Just completed the 12th day of the bubbly grape harvest, which started very peacefully - like a bubbly cork gently popping open - until this past week. The last week of January - Oh, my what a BANG! This is the busiest harvest week in 23 years of harvesting at Graham Beck. Load after load after load after load.. and then just a little more and more…. I think by now we have seen our fair share of grapes that is destined for our base wines - but you won’t believe it there is more from where it comes! Just for interest - a week ago we had 14 different components of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the cellar and we now currently stand on 58 components. What a team I have! Guys and Girls you have been amazing… Thank you all for making such a huge effort to work through the ‘mountain’ of grapes. We have had a few visitors during this busy period but it all seems to pay off for us. We had a few wine and life style journalists, visiting to experience the feel of harvest with us. From vine to juice to the glass (or few) was enjoyed by them all. We have entered our last week of harvest Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for our MCC’s. There is a healthy crop out there and slow but surely our tanks are filling up fast. The whole cellar smells great with all the fermentations going on. The air smells like white blossoms, yellow fruits and red berry flavours... real abundance of magic aromas. Our team is holding strong. A big thank you again to all and a special thanks to Julie (better half of Pierre…hehe – sorry Pierre) for making ‘dinner’ for all of us every evening so far. It is truly appreciated by all. We still await your magical braai-boordjies! If you recall the first few days of harvest - the intake graph looked pretty normal but you will understand where the theory comes in from POP to BANG! It remains me of Harvest 2000 which had the same trend…….. but it goes with the saying … “you got to do what you got to do” As you can see it is all still Chardonnay and Pinot Noir all destined to our delightful MCC range. Efficiency of a 105 Tons per day all 100% whole bunch and I would say quite remarkable. I know that everyone loves pictures and maybe the next newsletter will be a collage and it is difficult to always only use a few pictures…. I don’t want anyone to feel that they are missed during all the action of harvest Lookout for more information soon.