The haunting rustle of scorched wine leaves 19 December 2005

Fire is one of the challenges of summer – but it’s mostly hard work, reports Chris Mullineux

It’s the time of year when holidays are on everybody’s mind. Foreign tourists have started arriving in the Cape, and the ‘Vaalies’ and their hard-earned cash are marauding their way down too. Everybody, it seems, is finalising their holiday plans and preparations, but what exactly are wine farmers up to?

It’s fairly obvious that we’ve all been very busy in the vineyards since the beginning of spring. Suckering (removing excess growth) is long complete. It’s important to get this done relatively early, to maintain an open canopy to reduce disease pressure and, with most varieties, help get sunlight into the bunch zone to increase fruit quality and flavor. A second suckering might be necessary in more vigorous vineyards, to remove secondary/lateral shoots that might have grown since the first suckering.

I can’t speak for all regions, but we’ve had constant, and most welcome wind this season. Not too strong, it has helped to keep the canopy dry, and disease free, as well as interfering ever so slightly with flowering. This we regard as a blessing, as bunches that flower and set five to ten per cent less successfully will be that much looser, and more open to sunlight later in the season.

What else? Well, we’ve also been skoffeling (de-weeding) like crazy on the ‘bankies’ to give younger vines time to establish themselves. With older, established vines we don’t worry so much, as competition from other plants forces the vines to send their roots deeper in search of water and nutrients. In between the rows we allow the cover crops to keep growing and ripen their seed. In this way they will come up naturally next autumn. The cover crops are also left to act as mulch, providing refuge for insects, preventing erosion, but also becoming a fire hazard. For this reason we’ve had to cut a lengthy, and expensive firebreak around the farm.

Fire is a real threat, especially in the drier areas. One of the growers we source grapes from lost three hectares of vines to fire last week. One minute there was smoke over the mountains, the next minute his vines were ablaze! No insurance payout can compensate for all the years of dedicated hard work getting vines just right, and it felt surreally voyeuristic to visit the farm and take photos of the grower’s catastrophe. The weirdest thing though was to stand in the vineyard and listen to the scorched leaves rustle in the wind. A haunting sound I’ve never heard before – enough to give me goose bumps! 

At this time, we spend a lot of time inspecting the vineyards where we buy grapes from. It’s vital to visit these vineyards as often as possible to make sure the farmers are up to date with things as we want them, and a lot of time is spent driving from farm to farm through the beautiful Cape. Sightseeing was curbed a bit this week though. Most outlying petrol stations have no diesel!

In the cellar, preparations are being made to have the cellar ready for harvest. Blends are made and prepared for bottling early next year. Bottles and corks are ordered, as well as barrels for next year’s wine. By far my most trying task for me this summer has been sourcing a couple of second-hand white wine barrels for next year’s chenin and viognier. They’re rarer than hen’s teeth, so one really has to call in favours from winemaking friends.

Finally, all work and no play makes for boring winemakers, so we’ve decided to get properly into the Christmas spirit this year. At the farmers’ market in Tulbagh we’re selling organic Christmas trees, sourced from the invader pines on our farm.