FIRST SNOW??

The winter seems to be setting in slowly.  Hopefully the first snow will fall this weekend.  Warming our hearts will be the Super14 final in Orlando though.  If the Stormers pulls this one off it will be coffee at Handelshuis on Sunday morning. 
Most of our trees and vines that we want to replace is now removed.  Just waiting for the big machines for soil preparation.  We also going to heighten the one damwall.  With the additional addition of 2,9 metres we will add another 11 000 kubic metres to this one dam.  This volume of water would be enough to irrigate the 12 extra ha assigned to the dam by extra irrigation system added.  This will bring the land under drip / micro irrigation to 90% of our irrigatable land.
Next week we will be filtering the Shiraz,  Muscadel and Ruby Port.  The bottles will also be brought in from the suppliers and hopefully the first bottling will start in June. 
The Shiraz is really looking good.  It does have an alcohol of about 16,5% but it is in full balance with an extract of around 40.  The Muscadel is busy being protein stabilized and this do take time.  We also have a real sweet ruby port for the winter.  Very much in the portuguese style.  While on the subject.  The SAPPA (SA Port producers association) is now busy taking stance against the EU after they refused to pay the 15 milj Euro for us after we changed the name from Port to Cape.  We are now not going to change the naming locally but still going to use the name Cape with exports.  This change should have happened in 2012. 

PREPARATION FOR NEW PLANTINGS

We started to take out the old vineyards and orchards to make place for the new plantings.  We are taking out old Palomino wine grape cultivar,  Hanepoot as well as Bullida apricot orchard.  The new plantings will consists of Chenin blanc,  Colombard and apricot cultivar Super Gold. 
Our area planted will grow by 2 ha.  This keeping up planning to enlarge the planting area to 60 ha over the next 5 years.  This falling in place with the idea of getting production up and the overheads lower.

Koos Kombuis in Calitzdorp!!

Ja Koos was in Dorpshuis in Calitzdorp.  Certainly a must see.  This was a very nice surprise for us here who missed most  of the KKNK.  I still think this must have been the best of the whole festival.  We also had a show of Stef Kruger added as a bonus. 
April and May is usually the clean up months.  The preparation for new plantings is also done.  We will take out about 2 ha of mostly apricots but also a small bit of Hanepoot.  The plantings consists of apricots (Super Gold cultivar) and wine grapes (Chenin blanc and Colombar). 
The new developement will make it possible for us to enlarge our production area but also expand our irrigation to the old family farm,  Herminashof.  This means that more than 90 percent of our farm will be able to be irrigated via drippers or micro irrigation.   Certainly great for a dry arid region like Calitzdorp.
We also planning to enlarge on of our irrigation dams.  This means that our total irrigation system will become four different units.  We are looking at a smaller little project which will use another dam which we have to enlarge which will bring our total usable dams to 7.
Well this week we will flood irrigate our last time this season and still no rain.  Calitzdorp certainly needs a very cold and wet winter.

WINEMAKING WEEKEND

During the weekend of the 19 to 21 February Withoek presented a winemaking weekend.  The organizer was Zelma of the local skills centre Kairos.  We hosted four guests which enjoyed this informative wine making weekend.

We started off the weekend with a wine tasting which showed the different styles of fortified wines.  Which was followed by a excellent braai. 

At 6 the next morning the grape picking started and it actually took a bit longer than expected.   The crushing followed.  After breakfast the additions were done as well as the punch through on the port style wine.  The guests had the afternoon off and this was enjoyed keeping out of the Calitzdorp sun which was a bit severe during February.

During the late afternoon the pressing of the port style wine skins was managed and all took part.  The fortifications was done tipical port style at 11.30 on Saturday evening. 

On the Sunday morning  the guests had to do the pressing of the Muskadel Jerepico skins after which the immediate fortification happened. 

The weekend was finished by a lovely breakfast at the Zelmas beautiful bale venue.  We allready have people being interested in next years wine weekend and we will let you know what, where and when.

Thanks to Zelma and Razel for all the trouble,  advertising,  cooking and support during this maiden adventure into the winemaking world.

So far so good

Did not have always have time to update my blog the last month.  Harvest sort of keep you out of contact with the information highway. 
The harvest was a good one.  The drier weather really helped to keep everything healthy.  Apricots was a very good harvest with a nearly 70% better yield.  Not bad.  After the record harvest of the peaches last year I sort of expect a drop in yield but it still surprised me with a average of 35 tons per ha. 
The grapes is still a mistery for me.  It at this stage looks like very much the same as last year.

HARVEST!!

We started with harvest seriously this week. We allready past last years sales on the plums to the fresh markets.  The apricots seems to be slower and their seems to be a lot of uneven ripeness.  We also started to dry some apricots and so far the results looks promising. 

The veld is a  bit dry and we certainly needs some rain in the nearby future otherwise their might be problems. 

Our vines are healthy and our spray program seems to be on target.  Hopeful another big havest lies ahead.

Last weekend we had a Geyser family weekend in Nystroom (Mollimole??).  The wines of Withoek was well received and we were sold out within a few hours.  It was a very enjoyable weekend although my youngest son made it a bit difficult in the evenings.  Our new range - the Geyser range (375ml) tawny Port was a definate hit.  It seems as if the whole packaging is a big drawing card.
We also started picking plums and apricots this week.  The quality looks good and I think we were very fortunate with the hail not damaging our fruit as bad as some of our neighbours products.  We dried fruit will also start tomorrow. 
We had Chrissie's birthday party last night at the tasting room.  Sundowners turned out to happen till 10 in the evening in Calitzdorp.  Very enjoyable.    Stunning evening with great people - what more do you want.  Coffee at Handelshuis this morning was a must to get the balance right.
Also worked with Alex Fick on Tuesday morning.  Tasting the Shiraz and Port in the barrels.  Ficks wine and port is a promising fruit bomb.  As it is young wines it over provide in the strawberry, rasberry and plum departments.  Very nice drinks.  My own products also looks well balanced and complex.  The port that turns out to be a fine sample of the ruby style still shows the traditional port flavour complexes with a smooth finish.  The Shiraz is a forcefull one.  The same block was used in Calitzdorp cellars blend that gold in the SA Young wine show.  The vineyard definately is starting to mature.  Exciting times

Hope to see you soon in Calitzdorp