At this time of year, whilst the Northern hemisphere's vines sit dormant, enjoying their time off, in peaceful reflection prior to the verdant onset of spring, the action is all a-happening south of the equator.
This is business time, a hive of activity, for the vast majority of our new world producers will be bringing in grapes right about now.
The first of our contributions comes from the highly talented Morne Vrey, winemaker at Delaire in South Africa's Stellenbosch. They have begun bringing in their Sauvignon Blanc already, a wine recently voted the number two example of its type in South Africa.
"Harvest started about a week ago. Our Sauvignon Blanc vineyards were revealing interesting ripe flavours, earlier than expected. Consequently we rushed to harvest the grapes that we source from the Stellenbosch region. Our Chardonnay too has been picked and is now in barrel, fermenting away.
Into our second week, things have slowed down due to some unseasonal rainy weather and the cool start to February which slowed the ripening of certain varietals. However we are awaiting a delivery of Sauvignon Blanc from the Walker Bay area later today-hopefully this will get the momentum up again."