2017 Harvest Update

Feb 20, 2017
1 min read

It’s been an unusual ‘hurry up & wait’ start to harvest 2017. Initially it looked as if it would be almost as early as 2016, the earliest harvest on record, and then some rain came… 68mm in 3 hours on Friday morning 27 January. Very unusual, but welcome in what has been an extremely dry year.

This delayed harvest by at least a week and will do wonders for our later ripening reds, Syrah & Cabernet Sauvignon. Although it has been hot and dry the evenings have been particularly cool, which shows in the excellent pH and acidity levels we’re getting.

So far we have most of our Chenin Blanc bubbling away in barrels and 3 tons on our drying racks for our Straw Wine. We’ve also harvested half of our Merlot. It looks like a bit of a wait before we get going with our Syrah, but we can see a storm brewing as the Cabernet is at a similar stage. Usually we pick most of our Syrah before the Cabernet, but it looks like it’s all going to be ready at about the same time. Follow me on Instagram to keep up with the day to day goings on.

Our #nativeyeasts still doing the business after 25 years. A big tank of #blueprintsyrah with 15 whole bunches humming away
Picking #cabernetsauvignon from a young block in our #elevation393 vineyard
Our last pickings of #harvest2017 from our original #foundationblock at the #montfleurconferencevenue Mostly #merlot we planted in 1983 #st
It's King Cabernet Week in #stellenbosch Sugars rising with the hot weather over the last few days, but looking good and we've even got _sar
Started picking #syrah today from#keermontvineyards for our #detrafford #blueprintsyrah #harvest2017 #stellenboschmountain #upperblaauwklipp
Our racks are full of #cheninblanc for our #strawwine 4 tons will produce 3 barrels if the weather plays along #harvest2017 looking good
De stemming our first red for #harvest2017 #merlot from #keermontvineyards Looking great. Nice ripe pips and stems
Italian intern designer gear for #harvest2017 You can see we've had a busy week at #detrafford and _saradambra has been a great help
Full House! Our last #strawwine in off the racks and every tank full
Standing tall and delivering after 55 years
Now for a little #cabernetfranc bling #keermontvineyards #harvest2017 #upperblaauwklippenvintners #stellenbosch #helderbergmountain #winesof
New harvest toy - a #scale Getting precise in my old age🤓 Beautiful #cheninblanc from #keermontvineyards #harvest2017 #stellenbosch #stellen