With a couple of weeks left of harvest 2010, and rather strange thunderstorm conditions outside, Fairview winemaker Anthony de Jager gave me his thoughts on the harvest to date.
As I mentioned in one of the videos that we did prior to the harvest, we had a really good ripening period and lead up to the harvest. The end of January and beginning of February was also cool and moderate, so the grapes had plenty of time for steady ripening.
The harvest started very smoothly and we began to bring grapes in during the last week of January. This year we decided to make a conscious effort to try and bring grapes in a little earlier, as we are very aware of the alcohol levels in South African wines, and the pressure to bring them down to reasonable levels. A concerted effort in the vineyard meant that the earlier grapes were showing good phenolic ripeness at harvest, with sugars at around 22 degrees balling. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Anthony de Jager, Fairview, harvest, Paarl, weather, Wines
It is time to harvest the Petite Sirah and Anthony and I take a quick stroll through the vineyard as the picking is coming to an end.
Incidentally I tasted the 2008 Petite Sirah yesterday and the wine is really looking great. The 2008 vintage reds have somewhat surprised us in the quality that we are seeing, considering that it was not the easiest harvest.
Comments and feedback are always welcome!
Tags: Fairview, Paarl, Petite Sirah, South Africa, Video, Vineyards
We had a look at the Viognier on the Fairview farm, as the grapes had started to come into the cellar. This is one of the prime Viognier blocks on the farm and is used to form the barrel fermented component of our Fairview Viognier.
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We are the first South African farm to bottle Petite Sirah and it is a variety that Charles Back and the rest of the team here feel has a lot of potential in this part of the world. This harvest we are going to be following the production of the Petite Sirah through a series of videos. This morning I met up with Anthony de Jager, to take a look at the vineyard, approximately two weeks before we expect to start picking these grapes.
Tags: Anthony de Jager, Fairview, Paarl. Chris Bryant, Petite Sirah, South African Petite Sirah, Vines, Vineyards
With the harvest just about to get started, I caught up with Anthony de Jager to chat a bit about his expectations for vintage 2010.
Tags: Anthony de Jager, Chris Bryant, Fairview, harvest 2010, Paarl, wine
With all that has taken place in the past twelve months, with regard to the economy, the state of the wine industry and the anticipation of the Fifa World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the December/January tourist season has been a rather tricky one to predict. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Brie, Camambert, Fairview, Goatshed, La Capra Wines, tasting room
In October, Fairview hosted a group of veterinarians and livestock officials from Lesotho who were in the country for a week to gain some insights into dairy farming with goats. Lesotho is the worlds second largest producer of mohair and their farmers have a lot of experience with Angora goat farming. 
However, with now looking at goats’ milk as a viable agricultural investment opportunity, the Lesotho government would like to improve their practices so as to reduce mortality rates and learn more about this challenging field.
Donald Mouton is responsible for Fairview’s herd of almost 800 goats and he spent a week with the group, going through the peculiarities of the Saanen breed and all of the considerations that need to be made when farming with them. At the end of their visit the group made a selection from some of our goats, to be sent up to Lesotho as breeding stock. This is an extremely important decision, as it is vital to start their herd with good quality goats, with strong breeding potential.
This program has been initiated by the Lesotho government and the minister of livestock and agriculture was amongst the group. The initiative is being run by the government as a pilot, as a means to explore the possibilities as well as to educate rural farmers who may later become involved in dairy goat farming.
we wish them all the best with this program an look forward to having them visit Fairview again in the future.
So our new tasting room is open, up and running!
The designers and tasting room hosts have work very hard to get everything in place and to become accustomed to the new work flow and environment. I have spent some time this week just observing the people going through their tastings of Fairview wines and interacting with the tasting room hosts. I think that it is quite amazing the way that the dynamic has changed, and improved. Our regular guests have been very complimentary of the changes and the comments from first time visitors have been just as positive.
Last week we officially opened the new look Fairview tasting room, with a small get together of our regular suppliers, supporters and partners, as well as key members of the media. Charles Back shared a few interesting stories about the evolution of the Fairview farm over the last fifty years with special mention of the role of his late parents Cyril and Beryl Back. To this day, they remain the ones who shaped the culture of Fairview and the way that we interact with our guests. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 1974 Shiraz, Charles Back, Cyril Back, Fairview, hosts, Paarl, pods, tasting room, tourism, vintage, wine
On Tuesday last week I attended the South African Wine Tourism Conference, which was hosted at the Vineyard Hotel in Claremont. Aside from the obvious area of focus that its name implies, the conference’s theme was: Share. Innovate. Inspire. It was a chance to come together and chat about some of the key challenges and opportunities in the industry from a tourism point of view. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cellar door, festivals, Kevin Arnold, Quirk, Rob Stokes, Simon Back, tasting, visitors, Waterford, Wine tourism
At the end of May, two of the Fairview team headed up to Zimbabwe to take part in a wine and cheese fair. Winston Zakhe sent me his report of the event, which I have included below. Thanks very much to Winston and to Dave Curtis and his team in Zim.
In Harare - a Grand Affair by the glass
The past weekend I attended a wine ‘do’ that I will forever reminisce on. I prepared myself thoroughly for my first trip to Bob’s country, which meant that I had to try and erase all that I knew and also bury any reservations existing in me. That being said, I was determined to get to Harare. Fairview has had for some time a trade partner in the form of Dave Curtis – our host and owner of The Stable Winery based in Harare’s Borrowdale suburb. Here is someone - with everything that is written about Harare and the country as a whole - who still cares to serve up fantastic wines to a stricken city and country side. To you, Dave, whenever I send that shipment I always think that this is amazing!
Tags: Cheese, fair, Fairview, Harare, tasting, The Stable Winery, wine, Zimbabwe
