It’s the start of December and everyone’s getting into the holiday vibe ahead of Christmas and spending time with family and friends. With regards to the weather, it’s been a very dry season for the first bit of summer this year. The last proper rain we had was back in September, with none predicted in the long-term forecast for the remainder of the ripening season. 
 
Luckily our water management system here on the farm is such that we channel as much water as possible into our various dams during the wet winter months, building reserves for times like these. With the availability of water being a great asset, we can proactively use drip-irrigation in our vineyards to mitigate heat stress even before it manifests.
 
So far, due to the dryer weather, we luckily haven’t had any issues with downy mildew, but the season of powdery mildew is now on the horizon. We’re staying vigilant to react promptly in the event that we encounter issues, but it seems like this year will have a very low disease pressure overall. 
 
Following very even budburst, the dry conditions we’ve experienced now sees the development of smaller bunches with smaller berries. This will ultimately deliver more concentrated fruit for us to then vinify once it reaches the cellar. 
 
Our olive trees are doing well, the fruit currently being roughly the size of a pinky-fingernail, so once the grape harvest has been completed, these will probably be ripened to perfection and ready to be harvested and pressed into our Extra Virgin Olive Oil. 
 
In terms of the operations on the farm; over the past year we’ve established an additional 250 olive trees, with further expansion of our olive planting in the planning. We’ve also uprooted about 10 hectares of vineyard, with roughly another 5 hectares yet to be done. Once this has been completed, we’ll be undertaking soil preparation before replanting the open land over the next two years with a combination of Pinotage, Chenin Blanc, Grenache, Malbec, and perhaps some other exciting varietals.
 
For now, we’re planning on taking a little breather over the festive season, spending some time with friends and family, before they become “winemaker widows” due to our absence at the start of the new year. 

We’ll then be back on the farm for some final preparations before the long days and hard work kick off to shepherd the grapes of harvest 2026 into the cellar – which, my intuition tells me, might be a little earlier than normal. We’ll bring you another harvest update in January.