"Pressing Issues"

Pressing the Cabernet Sauvignon gently is the task today. The handling of the good old basket press with manual hydraulic is surprisingly quick. It's on one-bar pressure and we're constantly tasting to make sure no skin tannins enter the precious juice.

Our new Dutch distributor Marc came to discuss our future mutual engagement and marketing approach. We agreed that all our wines should be present in the Netherlands and he has already organised a marketing campaign.

The observant reader will have noticed that I already declared the harvest over, but Sydney has left a few half-rows of Chardonnay hanging to add complexity to the already fermented wines. He's also trying his hand on a natural sweet dessert wine, which should yield interesting results with the renowned hot weather in Wellington.

Surprisingly, it was more than a ton and the sugar was on 30 balling without raisin character. Sydney would have liked it more towards 34, but is pleased nonetheless with the fruit and character.

So all together the harvest went well both in quantity as well as in quality.

Sadly, one of our ostrich ladies had her foot caught in a wire at the gate and injured her leg badly. Dr.van Rooyen was here and we hope his treatment will be successful. TLC is also being given to a bird that had fallen from a tree for no apparent reason. We're hoping it will recover and keeping it warm in the meantime, which isn't difficult in Wellington's summer. ;)

The video shows Marc searching for the %$#&^%$* harvesting shears. It is the first time I've uploaded a video clip, so please be patient with me.