London Hamburg Amsterdam

Next week I am starting my mini world tour for the Cape Winemakers Guild. I will be giving tastings in Germany, England and Holland. I will be traveling with another guild member, David Trafford, and we will show off the wines from the guild. I will have time in between to visit some clients and see what is happening in the bigger wine world.

Very exciting stuff. I have already started packing my bags. The country mouse is off to see the world.

Moving wine wine wine

The most common activity in the cellar is racking wine. This means we take the wine out of barrel, into a tank and back into the same barrel. This seems an exercise in futility at first, but it is a very important part of the process.

Through racking we get a chance to add air to the wine, inadvertently, and we also check the sulphur levels to protect the wine against oxidation and spoilage.

We have 800 barrels in total and we try to rack them three times a year. The job a very labour intensive, but the end result is worth it.