Du Toitskloof Newsletter - March 2013

Tuesday, 26 March, 2013
Du Toitskloof Wines
Surprise, surprise!
And there I was, thinking life might be ever so slightly easier this vintage compared to last year's, as our careful preliminary estimates indicated we would be pressing close to as much as 1 000 tons less. Not exactly!. As the grapes started coming in we constantly had to review our estimates upwards to where we now expect the harvest to be very close to last year's record intake of 16 400 tons.
At the time of writing we have received about 60% of the crop and already we have to plan very carefully into which tanks the young wines will go so that there is enough space for what is still to come. The present in flow of grapes at up to 450 tons per day is straining our capacity to the utmost for it is at the upper limit of what the cellar can handle. The exhaustion is visible on all the faces around me.

At the same time there is also a sense of exhilaration as daily we see how well theyoung wines are developing in the tanks. There is no doubt in my mind that we shall seewines, especially among the whites, that compare very well with those of the previousvintage. The Chenin blanc and Sauvignon blanc in particular are looking very good. Bythe way, you will recall we don’t rush to market any more with our Sauvignon blanc as weused to a few years ago when some prestige attached to getting your wine to consumersfi rst. We now take our time and lavish all the care we can on our Sauvignon blanc which issuch an important wine in our portfolio. We saw the benefi t we derive from doing that lastyear when our 2012 vintage ended up amongst the Top Ten Sauvignon blancs producedin this country.

Although the pace at present is still so hectic, we do expect the daily deliveries to start slowing down soon with the last load coming in on or about 26 April which is late for our part of the world. The days are getting cooler – and decidedly shorter! – and that is slowing down the ripening process which is good for flavor concentration.