Martin Fuller from the Cape

News from the Cape Winelands
© by Martin Fuller
It has been a very dramatic, strange and almost crazy start to the new millennium in South Africa. The Cape has been beset with abnormally hot and dry weather for the last four months which precipitated huge fire storms in January whilst the northern parts of the country have been devastated by the worst floods on record.

The fires were fought on two fronts in the Cape, Stellenbosch and Constantia; both around prime vineyard areas. The Stellenbosch fire started behind the well known Thelema Estate and faned by strong winds, blazed a swath of destruction over the Simonsberg Mountain along and just above the best wine region in the Cape. Several top Estates such as Kanonkop, Warwick, Delheim were badly affected with hectares of vineyards destroyed and severe scorching of ripening grapes. The Constantia fire, started perhaps by a cigarette butt flung from a car, destroyed almost the entire Peninsula Mountain conservation area. Several well known Estates were affected including the famous Groot Constantia and Klein Constantia.

The fires are out now (although the country upstate is still being ravaged by the latest calamity, a tropical cyclone that has moved in from over Mozambique) and with almost half the harvest in the cellar,the serious work is well under way. This 2000 vintage will be remembered not only for the fires but also because it was a wine maker's vintage.

The severely hot, dry and windy conditions prevailed mainly whilst the grapes were still in the Green Berry development stage of their growth. Fortunately this has meant that the grapes have been able to recover to a great extent. However the wine makers are having to contend with high sugars ( between 24 and 25 degrees Balling), quicker than usual ripening of fruit and low acids. Hence why this will be a wine makers vintage as they will have to employ all their knowledge and skill in trying to obtain well balanced, flavourful wines with just the right amount of added acid.

Certain cultivars do well in hot weather conditions while others lose a lot of their flavour. At this stage, wine makers are happy with their non aromatic cultivars like Chardonnay for example which is seemingly of a high standard with lovely ripe fruits and well structured balance, whilst Sauvignon Blanc, being an aromatic cultivar is showing a marked lack of fruit. Of the red cultivars, wine makers are excited as they are achieving great colour extraction with full plump flavours. The heat has affected late ripening cultivars such as Cabernet and caused these grapes to ripen early and along with the mid ripening cultivars such as Merlot and Shiraz, which will put cellars under some stress trying to find fermentation tank space.

Looking ahead, the 2000 vintage is shaping up to be an above average vintage for reds and some whites like Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. Over all the harvest looks like it will be down on 1999, current estimates putting it at 1,155,674 tons which at an average yield of 779 l/ton will produce 900 million litres of wine, 1.6 percent down. But glass balling can so often be an exercise of wrong calling and methinks there will be a few surprises yet from the Cape.

Feb. 25, 2000