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.