Drifting awake with a soft paw pressing against his face. "Come on, Ivy, it can’t be morning already?"
"4:25 am," he reads on his cellphone, "Ah, cat, you could at least let me get my last 5 minutes of sleep."
So starts a new day in harvest time for Wilhelm Kritzinger, cellarmaster/winemaker/jack of all trades at Bellevue Wine Estate, to get the wine made.
Life in the cellar and on Bellevue farm begins at 06h00 during harvest. On the way in he passes Dirkie and the harvest team on their way to the vineyard, just in time. You can never get the early rising out of an old farmer like Dirkie Morkel.
First things first, checking on the fermenting tanks. With a gentle caress on the tanks as one would to calm a spooked horse, he gets a feel for the temperature of the wine in the tanks. Years of practice has lent him the ability for a nice party trick to guess the fermentation temperature to within 1°C. It always amazes the harvest interns. Okay, nothing too out of the ordinary (you always have to keep an extra eye on that feisty Pinotage, as they have a tendency for runaway fermentations if given half the chance).
Next up, the tasks for the day are given out as the small team does a power walk through the cellar.
"Double check that the intake and mash cooler is clean. We are getting white grapes in before the reds today."
"I talked to Dirkie, we are going to have to take all the Huishang Malbec today, those old dryland vineyards are struggling a bit in this heat, so you can get a big fermentation tank ready for us."
On to the cellar floor we go. The pump overs will have to start if everyone wants to get out of here at a reasonable time today. A fermenting tank is like a boiling pot of milk – as soon as you take your eyes off it, it boils over. Balling, pump-over, balling, pump-over, balling and so we go for the next three hours.
It’s 09h00 and the morning pump overs are done. Oh yes! Coffee, the most important drink of the day. If analysed, a spike in coffee sales could probably be seen during harvest time. It takes a lot of coffee to make good wine.
The office people should also have started by now, so Wilhelm can follow up on that urgent bottling that needs to be done. Nothing to throw you off harvest like a last-minute bottling between pressing the new vintage.
Hopefully Abraham, the press guru, will come today, and he was able to source a capacitor for the 40-year-old press. She seems to run fine without it, so who knows what it actually controls, but you never know and as they say… for harvest, you have to wear suspenders and a belt… just in case.
It is lunchtime and 16 tons of grapes have been off loaded. There are a few minutes to sit and check emails while eating some perpetual stew, while trying not to spill any on the keyboard. A new batch of stew will have to made soon, as there is only a handful left frozen in the office freezer.
With the heat today, the startup after lunch is slow, and you cannot blame the harvesting team. Walking outside the cool cellar, you can feel the hot air hit you in the face as it sucks the breath from your lungs. They are going to have to hurry if they want to fill another 10 ton tank before the end of the day.
Time to start up the pumps and get the balling meter out for another round of pump-overs. Pump-over, balling, pump-over, balling and so we go. Again.
You can hear the old fat wheel TW scrambler arrive with the last tractor of grapes for the day. Dirkie is invited into the cellar for a quick taste of the fermenting wines. There is a special treat as the fermenting 1953 Pinotage is tasted. It is going to be a good Pinotage vintage if it starts out like this. Even through the fermentation and characteristic yeast aroma, you get that unmistakable rose musk flavours with a cherry-candy come through, which makes the 1953 Pinotage so unique.
Standing outside discussing tomorrow's harvest plans, the winemaker and viticulturist glance up at the sky as if trying to spy the next few days in the clouds. With the last of the Chenin Blanc harvested, there are no more white grapes coming in and focus can be given to the red grapes. Good thing too, as there are a few menacing clouds, and there are a few millimeters of rain predicted for tomorrow evening.
A glance at his old beater of a cellar watch confirms it's 18h00 as you hear from around a tank someone say, "All clean and ready for tomorrow. We are heading out, see you tomorrow!
It goes quiet in the cellar quickly as the weary bodies of the cellar team shuffle out for the evening. Everybody is looking forward to a hot shower, some food, and a soft bed. Although there were glints in the eyes of some of the younger guys that betray that they are going to hit the town tonight. Let them enjoy it while they have the energy. The cellar will work off their rust quickly enough tomorrow morning.
With just the hum of the cooling running in the background, it's time to tackle some paperwork. The never-ending wrestle with the SAWIS paperwork will probably last another two hours until the numbers start floating over the computer screen.
It is 20h00 and after a last walk-through of the cellar, the doors are locked for the evening.
So ends another day in harvest. And tomorrow we do it all again.
Twenty-six days down and another forty-six to go.