Harvest season has been in full swing at Kay and Monty. We have a total of eight hectares under grape with an array of varietals, namely chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and pinot noir. We asked our farm manager and viticulturist, Lloyd Kasimbi, to reflect on what has been a busy few months.
TELL us ABOUT THIS YEAR’S HARVEST…
The Chardonnay vines produced a decent tonnage of 7.2 tonnes and the quality was exquisite, thanks to the wonderful weather we’ve had. The yield was slightly lower than last year but the fantastic quality really made up for it.
The Pinot Noir caught us by surprise, from a mere half hectare, we picked a staggering 3.7 tonnes. This was great, especially considering the baboons love this varietal and we often lose a portion of a our crops when they pick at them. Tonnage was considerably higher than the previous harvest and we can’t wait to use it in our MCC Champu.
Last but not least, the Sauvignon Blanc. This is our most challenging vine as it has been plagued by botrytis, sour rot, birds and sunburn in recent years. We are very thankful that this was not the case this year and the growing season went smoothly without issue. An unprecedented 10.8 tonnes was picked out of this 1.86 hectare vineyard and the quality was incredible!
ANY UPDATES ON THE RED VARIETALS THAT WERE RECENTLY PLANTED?
Our newest vineyards – a very famous blend of Shiraz, Grenache Noir, Mourvedre and Carignan – did very well considering the climate preferences of red varietals. The shiraz has been a delight to work with and has been growing well. We hopefully should be able to pick our first crop next season. The Carignan and Mourvedre have also performed. The Mourvedre is already on trellis training and the Carignan is doing very well too – we should be able to harvest these after another two seasons. The Grenache Noir has given us some trouble, over 600 stalks did not take and died after planting. We persevered and replanted a new batch and they have survived the first growing season without any big issues.
WHEN WILL WE SEE THE FRUITS OF THIS HARVEST?
We believe that our Chardonnay MCC Champu will be ready for bottling by September for its second fermentation. We might keep these vintages longer than our traditional 10 months on the lees as we already have two vintages that are on the lees and ready for degorging. The Sauvignon Blanc, which we are so looking forward to, will be ready by July and bottling should commence early September.
If you are in the area, pop in to the tasting room at Kay and Monty Vineyards to try our full range of wine. Head over here to make a booking.
