Harvest of new beginnings: It's more than a new vintage
Taken on the first day of harvest: the first harvest of our newly planted vineyards.
Chamonix Estate’s 2025 harvest was not only recognised for the exceptional quality of the wine grapes it delivered, but also marked the first pickings from our newly planted vineyards. The estate underwent a replanting of most of its vineyards in 2022 and 2023, and this year, harvesting the first grapes from the new vines, and now the first wine from these energetically youthful vineyards has been bottled and is ready for the market.
The wine is the Chamonix Sauvignon Blanc 2025 made from newly planted vines on clay soils at 450m above sea-level, the altitude and the cool clay soils being part of a distinctive terroir ideal for Sauvignon Blanc, which shows in a wine of refined excellence.
To allow this visceral expression of site, winemaker Neil Bruwer believes in keeping things simple to allow optimal fruit purity in the final wine. After picking, grapes are sorted to remove berries of lesser quality, and then whole-bunch pressing is done to extract only the finest, unfettered juice. The juice is fermented at cool temperatures in stainless steel tanks, where the wine spends three months drawing the full spectrum of fruit flavours and a beguiling structure from the lees.
The result is Sauvignon Blanc bearing the fingerprint of Chamonix’s unique mountain terroir. A classic flinty, mineral note leads to bright, vivid fruit-flavours including those of gooseberry, winter melon and ripe citrus peel, all riding the fresh, cool wave that makes Sauvignon Blanc one of the world’s most popular wines.
Chamonix Sauvignon Blanc 2025 is also our first Sauvignon Blanc to appear in the renewed fresh and vivid packaging, and together with the quality of this wine, it is a true pleasure to present the fruits from our new vineyards to the consumers.
In the vineyards
The mountain vineyards of Chamonix, usually a place of majestic space and complete natural silence, are currently alive with the metallic sounds of secateurs manned by the vineyard teams responsible for pruning our vineyards. This vital part of the management of the vineyard cycle is done in winter, and this year we began pruning slightly later than usual as winter was slow to arrive.
Pruning is a crucial practice in vineyard management, integral to maintaining the health, productivity, and quality of grapevines. Pruning helps control the size and shape of the vine, ensuring that it fits the specific trellis system and spacing used in the vineyard. Proper shaping allows for better air circulation and light penetration, which are vital for healthy grape development and disease prevention.
Secondly, by removing excess growth, pruning helps balance the vegetative and reproductive growth of the vine. This balance is important because overgrown vines can produce too much foliage, which shades the grape clusters and can lead to uneven ripening and poor fruit quality.
And, it is all about the wine – pruning influences the quantity and quality of the grape yield. By strategically removing unnecessary shoots and leaving only the most productive canes, vineyard managers can enhance grape quality. This selective cutting encourages the vine to allocate more resources to fewer grape clusters, resulting in larger, more flavourful berries.
What’s more, a well-pruned vineyard is easier to maintain and harvest. It facilitates other vineyard operations such as spraying, weeding, and picking, which can be implemented more effectively when vines are neat and orderly.
The pruned vines will now fall into a deep winter slumber, and before you know it, the first green shoots of growth will appear in September, heralding the new growth season. This plant that gives us wine is, truly, a magical thing.
Wine and dine with Neil Bruwer
Besides our range of award-winning wines, Chamonix Estate is also home to Arkeste Restaurant which has a reputation as one of Franschhoek’s leading restaurants. This says a lot, as the town of Huguenots is also known as South Africa’s gourmet capital.
The partnership between the culinary excellence of Arkeste and the range of Chamonix’s wines will take centre-stage on the evening of Friday 19 September 2025 when our winemaker Neil Bruwer hosts a winemaker’s dinner in the restaurant. While Arkeste chef Ashwin Johannes presents a delectable three-course dinner, Neil will select a wine for each dish, offering an informative presentation of his selection as well as the story behind the growing and making of each wine.
Spaces are limited, bookings required.
Click HERE to book your spot.
Winemaker Neil Bruwer and assistant winemaker Gerné van Zyl.
What our winemaker is drinking
Neil reckons every day is a good day for Pinot Noir, but there is something about the frigid grey months of a Cape winter that brings something magical from this noble Burgundian variety to the fore.
“I am enjoying the Chamonix Pinot Noir Reserve 2018 at the moment, a wine showing why Pinot Noir is such a seductive and multi-faceted grape variety,” says Neil. “After seven years’ maturation, this wine expresses the tertiary nuances for which it is so well-known. The core of bright fruit is still present as the wine enters the palate, but then those amazing flavours of forest-floor and mushroom appear, features of a fine Pinot Noir. The wine is in excellent condition and will offer pleasure for the next 10 to 15 years, and I can’t wait to see how it gracefully ages to further brilliance. Most important is that this wine from vintage 2018 underscores the fact that Pinot Noir has truly found a home on Chamonix, which bodes well for the future.”