IN THE VINEYARD | Klein Constantia, South Africa
We know that harvest is a busy time for winemakers, but how do they actually spend their days? Matt Day graduated in Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch University before working at such estates as Meerlust in Stellenbosch, Château Belefont-Belcier in St-Emilion and Elderton in the Barossa Valley. On returning to South Africa in 2008, he joined the historic Klein Constantia estate as assistant winemaker, becoming winemaker in 2012 – only the third since the farm was revived in the 1980s. He takes time out from harvest to provide an insight into the season…
‘The first thing I do during harvest is to close down my computer and forget about it for a month or two. It’s quite nice, getting back to actually being a winemaker. No emails – WhatsApp only.
‘During harvest, I spend maybe 10% of my day out in the vineyard on a quad bike, zooming around, looking for blocks that are ripe. The rest of the time I’m in the cellar, racking barrels and tasting, tasting, tasting.
‘Last year was probably the earliest harvest we’ve ever had, whereas this year, we started two weeks later, on 1st February, with the Chardonnay for the sparkling wine, and then the Sauvignon Blanc a week later. We had a cool summer and a lot of rain in December – one of the highest average annual rainfalls ever – so we’ve had relatively wet, cool conditions, meaning the grapes have ripened fairly slowly, which is exactly what we want. That way, the flavours develop a lot more evenly and you get more phenolic ripeness. The acids and sugars are both slightly lower, but flavours are looking good, and it’s a big crop too.
‘We’ve picked some Shiraz and just finished the Malbec – we’re picking the Stellenbosch Shiraz this week (10th March). We’ve also picked four parcels of Muscat for the Vin de Constance. These are the bush vines, which are much more exposed to sunlight, and raisin earlier in the season. They’re the vines that give real acidity and sugar to the wine.
‘We’ve got another two weeks to wait before harvesting the Cabernet and the rest of the Muscat. The Muscat harvest is quite spread out, so we’re doing passes every day in the vineyard, looking at individual bunches and picking those with a certain percentage of raisined berries per bunch. The Vin de Constance grapes are the most skilled, high-intensity, labour-intensive part of harvest, and we have a specialised team for it, some of whom have been doing it for a generation or more.
‘Most of my time is spent tasting. I taste my first wine at 4am, then again at lunchtime, and then again about 6pm before we go home. We’re quite back-to-basics in how we handle the grapes – we don’t add sulphur, and we’re doing wild fermentations – so the most important thing is to taste as much as possible to pick up anything that’s wrong.
‘We’re looking for any signs of reduction and also lees that isn’t perfect – off flavours brought out by fermentation. If we find that, we rack off that lees as soon as possible and put the wine into a new tank. We’re also looking for over-oxidation. Oxidation is fine, as long as the wine is ‘dirty’ and has sediment. As soon as it starts to taste like raw potatoes, you’re in trouble – so we try to pick that up before it happens.
‘Everything is done by palate, not by readings. I’ve been here for 17 harvests, and you get to know how every single block will react – it’s just down to experience. Any winemaker takes at least six years to start understanding the vineyard – the challenge is to stay on top of it.
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