:::::Vines 2 Wine - Wines :::

A noble cultivar, we first planted a vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon in 1977 and our Coop, Wellington Wine Cellar made a fine wine from this and other farmer's grapes.

In 1999 I planted a new vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon on one of my best blocks of ground. Along comes the the first harvest in 2003 harvest and on short notice we made wine with the help of a friend. This came about because I disagreed with the vineyard grading this young harvest received as I was convinced I could make a good wine and prove their judgment wrong.

We selected bunches with "old man face" for higher sugars and put the grapes into cold storage overnight. First thing the next morning we crushed our first grapes in my friend Dan Retief's old historic cellar, into hand waxed open cement tanks. We only added a minimal amount of sulphur to control wild yeast and under cooling we let it cold soak for 36 to 48 hours. Here after the must was inoculated with Anchor NT50 yeast and pushed through by hand. No need to go to the gym when you make the wine yourself, as pushing through the skins during fermentation is jolly hard work. We kept the temperature under 25 degrees C so as to not to loose the complex fruit of Cabernet. As soon as the must was dry we pressed the skins with a pneumatic press and pumped the wine directly into first and second fill barrels, as we had no tank space available. Mallolactic fermentation was completed in the barrels which took quite a few months as the old cellar is rather cold.

The care of the wine soon became a family affair with picnic suppers in the cellar as I did my cellar chores after a days farming and nursery work. Our two children were soon part of the topping up team, to see that the barrels were kept full.