Lismore Estate Vineyards

Harvest 2009 is almost over.

2009-04-18T21:15:00.002+02:00

Harvest 2009 is almost over. Everything is in the barrel except for 2 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon from another Greyton farm, Oewerzicht.

Well, this vintage was definitely the payoff for a lot of hard work and suffering. Much has been sacrificed and lost. But the 2009 Lismore wines will mark the beginning of an era. The grape quality was amazing on young vines that have finally settled in. The Chardonnay and Viognier should present what we now know are classic hallmarks of Lismore terrior and the Syrah is showing maturity and complexity even as it is going through MLF. It is distinctively Rhone in character with leather, black pepper and tobacco already predominating the aromas coming from the newly filled barrels.

And all will be labeled Wine of Origin Greyton!

For those of you who are loyal fans of this blog because of the charismatic and talented Jake, I am very sad to say that Jake has chosen to leave Lismore and it will be only me, Sam, who will be posting updates from time to time. I assure you they will not all be as melancholy as this one.

Keenan, Quinn and I are working hard to make sure that spirits are strong, the wine is delicious and that life remains beautiful and full of adventure.

Until next time…
Sam

ISSSH MARSHH

2008-03-03T06:45:00.003+02:00

Yes, you read the header correctly...we are tired...not tipsy or wasted, tired.

We have two boys, 2 and 5 (Quinn and Keenan). They did not like sleep for their first year. Not much on it since then either...in fact we like to think they're in Astronaut training to simulate multi-day space work...its really the only way we can reconcile their lack of sleep and never ending energy. But, to this crush, we'd really like to understand how we're not allowed to wake them up at 4:45 when Jake has to go to work and not have a mid-day nap...which we thankfully allow them both to accomplish if their meta-energy runs out (no sugar in those little bodies just BOY-Energy!).

AICH! I'll just have another cuppa coffee and get through another marvellous day! Stunningly cold last night though yesterday was quite warm (30C). The sugars on the Chard are still low in the 22.9, 23.4 range. We're picking around today to try to find the best fruit possible.

The basket press went in the can on Friday evening. All the gaskets and seals decided that now was the best time to stop functioning...so they exploded. We spent Saturday driving to and fro to meet Peter Peck from CDS (love him for taking so much of his time to help us through this moment) and collect 2 litres of food grade oil for the press. It was a clear liquid that had no odor and no taste (yes it was tasted...maybe gross but come on if it sneaks into the wine we've got to know what it tastes like).

Come Sunday the 2nd. ANDY MITCHELL TO THE RESCUE!!!! Andy Mitchell (sans his lovely wife, Vicki) came through on Sunday with the bladder for his 1.2 ton stainless tank, his destemmer, his expertise (surely with the sorting of the grapes inside the tank, after a free run of three hours, counts as an artistic endeavour) and his patience. He stood on the balcony sorting grapes while Ralph passed lugs to Rowan, who lifted the 20kg boxes over his head to me on the ladder, where Jake accomplished the "clean & jerk" with each lug, to John who hoisted them across the railing and into the de-stemmer. In truth is was a good workout. Fun and interesting for all of us...well not for Ralph's hands but fun for the rest of us.

But we're off to pick block 11 now and though feeling fatigue in the back of my sensory memory we're fond enough of coffee and anti-inflamatory drugs to allow for a bit of the work work work...

"High ho high ho its off to work I go..."

lovelovelove,

Sam & Jake

ps. Almost gone...out therer en sheshe vineshe...

"...all you need is love..."

2008-02-29T04:46:00.004+02:00

So sayeth the Beatles.

In fact all you really need is, ok they were undoubtedly correct, love.

(Trumpets in your head please)

The vine bareth (is it bearith, or beareth...oh well go get a dictionary I suppose) fruit.

Too much; maybe.

We delivered to a wonderful winemaker and incredibly stylish cool cat Mr Kevin Grant on Tuesday. No fanfare but heaps of love. The sugars were higher than we thought but the flavours were subtle and clean.

Wednesday Jake was locked in a car and had no way out of it except to endure and chase down electricians, alan-keys (not the politician), great beans (from Origin coffee), great bread from Kalk Bay and a fun but hard to reach real estate agent in Muizenberg.

Yesterday, Thursday, we picked Chardonnay for Lismore. Estate wine we say. Single vineyard if we'd like (not feasible at present). The fruit was WOW likeohmygodwhatflava kind of WOW!

The amout is the troubling thing. The 1/2 ton basket press is maxed out and the teams helping are equally maxed out. Two cycles of rotating heads turning the screw and the tyres to fetch as many tons as possible in a day (we're maxing out at 2.3 tons...which means we're picking for the next five days solid). Sleep is on q and if you miss your glimmer of sleep...oh well. BACK TO THE LOVE!

By the way the pectolytic (the correct spelling of this word will remain a mystery until re-use of the bag sometime in July) enzyme we use to settle the juice and soften the grapes is amazing. Last season we obtained 600 litres of juice per ton of grapes. This season we're into a whopping 680 litres per ton. Yes 80 litres to the good my chyna! Not a lot, but if you calculate that each litre brings in...oh, not supposed to tell that one...suffice to say we're better off with the 80 in our pocket than waiting for it to magically appear from the bush.

Life goes on...no matter the song...

"...love love love..."

Its all you need.

Jake & Sam

ps. Bye I'm gone...sleep...Sam is on the night shift on the press...

Happy Holidays

2007-12-25T10:52:00.000+02:00

Oh, after a wine sopping good time over the modern Latin based pagan ritualised consumer holiday that we experience in summer it was time for a bit of the ole DE-TOX.

Here's the farm score card:

to January 15th...Vines - Excellent growth...Lovely grape set...Chardonnay looking stunning (again)...Sauvignon Blanc (for Kevin) still in the pea stage,
Apples - Great color and good fruit set in the Golden Delicious...Royal Gala are yummy...And the Pink Lady's are off to the juicers because of the fungal rot due to the HUGE rain in November;

Feb 1st...Vines - Fantastic growth in the Chard (5 tons a Hectare min) with Balling at 17.7 yesterday...Sauvignon Blanc is sitting with 9 tons and a balling of 13.5 grass green...Viognier is to quote two separate winemakers (the labels sound like "Sataraxea" "Aumabridge") "Bloody beautiful"...Syrah hasn't fully started verasion yet but looking at 3 to 4 tons a Ha.
Apples - Ready to pick on Wednesday the Royal and Golden's.

Baboons, Buck and Birds - We bought 7 Meerkats (now called Eagle Eye's legally) to dissuade the birds from entering the vines...they work alright...Installing first Mirror ball in the Big block on Monday...and now have a source for a 2 meter diameter mirror ball for the Cab Franc! If they don't run from that damn thing they'll at least take a while to learn to s(h)it on it.

Holidays are flippen over and though I could use a nice glass of wine I'm trying to clear my palate to give it the greatest chance of harvesting the best grapes.

Besides, at the end of the day I'm really only waiting for the paradise stage in the viognier when I can sip a glass of perfection once a day for a month.

Love,

Jake

"TIIIIIIIME IS ON MY SIDE"

2007-12-12T07:19:00.000+02:00

Is it?

Does time exist?

Well in some instances time may well exist as a construct of our changing seasons and the global climate change. Winter rainfall area 15 years ago to summer rainfall area now.

Why I haven't written in so long is complex and disturbing. Disturbing because I was near to my computer but unable to write. And, complex, because I have been interacting with the weather (read, "standing in the middle of a river waving a plastic napkin at a flood...no, seriously, I've been wet with no hope of the concept of dry").

Ok. Lets travel back in time...you imagine funny music playing and I'll see Wayne and Garth waving their hands and singing...here we go... its the end (my typically late posting time) of November (20th of) 2007. Samantha goes to Cape Town to meet with accountants. I stay on the farm to handle the weeds and continue pruning vines and apples. Tuesday afternoon it starts to rain. Rain at this time of year is usually interesting but not overly harmful or damaging...hail sometimes happens in the valley areas but normally we have none of the damage associated with heavy spring rainfall.

It rains.

It rains. And, it rains.

Then funny thing is, it rains more.

And more.

Then, from out of the blue, it rains harder.

We're both imagining real rain. The kind of rain one would associate with South East Asia.

Then, it rains with real intent. We're talking about raining on a tin roof with a vibrancy more commonly associated with a drunk composer playing a harp (think Japanese modern musica Art and engage John Cage's maxim that "all noise is music, unless you don't like it and then it simply becomes noise for you").

Are you doing this...ok...now turn up the volume to pre 1990's Van Halen rock concert level and you'll begin to understand the increased level of "music" the heavens were releasing.

Typically we've all had this sort of "wow its raining very hard" moment and then feel like a twit for having thought that phrase, because, really, its only rain.

Then it didn't stop raining all night.

Wednesday morning. Same rain. Maybe harder, but never less. Checked the rain gauge. Full. dumped it...two hours later...full again...three hours later...full again...

That was 300+ mm of rain in +/- 20 hours (6pm Tuesday Afternoon to 2pm Wednesday).

I stopped checking the gauge and started moving around the farm to see if I still had access to the dam, the roads, the vines and the apples. The Pump at our small river is far from the water. The roads are fine. The Dam is filling. In general things are ok for having received so much rain so fast...By The Way, have I mentioned that the rain does not stop at any point during this entire "check the farm" period. It's now four in the afternoon and it rains a little less. I take the kids for a walk and we all are soaked through before we arrive at the dam (less than 100 mtrs away). I abandon all hope of stopping them from getting too wet and engage the puddles and rain with as much joy as they do...I should have taken it more seriously.

We return to the house and only just in time as the heavens open up, again.

I don't really sleep. I toss and turn all night. I forget about the rain gauge. And think only about the vines, the apples and the pump.

Thursday morning. Still raining.

Take the pick-up for a spin in the mud. Get it firmly locked into a donga of note. Tractor will get it out in a day.

Pump still there but water is rising fast and I no longer have a way of removing it. I walk to the end of the farm. The creek/river level has risen substantially. It now spans 25 meters. And, is moving at about 100,000 liters a second (this amount is measured by multiplying width, depth, 1 meter distance, and counting to ten...). The main "Without End" river is higher than the highest point ever recorded. the surge of water has created an island of our area. We remain "cut off" from the rest of the country and are accessable only by helicopter. Since Wednesday we'd been cut off from everyone else. The bridge outside of Greyton (built to withstand a 300 year flood) is made into an island. A mate of ours, Brent Cadle, takes a phone vid of a 50' Oak tree speeding merrily down a full flood river at about 30mph. In Greyton, houses (and silly bowling green inanity) get flooded and washed clean with a scouring layer of mud.

It starts to rain a little more at the house, but not on the main road. One neighbour has 35 hectare under 2 meters of water. Another has 16 hectare under a meter of water. Yet another still, has lost 1200 sheep and will have to sell their farm. One's tourist area on the riverside is washed away and he cannot spray his apples on the hillsides for all the sliding the tractors are doing.

My apples have a river running under them. A thin sheet of water that unless you're standing in it you cannot see. the water table under the trees has risen to 3 cm from the surface. Puncture it and you sink two meters deep. Jump on the ground and it moves in waves like a stone in a pond. Trees rise and fall like high wire artists on terra firma. I go back to the house.

The small house has a thin layer of mud on the floor.

The pump...well I forgot about the pump. Good thing, too.

Friday morning.

Sam drives back to within a kilometer of the house. We dislodge the bakkie. We see our pump gone...just a broken pipe leading to a deep pool of water where there used to be a weir of sorts. The river is still in full flood (well full flood as per last year's 100 year flood) a day after the rain stopped.

Saturday. I tried to spray the apples. Got one tractor stuck in the mud. Got a neighbours Huge tractor stuck in the mud. Then we got his bulldozer stuck. (Its still there December 18th, 2007.)

That night I was late to a wine tasting and dinner because of the tractors and bulldozer. Somehow wine schmoozing was not high on my list of "things to do". But, the Oak n Vigne being the fantastic venue it is, put on a great wine tasting and I was one of, an albeit extremely late, full house of sozzled personages. Was a great cap to a rough week. Sam of course was the belle of the ball and WOW'd the crowd with her passion and knowledge.

Then, just for fun, it rained two days later and freaked everyone out but good.

Love,

Jake

P.S. The vines are fine. The apples are...covered in russett/fusciladium. Motto from all the farmers in the valley...plant on the hillsides. This area is officially, now, a summer rainfall area, per the department of agriculture...and we're only 2 hours from Cape Town, which is a winter rainfall area. I love "the global warming"...NOT!

Summer-time summer-time summ summ summe...oh, wait...still winter? Snow in October.

2007-10-08T13:02:00.000+02:00

SNOW.

An old Greytonian (not at all like an old Etonian in any way other than they both do a bit too much of the arm wagging Anglican thing which was so superbly illustrated by Eddie Izzard) told me, last May, that Greyton is likely to have snow in any month of the year but never in more than three in one year.

2007...May, June, July, August, September, October...that makes six. It has been a cold, colder and one of the coldest winters. Not wet like the rest of the Southern Cape, just cold.

The big "bummer" is the length of the Chardonnay shoots. The size of the newly formed bunches. What does cold do to new growth. Shorten the nodal lengths. Cause the basil buds to move backwards. Decrease harvest in the coming years.

The growth cycle for this season may be completely wonky after all the money spent on the nasty wee bud-break chemicals. All of the work may well fall afoul of this cold spring. No Frost, but snow...which properties do snow and frost share…hmmm...water...cold...tenacity...stick-to-itive-ness...lets just cross our fingers and hope for the...no...no hoping...Call the chemical rep and the viticultural genius...Andrew Teubes.

Time’s wasting.

More soon...

with, love,

Jake

Spring. Chardonnay shoots at 20 cm.

2007-09-21T16:29:00.000+02:00

There were moments this winter when I thought I'd lost every vine.

A wild Scotsman on the west coast told me that for his first eight seasons he was sure he'd killed everything each winter. Then he planted another 30 Ha on a different farm and went through the same process for another five years.

Our god-send of a viticulturalist Mr. A. Teubes (for now we call him "King of All Vines") laughs at me each July when I call him because I'm sure I've got woolly buds when I should be spraying bud break...he then tells me to relax and I send him a cell phone pic of the buds...then he laughs and tell me to wait another two weeks before spraying...he's been right for four years. But what did I do this year, I panicked for two weeks.

In a way we panic from just prior to bud burst, into the flowering, into the fruit set, the green drop, the rising sugar levels and in truth through the length and breadth of the whole season…until well into winter.

So why do we do this silly madness? Is it fun? Is it wonderful to live so close to the land? We love Baboons? Flocks of thousands of red wing starlings make my heart soar? I enjoy 2am to 4am for strolling around the house and re-filing my cd collection? I like watching “The Dirty Dozen”, again (I’m currently on viewing number 247)?

We "do this" madness for many reasons mostly though we're proud to give something back to the world that has no additives and cannot be made in a Chinese factory and really, THE WINE IS SO GOOD. We "do this" simply and plainly, for the wine.

It is about the place. It is about the climate. It is about the vine. Mostly though, its about those little grape bunches. Perfect and un-irrigated. The soil and sunlight transformed into wine.

With that,

I'm off to have a glass of 2006 summer-time sunlight.

Love,

Jake

We're pruning, getting ready to bottle, selling stock, cleaning babies tukii (plural of tukus)...

2007-08-09T12:08:00.000+02:00

Teddy Roosevelt said, "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

Planting vines, growing grapes, wine-making and wine maturation all follow those lines so closely that to distinguish a "made" wine from a picked wine is harder and harder to do...

Pick the ultimate Viognier and watch as the barrel spoils the party. Pick Shiraz too early and taste the weedy green tannins in the un-fermented juice. Pick a red too late and force yourself to re-hydrate so your alcohol levels match industry norms. Plant Chardonnay in the wind and watch as your whole crop flies away in the first big October wind. Success though is elusive and dangerous.

Elusive because everyone in the industry is shooting for the same magic. Dangerous because then you must recreate the magical situation that you encountered in the year you last made the wine.

So better still to make different wines every year. Make 42 different labels of wine and hide in the anonymity of the multitude of different styles and varietals. Why make two or four wines. Why subject yourself to the scrutiny of the one land one wine terrior test.

We tried and succeeded with the Chardonnay. This year we're coaxing the barrels and playing wonderful music to eek out the same flavours and layers that the 2006 Chardonnay is showing. The Viognier is ready to bottle and we're starting to worry that its going to go through a late malo conversion and loose the wonderful flavours and acids its currently showing. the Shiraz needs to be racked off the malo lees and moved into the Anwilka barrels (hopefully the high Parker points will rub off), etc.,.

In short, we've chosen to dare the difficult path; furthermore, though we may fail, our intention is greatness and wild success. And with hope, the failures will be as majestic and inspirational as the overwhelming successes.

Love,

Jake

We're all equal under the rain...

2007-06-17T13:41:00.000+02:00

Winter jest done come ‘bout a month too soon...

Seriously though, May was freakishly cold and the contrasting temps of 6C during the day and below zero at night contributed to a dusting of a fair bit of snow on our mountains.

Then we had a mad rush to protect our glorious Chardonnay vines as they sprouted green tips last week when temps reached 14C...

hmmm just a few months early...then we received a fair bit of sub 3C weather and well that was that with the errant green tips.

We're madly trying to get our bottom cottage fixed for visitors by next season.

We're casting out our net to bring in pickers/capable hands to help with our next harvest...we'll see what time brings.

FYI!!!!! (loud drum roll)

The 2006 Lismore Estate Vineyards Chardonnay is officially available for purchase!

We sold our first bottle last Thursday and though it was to another winemaker a sale is a sale is a sale. We have 900 bottles of fantastic chardonnay that could win every prize in its category but we simply haven't got enough to submit. Several "in the know" wine “fundi” types were full of praise for our maiden vintage (even though the grapes were bought in from Klein Constantia). We continue to know that quality has no "team" in the word, only team has team, and yes an "i" is in quality; but it's only a matter of taste.

So taste our quality Chardonnay asap... cause its going quickly.

Much love to all of you out there,

J.

2007 CRUSH IS IN WOOD

2007-04-14T09:51:00.000+02:00

We're wrapping up another season.

2007 is sitting in wood or fermenting through malolactic in stainless.

The Jumbo bins are clean. The small lug crates are clean and stacked.

The vines have gotten their copper spray, the diathane and the fertilisers they require after this hot year.

The blocks have all been ploughed and we're seeding today the 12th of April, 2007. We've had ten days of downright cold conditions (2 degrees C at night and 17-18 C during the day), and three to four days of really decent rain...perfect for germinating a winter grain crop (this year we're sowing rye grass).

The Syrah from the bottom block is the standout so far. Well the Viognier is head and shoulders in front of most of the other wines, but it’s the house favourite. The Cabernet Sauvignon from the valley is rich and filled with really wonderfully ripe fruit. The top blocks of Syrah will need more wood time and might be perfect for a 92 from Parker.

The Chardonnay is dry. It's got a high acid level so we're pushing for it to go through malolactic conversion as soon as possible (though this mostly involves coercion through conversation which is often very difficult as the yeasts are finished goofing off in the barrels). We're stirring the lees, coaxing the yeasts, chatting up the lactic acids and in general halting all personal consumption of all wine. Four months of tasting, tasting, tasting and more tasting can drive your gut to expansion and your mind to distraction.

For now we're happy and our wines are resting.

More soon.

Love,

All of us.

You wanna some red wine, Yeah?

2007-03-16T09:45:00.000+02:00

It has begun!

Last year we made wine by hand with Samantha's visiting parents Ada & George who sat and stood in front of 800 litre Jumbo Bins and stripped 610kg of grapes off of their stems.

Sound easy...I think not.

It's like learning to compose Trois Gymnopedes I with a Kazoo. Realistically, it takes over 30 minutes to strip one lug box filled with black and purple grapes (that really resemble ticks in the wrong light). And, you've got to fill each Jumbo Bin with a minimum of 33 lugs full of grapes. Do the math... 30min per lug times 33 plus one hour for lunch plus 30min lost to pee breaks plus another 30min lost to sending the empty lugs and stems to the empty jumbo bins outside (to be eaten by the Baboons later)...

...that equals (ok the square of the hypotenuse divided by the sum E as E=energy spent over time, divided by some silly term denoting honest hopes and desires of finishing before mid-night and that makes) = 18 hours/per Jumbo Bin...give or take bad math.

It takes for-flippen-ever to get one jumbo bin ready with grapes. The top photo, by the way, is from the early part of the day. At the end of the day I'd given up stripping for topping up the barrels and taking the Balling samples. Sam was crushed under the collective weight of Keenan, Quinn and Jessica all demanding her time "NOW!" Then she had the audacity to try and help even though there was no chance in hell of Ralph letting anyone interrupt his rhythm.

John and Jullian both quit the following day.

This work is not for the faint of heart or the timid of soul...it is the work of Giants.

And, thankfully, the wine reflects the greatness of the participants.

Next year we're going to borrow someone's grape de-stemmer. That way Sam and I can do the work by ourselves...

...and Ralph can just press the button.

Love,

J.

Paradise

2007-03-08T15:29:00.000+02:00

Ok. We lost tons of chardonnay to animals and a small first harvest. Fine.

But we did harvest some chardy...and a bit of viognier.

They are all quietly (and not so quietly) fermenting in wood as I write this. Every day one of us has to go downstairs and test the balling (the amount of solids in the juice directly related to sugars - either fructose or glucose) of the wine. This is a time consuming process but always rewarding and fun. The rewarding bit is that we have an olifactory and taste knowledge of our wine that goes far beyond the end result (we do take notes and refer to them prior to meeting important people).

The fun bit is that although the wine at this point might seem to be "not ready for tasting", it is however, at its most expressive. Emile Peynaud described this period as "Paradise". He's not far off the mark. Jancise Robinson has said that this period is the one in which most winemakers refuse to allow tastings because they are tasting so much already.

I must agree wth both sentiments...you cannot have any because we've had all there is to taste. And, it's so good I don't think your mind could handle it properly and you might just explode from joy after tasting it.

In fact I'll only let another winemaker taste mine after they let me taste theirs...selfish, not at all.

Look, this is just one of those things you're going to have to luck into...but, not now, with ours... so enjoy the photos...an just understand that the smile on my face is from a special joy the wine is giving.

Love,

J

ps. I'll let you taste a touch if you visit...but only a touch.

Another weekend, another baboon...

2007-03-05T14:22:00.000+02:00

Sunday March 4, 2007; Lismore main road.

Keenan, Quinn and I were car bound returning home from Greyton giving Sam an unusually long relaxation period sans our madness; whereupon arriving near the bottom house, we spied two huge male Baboons strutting from under the trees next to the lower dam. On their way towards the few remaining Syrah grapes.

These were not your run-of-the-mill Mutual of Omaha Baboons, but a pair of huge mating alpha-males with testicles the size of grapefruits and canines larger than any African lion. Their silver manes would have given the Tsavo East Lions quite a fright. On all fours they stood as high as my unburdened gut. So, imagine my glee when Keenan yelled, "Daddy Baboons, lets get 'em!" He's four. Not much for the "wrestle with reality whilst sitting in the bumper seat from Grandma Ada" but, he's big on watching daddy in action. Dad, mildly nervous and not wanting to lose any more grapes to our primate neighbours, said, "That's right Keenan, let's get 'em".

I revved the engine, set the palm on the horn and with our windows down rode screaming bloody murder into the thick of both of these males.

The car worked its magic.

I doubt very seriously if they even heard Keenan and I screaming our guts out. One of the males made for the hillsides opposite our dam while the bigger of the two loped up into some African Beefwoods.

The Beefwood stand about three feet apart and number roughly twenty. They're approximately 25 feet tall. We continued chasing the larger Papio higher into one tree. Realising that the car wouldn't go closer that its bumper I stopped. I rolled up Keenan's window, stepped out onto the mud and stood between the car door and the tree...looking up trying make my city eyes keen enough to discern his head for the branches, I felt vaguely like my Yanomamo cousins staring up a tree to find a primate in the Amazon.

Not holding anything mild resembling a poison dart gun or a shotgun, I did the next best thing, I swung both hands furiously together, making a hell of a crack. Mind you it wasn't like a shotgun, but it sure was louder than a .22 or a spit wad.

It worked. The guy freaked.

He started leaping from tree to tree and I kept up the painful staccato of applause. He'd gone across the tops of five or six trees when he missed a branch, and fell. 25 feet would have killed me but quick...he, however, kept falling and grabbing branches, ripping them out, as he tumbled down. He'd obviously fallen from a few trees.

He hit the ground with quite a padded thump and then, in lieu of running off willy-nilly arms akimbo and eyes alight, he just sat there in the high grass staring at me as if to ask, "I fell out of that tree because you were clapping at me."

Like a proverbial Pavlov puppy I kept up the claps...he stared through me to the grapes behind my head and understood that I wasn’t going to quit applauding his critique of Newtonian physics or budge. Unlike the other male he refused to sprint off and ambled past the far side of the dam and up the hill to have the ticks picked off of his back by the harem.

We, the great Baboon frighteners, saved the grapes for yet another day.

Later, I returned to the scene of the fall to get a better picture of the damage he'd sustained. I found his landing area substantially padded. He was quite the acrobat...as he fell, he kept ripping out branches and hurling them beneath himself. He'd made himself a crash pad of the falling branches and needles...then landed right in the centre de cible he'd created. I tell you these Papio Ursinus (Chacma Baboon) are just too smart.

Makes you think we're related.

Wait...I hear them, again...hmmm...maybe its just an ultra-light...then again...

Love

J.

The suns' rosey fingers pinked the clouds this morning.

2007-03-02T13:40:00.000+02:00

Still waiting for the Syrah to ripen.

The Field mix of Viognier and Syrah has been hit by the birds...amazing that the wildlife can remove tons and tons of fruit in a week. Our Cab Franc was removed entirely. We lost four tons in two days to Baboons (those evil grape sucking f#@*&^rs) and red wing starlings. We lost three tons of Chardonnay to the Cape White Eye, Baboons, and Starlings. I mean one of the Bosman clan was out there every day with a whip and still we lost so much fruit that it hurts.

But, you may be happy to know that of the 6 tons for Ataraxia wines we managed to deliver only 3. A net loss of 50%. Not bad considering I slept out there and on weekends Avi Bosman visited the farm each day. Sucks for Kevin Grant (winmaker to the Gods) but we did more for him than we were able to do for ourselves. I think we may start employing the shoot first ask questions later rule next season. No love lost, just grapes.

Speaking of love...

We've finally bottled (with the financial help of FNB) the Baboon Butt Red and the first bottles of the Lismore Chardonnay. The Baboon Butt is getting better by the day and we should be out of it by the time we bottle the next run of Lismore and BBR. So, if you want some ask now or forever hold your piece (of coinage). The Chardonnay was seriously startled by the bottling process and is going to have to sit for a few more months to regain its former glory.

That is the life of wine though. Ripen as slowly as possible. Ferment as slowly as possible. Barrel age as long as possible. Bottle age a while longer. Then Drink the damn thing faster than you can utter, "where's my screw pull' when twisting off a cap.

Love,

J