The Growing Season
The start of the growing season begins about the first week of September at budburst. This is when we at Rijk’s Private Cellar start to “grow the wine” The management of the canopy is the most important aspect in our endevour to produce quality grapes. We believe in getting as much light and sun into the leaf zone as possible, resulting in ripe fruit full bodied wines. To achieve this, from budburst to harvest, 15 workers spend every day in the vines thinning, removing unwanted shoots and removing leaves in the leaf zone, opening up the canopy to light and sun. This is a basic summary of the programme that we follow in the vineyards to produce optimum grapes:
Budburst mid September
When the buds start swelling vines must have enough water
At 10 cm shoot growth 1st week October
Spacing between shoots thinned to 150 mm apart.
Thinning to 2 shoots per spur.
This is critical as it sets the growth and spacing for the whole growing season.
Full irrigation is applied to stimulate shoot growth.
Flowering third week October
Vine must be strong and healthy with sufficient soil moisture.
Fruit Set last week October
When the bunches begin to form.
Irrigate normally
Pea Size 2nd week November
Remove old leaves at base of shoot.
Shoots with less than 15 leaves — remove bunches as they will not ripen well.
Little or no irrigation to reduce growth, bunch and berry size.
Veraison 2nd week January
Colour starts showing in the grapes
Remove uneven ripening bunches when veraison complete
Bunch counts to determine tonnage — remove bunches to 12—15 per vine
This will then yield 4—6 tons per hectare.
Irrigate half normal amount of water.
Harvest last week January
Quality control of bunches — remove any bad bunches
Check sugar, acid and ph level, taste flavours and colour of pips
Decide when to harvest — all harvesting done at night to get grapes to the cellar as cool as possible.