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! 

Happy New Year! Yes we are back and ready to take on 2023 with a smile and a glass of wine in the one hand. 

Returning after the December holiday is always exciting because we know it’s the fun time of the year, harvest season. The question always when we return from our December break, has the grapes started to change color. The process when the red grapes change from green to black in called “veraison”. The definition of veraison is the change of color of the grape berries. Veraison represent the transition from berry growth to berry ripening, and many changes in the berry development occur at veraison.

Just to clarify veraison takes place in the white cultivar grapes also. The Neethling kids are just as excited for harvest to start. They can’t wait to see the grapes arriving at the cellar, going through the crusher into the separation and fermentation tanks, juice to the fermentation tanks and skins to the press. Once the juice is in the tanks standing with their glasses ready to taste the fresh juice before fermentation starts. Reading this you can just imaging the excitement of harvest season in our house.

How do I determine the ripeness of the grapes? We would always be on the lookout for the heat waves that comes around between January and March, manage the irrigation for the vines to carry through the heat. I would spend a morning walking through the vineyards looking at health/color of the leaf and fruit on the vine. While walking I would taste the grapes, as this is the most important indicator for me, is how the grapes taste.  I would also sample some the grapes and send the juice to the lab to analyses the sugar contents and natural acidity in the juice. Based on all the above aspect I make a decision on when the best time to pick the grapes.

Our first harvest at Bizoe Wines in 2008, was filled with nerves and excitement starting a new a company. Our 16th harvest coming up in a few days, weeks still feels the same as in 2008, packed with nerves and excitement. In 2008 Bizoe Henrietta and Bizoe Estalet Syrah was our only wines, we are thankful on how the Bizoe range has evolved over time and the addition of the Rikus Neethling Wine Range. 

In short as the say in the show business, let the 16th edition Bizoe start!

Can’t believe we are already in December and two months away from harvest 2023. Looking back at 2022, I can’t believe how blessed we were and how much fun we had. Before starting to write the final blog of the year, I would just like to thank you, we appreciate your continued support throughout the year.

January 2022 started with the saying it can only go better than 2021. We got rid of masks and life was back to what we were used to. But I was and I am sure a lot of you were uncertain what’s going to happen in 2022. 

In 2022 we increased our Rikus Neethling Wine Range with the first bottling of the Rikus Neethling Grenache Rose 2022. Grenache grapes that is sourced from the Breedekloof Valley. I always wanted to make a Rose wine for the range, but for me it is always about finding the perfect parcel of grapes. If you haven’t tasted the new Rose yet, seek it out at some of the liquor stores in Western Cape, Durban, Garden Route and Johannesburg.

Getting back in the UK was huge highlight for me, seeing my friends at Davy’s Wine Merchants. I was lucky enough to be joined on the trip by Nico Grobler from La Brune Wines who has also started to work with Davys Wine Merchants now. Check out Davy Wine Merchants website to see the amazing wines they have from around the world.

From the cellar it’s been a great year working with Elton and Jannie. Just a few blog post ago I have written about the legendary song of Robbie Wessels, Player23. The song is about Elton and Jan that is the soul of the team. Not sure what Robbie knows about a wine, but he is correct in that Elton and Jan is the soul of the team in the cellar.

Yes 2022 was a great year and without the Bizoe community we would not be able to do what we do. Cheers on 2022 and we can’t wait for 2023 and starting off with a new harvest!

16 November we celebrate the 70th birthday of Henriëtta Neethling. It is always a privilege to open a bottle of Bizoe Wines with family and friends. Last Saturday we had a great party in Benoni celebrating her birthday.

Thinking back to the day I showed my mom the first Bizoe bottle I made. Estalet and I met up with my parents for the weekend at Pinnacle Point Golf Estate, during the Saturday morning breakfast at the clubhouse I pulled this bottle Bizoe Henrietta out of a bag showing my parents the new label and wine I have created. It took them a few second to realize what the name of the wine was, before the tears started flowing.

Until this day the questions come up quite often why, the first wine was named after Henriëtta? Henriëtta Neethling sacrifices so many things for her children and grandchildren that it just appropriate to name our first wine after her. A person that believed in us and would always support us in everything we do. A mom any boy can dream about.

Fruit set is currently happening in the vineyards. I overheard another winemaker mentioned that he needs 2 Novembers to get all the work done in the vineyards. November is always intensive month in the vineyards. We are currently removing some of the leaves and making sure there is a free flow of air in the canopy. I am pleased with the progress in the vineyards, although it’s a very dry year.

Salute to Henrietta Neethling!

You know that feeling standing on the golf tee box and your mates crawling and laughing and calling a pink drink! Lucky for me it doesn’t have to be a pink gin anymore. We have a proper pink drink now in the form of Rikus Neethling Rose! By the way for the non-golfers reading the opening sentence, you have to buy your golf buddies a pink gin if you can’t hit your tee shot further than the ladies tee’s.

Can’t think of a better time of than year than to have ice cold Grenache Rose in the glass. The vineyards is blossoming and looking great. In the vineyards we have started our yearly spray program to protect next year’s crop and to make sure we have a healthy grapes in the cellar. Also the time of the year when we sucker the vineyards, in lame man terms, help not to overload the vines with fruit to produce a healthy grape.

Let me tell you more about the Rikus Neethling Rose Grenache 2022. We sourced our grapes from De Liefde farm out in Breedekloof. Yes, the same farm we get our Bizoe Estalet Syrah grapes from. In the cellar we worked as lightly as possible with the grapes before being pressed. We have combined the free run juice and press juice before settling. Cold fermentation in stainless steel tanks, gives the wine a beautiful crisp freshness. Sitting on an alchohol of 11% just makes it the perfect summer drink.

As the year is winding down, I can’t believe we are already preparing for harvest 2023. Maintenance staff is hard at work making sure when the first grapes arrive in the cellar all the equipment is in working conditions. It feel surreal to walk in between the tanks that is empty and know that we are ready.

Let’s hope my golf improve that I can drink less pink gins in the clubhouse but more Rikus Neethling Grenache Rose!

After all the travelling this year I had the privileged to spend with my family. After celebrating my grandma’s 100^th birthday, we were in the Kruger National Park last week for a few days after. This gave me the perfect chance to educate our 8 year (almost 9 year) old twin boys about wildlife and wines.

When I started out in 2008, there was a company called “Let’s sell Lobster”, today its Lobster Inc. They started a program to educate staff in the hospitality industry about wine, using animals. Example, although I might be wrong as I haven’t seen the program. Cabernet Sauvignon would be linked to an elephant. Cabernet Sauvignon is a big wine with some tannins on the back bone. Elephant big, thick skin and ages well, for me that’s the same as a good old Cab! Perfect place to do some comparisons.

The best description I got from the boys is comparing a Semillon with a “bloukopkoggelmander”. As the koggelmander change colour the same as Semillon that can be made in different styles, light, elegant, oxidative, and serious. Well done Retief for finding a name for Bizoe Morningstar Semillon and Bizoe Robertsvleipad Semillon.

After a good break there, its amazing time to be back in the vineyards. The vines are starting shoot leaves. Making the right decisions now determine the quality of your grapes in 2023. 

We have started with the first suckering in the vineyards. What does that mean? In simple terms we are allocating 2 to 3 shoots per spur, making sure the shoots carry the optimal amount of grapes during the growing season. 

I am looking forwards spending the next few weeks in the vineyards and getting the cellar ready for vintage 2023.

This is my first trip to London after the pandemic, started it off by playing a round of golf with Mr James Davy, Anders Chudley and Jake Millburn (All from Davy Wines) at Royal Wimbledon Golf Club. Always great to be treated to a round of golf! 

Nico Grobler of La Brune Wines from Elgin joined me in London for the week. Francis Flavin (Wholesale Director at Davy Wines) treated us for a day out, meeting clients, tasting wines and evening taking us to Wine GB trade tasting. We even ended up at Medals of London tasting our wines and drinking away on some Italian Proseccos and Sauternes wines. We got a lecture on the Apollo 11 moon landing. Buzz Aldrine that landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong in Apollo 11 medals are on display at Medals of London.

The Davy New World Trade Event (the reason of going to London) at Davy Wine Merchant HQ. New world wines was the order of the day paired with music. Bizoe Morningstar Semillon 2019 paired with oysters and “Under the Sea” by Sameul E. Wright. Brad Horne from @winetimelondon (follow Brad on Instagram) led me and Nico to present a Masterclass of South African wines during the Davys Trade Event.

My favorite restaurant in London to dine at is Otto’s. I might be biased as you will find Bizoe Wines on their wine lists also. Otto’s restaurant has been reviewed as one of the best in the UK by food journalist and critic. We worked our way through some amazing wines at Otto during our dinner, Chateau Cos Labory 1997, Chateau D’ Anglude 2002 and Bandol Masde la Rouviére 2019. 

Oakley Court Hotel in Winsor with Martin Drotsky the operations manager. My paths crossed for the first time with Martin during his days at Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town in 2009. It was such a privilege to spend the morning with Martin again. Thanks to Martin for the incredible support of Bizoe Wines and South African Wines. 

Thanks to Davy Wine Merchants for hosting me in London, it’s always a highlight on my calendar to visit the Davys Team.