De Wetshof harvest 2025 report
The aroma of young, just fermented Chardonnay wine is hanging over De Wetshof Estate as we prepare for the Easter break, and with the fruits of this year’s vintage showing themselves in energetic young wines, we can now look back on harvest 2025 with the tangible offerings of this vintage before us.
Despite yields being lower as a result of frost damage to the vines in August last year and ripe grape bunches showing berries uneven in size, De Wetshof this year harvested what it deems to be the best quality Chardonnay fruit seen on the estate in recent memory.
Johann de Wet, CEO of De Wetshof, puts this down to the overall health of De Wetshof’s vineyards due to continued excellent viticulture practices, as well as temperate weather conditions leading up to and during harvest 2025.
As the case in many regions in the Cape Winelands, we anticipated a later harvest due to the mild weather experienced during the growing season in spring as well as in early summer. But with the crop being lower in yield, as a result of some frost damage to the budding vines in August, the harvest schedule began as per the norm. Grapes for the Blanc de Blancs Cap Classique were picked on 20 January, with the Chardonnay for De Wetshof’s range of site-specific wines making their first appearance in the cellar on 22 January.
Mild day-time temperatures and cool nights in summer led to vine health being sublime, which was evident in the quality of the grapes arriving in the cellar each morning.
Cool nights during harvest are essential in allowing the vine to recover from the day’s higher temperature and UV radiation, and the consistent brisk temperatures of night resulted in superb grape quality. Grapes were unblemished, rot-free and healthy, and the juice samples showed superb chemistries, with sugars, acidity and pH levels being in synch for the making of wines showing great varietal expression, as well as that sense of place for which De Wetshof Chardonnay is known.
The young wines at this stage underscore the quality of the grapes from this year’s vintage, showing layered fruit, freshness and depth of mouthfeel, and 2025 is set to be a year for truly great wines throughout the De Wetshof range.
This includes a portion of fruit that for the second year on De Wetshof is being fermented and aged in 220 litre glass WineGlobes, the first wine of which will be released in due course as the first South African Chardonnay originating from this unique style of vinification. More about this exciting development later in the year!
Great guns at De Wetshof
While the cellar and vineyard teams were hard at work bringing in this year’s grape harvest, De Wetshof’s tasting room staff had a busy time tending to the flurry of visitors popping in at the estate for a visit. One of the farm’s many points of interest remains the two old cannons, one placed on each side of the main building's entrance. We receive regular queries as to the historical significance of these two cannons.
Well, these guns were part of the arsenal aboard the Reigersdaal, a ship belonging to the Cape Dutch East Indian Company (VOC), who was in command of the Cape from 1652 to 1795 and then again from 1803 to 1806. The Reigersdaal fell in the East Indiaman category of ships, making return voyages from the Netherlands to Asia to trade in spices, cloth and other exotic materials. Built in Amsterdam in 1738, the Reigersdaal made four successful voyages between Europe and the East Indies. It had a length of 44.2, was 12.5 meters wide with a freight capacity of 850 tonnes.
On 31 May 1747, the ship set off from Texel in the Netherlands with a crew of 297 on what turned out to be her last voyage, taking four-and-a-half months to reach Dassen Island on the West Coast some 64km from Table Bay. In Table Bay, the Reigersdaal would have taken-on fresh supplies on her way to the East, the replenishment of VOC ships being the reason the Cape was settled in 1652
Things, however, did not go according to plan – as was the case with so many voyages in those days of the sail ship.
During a heavy storm, and unable to enter Table Bay, the Reigersdaal sank on 25 October 1747 on a rocky point known as Silwerstroom Point, roughly halfway between Cape Town and Dassen Island. Altogether 20 people survived.
Here the ship lay beneath the waves until 1979 when her wreck was discovered by salvage divers Brian Clarke and Tubby Gericke.
The wreck of the Reigersdaal is deemed as one of the most interesting around the Cape because of the rich haul of well-preserved silver coins recovered from the site. Apart from the estimated 20 000 coins, a number of items were salvaged from the wreck site, including six large bronze muzzle-loader cannons and more than eight muzzle-loading swivel guns. These guns were in perfect condition, still mounted in their iron frames, and are probably the best-preserved bronze cannons ever found on the coast of South Africa.
Danie de Wet happened to be a friend of Tubby Gericke, one half of the salvage team who had discovered the Reigersdaal. And knowing Danie’s love of all things historical, Tubby offered two of the cannons to Danie some 35 years ago.
Today, the guns of the Reigersdaal rest on De Wetshof Estate in the heart of the Robertson Wine Valley, remnants of the early history of the Cape.
During your next visit to De Wetshof – and the current season of autumn is a wonderful time to do so – take some time to view these relics of Cape history while enjoying the region’s other great cultural offering, namely a glass or two of our wines. We always look forward to your visit.