Harvest time in South Africa is known as “pars tyd” renamed by some winemakers as “bars tyd”-translated as time of the year when you hardly see your family and spent 24 hours in the cellar. To our family, harvest is the sweet, much-anticipated time in our year.

Kids running around the cellar, drinking grape juice. Helping to punch down grapes. Time we embrace and always have fun in the cellar. The joy of seeing kids returning from school and running down to the cellar to be part of harvest 2022, it’s a feeling that can’t be explained.

Update on harvest so far. Quality and analysis of grapes are looking great in tank. The one statement I can make is, in our case the harvest is extremely small and it might have an impact on wine prices later in the year. As I write this blog post we will be finishing our last white grapes at the end of the week. Semillon grapes, from Franschhoek, will be our last white grapes for 2022.

Do low yield influence the quality of the grapes. Theory is that with fewer grapes the vine can use all its energy to give more concentrated grapes and better quality for wine making. It makes completely sense thinking about it, but is it practical. Remember our Prof Gousard at The University of Stellenbosch preaching us about balance. The vine has to be in balance to produce the best quality fruit. I am very excited what harvest 22 will give us.

We have introduced the Rikus Neethling Wine range to you a few months ago. Currently only available in packed deals on our website. We will soon be launching its own web shop where you can purchase the wines. Making this note in the blog to inform you about a new wine in the range – Rikus Neethling Wines Viognier 2021. You will notice new vintages available from our online store from 1 March 2022.

2 Feb 1659 Jan van Riebeek harvest the first grapes in South Africa, paving the way for me to be part of this industry 363 years later. Wow an industry that is still driven by the passion of people and this wonderful end product we call wine.

The few words I can think off, is privilege and honored, to be part of the South African Wines Industry. Stand out for me is the people involve, older generation passing information down to the younger generation. It has never felt like a competition for me. All genuinely wants the South African Wines to succeed.

Harvest has started in the Western Cape and we have received Chardonnay. Since my last post about my predictions about harvest has changed a bit. Struck with massive heat waves in the Western Cape the last two weeks and had to adapt some of our plans.

Here on Croydon Vineyards, where we also make our Bizoe Wines we have already harvested all the Pinotage grapes on Croydon. The condition of the grapes looked awesome especially after the extremely high temperature we had the last few days. The Pinotage grapes will be used for the Croydon Title Deed Rose and Croydon Covenant Pinotage.

Our next grapes to arrive at the cellar will be Sauvignon blanc and Chenin blanc from Stellenbosch, and Semillon from Darling for the Bizoe Morningstar Semillon. Enough about harvest for now let’s toast this amazing industry.