The past few weeks I have found myself in different parts of the country. One of the things that stands out right now is that everyone is talking about our boys in Green and Gold. I believe they will bring back the William Webb Ellis Cup.

As things are slowing down in the cellar, it’s heating up in the vineyards. The first vines are starting to bud and shoots and leaves are developing. Like I said last year in a blog post, there is a few things better than seeing new life in the vineyard. When I am not travelling spreading Bizoe Wines love, you will find me in the vineyards or between the barrels.

Just the other week I met up with some people in Grahamstown doing a Bizoe Wines evening for them in Makanda (Grahamstown). Now I look forward going back there to visit my friends. Matthew Weaver I met at the yearly Graaff-Reinet Stoeptasting over a glass of wine. Jokingly he invited me to come and do a wine evening for them in Grahamstown. When we wiped our eyes there I was in Grahamstown. As mentioned, I went as guy to sell wine, now I have 24 friends in Grahamstown. Just like the Bokke brings us together, wine has the same effect to bring people together.

Last week I spent the week in Kwa-Zulu Natal working in the market with Duncan and Lua from Vine Vintage. Visiting the north coast always brings back childhood memories when we used to go there on holidays to Umloti. Wineology little wine shop in Salt Rock will always be one of my favourite spots to drink a glass of wine.

Next week the yearly Grape Hustle Wine Tour is taking place. 15 Wineries travelling together in Garden Route with our agents The Grape Hustle. Followed by a trip to the Lowveld to be at Unwined Festival at Nelspruit Golf Club on 30^th of September.  

Yes, we’ve had plenty of rain, and we’re all looking forward to warmer weather and sunny days! New season brings new life to the vineyards.The beginning of the growing season, the start of a new vintage. Pruning of the vineyards is in full swing.

August, Women’s Month, is a fitting time to talk about the two wines named after the two most special women in my life: Bizoe Henriëtta and Bizoe Estalet Syrah.

Henriëtta, my mother a woman who dedicated her life for us and continues to do so for us. She sees only the best in people and protects those she loves like a mother bear protects her cubs. Bizoe Henriëtta, a wine made from Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, is the perfect tribute to her and her name, which fittingly translates to “ruler of the house.”

The grapes for Bizoe Estalet Syrah are sourced from De Liefde farm in the small town of Wolseley in the Breedekloof Valley. Everything about Bizoe Estalet Syrah embodies the uniqueness of the terroir. This uniqueness and authenticity perfectly describe my wife and mother of our children, who, like her favorite bird the Knock Knee, keeps us warm under her wings. Bizoe Estalet Syrah has become a beloved wine in many households around the world, just as Estalet is cherished in our own home.

I want to thank these two amazing women for what they do for us in real life and in a bottle!

I just arrived back from London to work with our wine partners Davy Wine Merchants, to support them at their annual portfolio tasting. For a change it was cold in Cape Town and melting hot in London. It’s a great satisfaction to know it was not only the sun that shone, but also our wines.

This past tasting was my 4th portfolio tasting with Davys. Catching up with familiar people that I have met over the years and meeting new people in the London Wine Trade can only be a fun day out. Beside the portfolio tasting, it was very busy week.

Alex Griem from Chilled and Tannin drove me out to Taunton where I presented a wine tasting evening at Deckhouse Restaurant. Returning from Taunton. A definite highlight in London was presenting our wines to the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall and drinking a Tyrrells VAT 1 Semillon at 67 Pall Mall.

67 Pall Mall is the ultimate wine bar and any wine lovers dream. Drinking 2009 Tyrrells VAT 1 Semillon is one of the ultimate wines for me. It’s close to a dream come true. The only wine event better in minds was drinking the Tyrrells VAT1 with Bruce Tyrell on my trip to the Hunter Valley in 2017.

What else is there to do on a Friday evening in London, except organizing a braai in the Courtyard of Davy Wine Merchants. Sipped away on Bizoe Wines, steak strips and “boerewors” although made in UK, but still very tasty.  

What a way to cap of my week in London before flying back to Cape Town to come and face the cold. We will have some exciting posts in the coming weeks.

This week the wine industry decent down to Graaff-Reinet for the weekend for the annual Stoeptasting. Stoeptasting is organised by The Karoo Wine Club

Bizoe Wines going through Malolactic Fermentation

Harvest 2023 will probably known as one of the smallest harvest in the last 15 years, but it has the potential to be best quality harvest. I am writing this as we are heading to the end of the harvest and after 30mm rain last 2 days.

Again we were fortunate this harvest to work with grapes from all over the Western Cape, Darling, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Elgin, Elandskloof and Breedekloof. Through all of these regions there is a drop in quantity, but we all are happy with the quality. Really looking forward drinking these wines in a year or 2. 

A few weeks ago I took a quick trip down to Johannesburg to do a wine tasting for Pirates Club. Having a break from the cellar was good, and making more wine friends and showing Bizoe and Rikus Neethling Wines to the people of Pirates even made it better. Pirates had their annual running event on the weekend, and I hoped the wine helped some of them to get over the line.

Harvest still goes on in the cellar. We still have some Sauvignon blanc and Malbec grapes hanging in the Elgin Valley, Shiraz in Wolseley and Mourvedre in Darling to come into the cellar. I mentioned the rain in the first paragraph, the rain will have a great benefit for the red grapes, but I am not so sure about the Sauvignon blanc. As they say, it’s part of farming and you need to make the best of it. Until the rain arrived I truly believed we were heading to one of the best quality harvest in a long time. 

I would also like to congratulate Stef Thiofanidis from Johannesburg on winning the Bizoe Veldskoen competition. Stef I hope you and your partner enjoy the shoes as I do. Feel free to wear them and enjoy a glass of Bizoe Morningstar 2018 that you purchased during February. 

Topic that has been spoken a lot the last few days between winemakers is the size of 2023 harvest. Rumors are doing the round that it is going to be the smallest harvest since 2006. Yes, it will take a knock on quantity, but will it take a knock on quality?

As I am writing this post, I am waiting for the arrival of our Grenache grapes from Wolseley to make our 2nd Rikus Neethling Grenache Rose. We follow a relatively easy process in making the rose. Grapes arrive at the cellar, crushed direct into our pneumatic press. Separate the juice immediately from the skins before the pressing start. Once the juice is in our stainless steel tank give it 2 days to settle before racking the juice to the fermentation tank. Once fermentation start we monitor the fermentation tempo. That’s the process we use to make our rose.

We are planning to bring our Semillon grapes from Franschhoek later in the week. We are running into a heat wave the next few days, which would obviously increase the ripening of the grapes in the vineyards. You can expect that the next few days in the cellar will be very busy. The Semillon from Franschhoek will undergo a fair amount of time on the skins before the separation and pressing of the juice. The juice will ferment in an amphora, barrels and flex tanks to create the Semillon component of our Bizoe Henrietta 2023.

Enough about wine making, let us talk about food. Last week I hosted a Rikus Neethling Wine Dinner at the Peninsula Hotel in Cape Town. As always the food was spectacular. Our main course for the evening was a “Chargrilled Smoked Marlin with Nori butter prawns and Mediterranean Orzo noodle salad”. This paired so wonderful with the Rikus Neethling Grenache Rose 2022. Excited to share our competition with you guys. I have received my Bizoe Veldskoen about 6 months ago. Feels like walking on clouds, order your Bizoe Wines online and get an automatic entry in, to wine a pair of Bizoe Veldskoen for a couple

Harvest 2023 did start in with Sauvignon blanc grapes from Stellenbosch. Yes, I am surprised that this specific block delivered more grapes this year than last. Harvest 2023 is now officially underway!

Building up to harvest time is exciting time and then for it finally to happen is awesome. Anonymous quote that puts a harvest for me in perspective “A chef has a chance with every dish to create the perfect dish, winemaker has one chance a year to create the perfect wine”.

Harvest is a fun time in the cellar Things I will be looking at when deciding to harvest specific block. The sugar concentration in the grape, natural acidity and the pH and most importantly what style of wine I would like to create. Other factors also playing a role, but the main factors will be the weather forecast during harvest period. Once the fruits arrived in the cellar it’s up to me to guide the juice in the direction I would like to wine to be one day. I will be monitoring the clarity of the juice and the fermentation temperature. Fermentation will take place either in stainless steel tanks (ex Bizoe Morningstar Semillon), barrels (ex Bizoe Henrietta), concrete eggs (ex Bizoe Crossroad Semillon) or even in amphora (Bizoe Idioglossia Chardonnay). Type of vessel plays an important role to determine the style of wine we are producing.

Winemakers sometime get accused for only working two months in the year during harvest time. Well, I can confirm we are working damn hard in harvest, but it’s also the most enjoyable experience. Bonding with your team in the cellar, late nights waiting for the press to finish, cleaning up after each day and a simple cheers at the end of the hard day works makes it all worthwhile. 

Crush term use to describe harvest time, crusher is a de-stemmer that knock the fruit from the stem and gets squeezed open to start the flowing of the juice. Let’s go and crush this harvest!