Harvest Review
GENERAL
The outstanding quality of the 2011 harvest will ensure that it goes down in history as one of South Africa’s best.
Lower yields and intensely  concentrated flavours from extremely healthy grapes mean that producers throughout the winelands are delighted. As a result of healthy grapes, minimal intervention in the cellar was required.
Wine lovers can look forward to superlative Sauvignon Blanc wines, which have more mouthfeel and lovely tropical notes. Other top performing cultivars were Chardonnay and among the reds, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot were exceptional.
THE HARVEST
A warmer season late January and February, caused the harvest to ripen slightly earlier, with temperatures becoming less variable so ripening was consistantly better. The picking season was 3 weeks shorter than usual.
Chardonnay was again plagued by the resident troop of baboons and as much as 50%  lost as a result! Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc are as intense as ever with higher yields where Merlot has been lighter with intense colour and structure.
THE WINES
Smaller berry size gave excellent fruit to skin ratio, thus enhancing colour intensity in the reds. The white wine boast luscious, full bodied character, with  remarkably low pHs levels and delightful acidity.
Production of Sauvignon Blanc was down by more than 30% in some instances. A long, wet winter was followed by an extremely dry summer. Excellent grape analyses across all cultivars, some say the best in over a decade. High acids and low pHs levels are a general trend and the colour in red cultivars was very intense.