make this possible and of course to our guests who seemed to love the day! Until next year when we celebrate Vrede en Lust’s 325th anniversary!

In the winery we have from left to right: Melvin August (cellar worker), Susas Erasmus (winemaker), Anthony Mbombo (cellar worker), Ellen Lubbe (intern winemaker), Danel Morkel (intern winemaker), Baron Willemse (South Africa’s cellar worker of the year 2011), Chris Spurdens (intern winemaker) , Ansonè Stoffberg (assistant winemaker) and Etienne Buys (viticulturist).

The intern winemakers are all South Africans this year. Ellen was the Dux (top) graduate from Elsenburg in 2011. Chris graduated from the University of Brighton in 2009 with a BSc Hons in Viticulture / Oenology. Danel graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in 2010 with a Bsc in Viticulture / Oenology. We sincerely hope they really enjoy their harvest at Vrede en Lust and make a big contribution to the team overall.

No, Susan did not develop a ‘boep’ during the summer holidays, she is 6 months pregnant! Congratulations to her and Arnè ; we hope her 6th full harvest at Vrede en Lust is kind to her and the unborn little Erasmus. With a viticulturist (at Plaisir de Merle next door) as dad and winemaker mother, the little one is really born into wine.

I was lucky to take this photo of 2 Kaapse grysbokke in one of the Cabernet blocks on Ricton this morning. The block is in veraison and I hope they were more interested in the leaves than the green berries!

These are two females but there was also a male deeper into the bloc. It is always great to see them around! Lets hope they do not end in some-one’s sights.

The Chardonnay grapes harvested today comes from a 3.5H (nearly 9 acres) block at our Ricton vineyard. The Ricton vineyard is located next to Babylonstoren, about 2 km up the road from the winery. We expect the Vrede en Lust Chardonnay that goes into Marguerite to start coming in next week.

Ricton is also classified as Wine of Origin Simonsberg-Paarl, with a more uniform, lighter,  decomposed granite soil that is well drained, lighter soils. We also grow Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage (for Jess rosè ) and Cincaut on the farm.

We harvest the grapes by hard into plastic lugs. The lugs are emptied into half-ton plastic bins and then transported to the winery. At the winery, the bins are stored under-roof and out the sun. The bins are next rotated into the receiving hopper, where the grapes are weighed prior to release to the automatic sorting machine.

In the sorting machine, the bunches are destemmed (the bunches for Marguerite will undergo whole-bunch press) and the berries sorted. The berries that make it through the sorting machine then gets pumped though the mash cooler and into one of our two presses.

The pressing process takes nearly 6 hours under low pressure. Next the press juice gets pumped into the selected fermenter, in the white wine section of the winery. Susan will decide when to kick off fermentation, which will take place at low temperatures for nearly 3 weeks in order to preserve the more delicate flavours of the white wines.

The harvest starts today with the Chardonnay and will end in early April, probably with the Cabernet Sauvignon from our Elgin vineyard. A long harvest ahead – we hope and pray it will be a great one!