We had 
some amazing thunder showers in Cape Town last night. Not nearly as heavy a down pour as some regions like Franschoek, Somerset West and the Strand. Apparently it was a monster storm. Most of my Twitter and Facebook feeds the morning has thundershowers and rain as a topic. One feed even described the rain as chardonnay berries falling from the sky.
After just enough rain, Cape Town is fresh and clean again this morning. Everything looks brighter and all the people at the N1 stop (where I get my coffee) were smiling this morning. I am sure it must be a combination of the rain, it being Friday and Die Son’s headlines on a few telephone poles. “Die Stormers is lus vir Haai vleis”
Marti and I will definitely be watching the game tomorrow afternoon.
Back to the cellar…today we will be harvesting some Chardonnay grapes. The Chardonnay will be used as a component in my Bellingham Chardonnay with a splash of Verdelho blend. The grapes are very healthy and have a golden colour. Rich and ripe would be the correct wine description. The Verdelho will give pineapple and tropical flavours to the final blend. A portion of the wine will be fermented in barrels to give lovely vanilla flavours and complexity to the wine.
Not too much oak though, the days of having Chardonnays that taste like oak barrels is long gone.
We even had a Chardonnay revolution a couple of years ago called the ABC movement. Anything But Chardonnay because of too much wood taste over powering the lovely elegance and fruit flavours of the grape. The wines became very boaring and all Charodonnay’s tasted the same.
I have a simple analogy for describing my philosophy with wood and wine:
If you imagine the wine being a beautiful painting then the way I use wood in wine would be the same as the artist using a frame to round of their painting. The frame will give structure and support to the painting but never over power the painting. Barrel ageing and barrel flavours should do the same to my wines, only give structure and support.
We recently purchased our first original painting together as married couple, from an artist called Carla Bosch. Marti bought one form Carla a few years ago so we now have two originals. I am so in love with this latest addition, it really has a personality of its own and brings such a different dimension to our living room. Piece and tranquility.I feel all grown up now! I know that this is just the beginning of finding excuses to go back for more paintings. I have inserted a picture of our Carla Bosch in my text today to explain my analogy a little better.
Have a good weekend. I will be sipping Chardonnay watching rugby and enjoy the last quite weekend at home before the mad rush of harvest starts on Monday.
Stormers jou lekka ding !!!!!!!!
thewinemakersdiary 