Nature has her own timetable, and although I’ve barely finished this year’s harvest, the vineyards are already in preparation for the next one. The vines are slowly shutting down, giving the buds time to store up energy for the next growing season.
Vineyard work is my favourite part of winemaking, and this is a good time to do a post-harvest inspection of the vineyards – to check the evenness of the vines (make sure they’re not too bushy or too sparse) and look out for evidence of any viruses. I’m also hoping for rain – it’s been very hot recently and a good soaking will be beneficial for the vines.
Half of Dean David 2milesquares is harvested from a very-low-yield Shiraz vineyard, sited halfway up a steep south-facing slope on a mixture of shale and granite, that gets no supplementary irrigation. For the 2009 harvest the fruit ripeness was slightly uneven but because the yield is low only a very slight fruit thinning (removing less ripe fruit to create a more even ripeness) could be done. I was a bit concerned about this but the fruit ripened quite evenly in the end.
About 40% is harvested from a Shiraz vineyard that I have a bit of a soft spot for as I’ve been responsible for its care for the last three harvests. Up to the time I took over the vineyard practices had been very intensive and we decided that no more artificial fertilizing would be applied and the soil would be left to recover. Three years on, it is proving to be a very exciting vineyard, producing truly ripe fruit with relatively low sugar (something of a rarity in the Swartland). The very sandy Vilafonte soil may be the reason; and the vineyard is also fairly sheltered from the wind.
A new addition to the Syrah is from another south-facing vineyard that I’m still getting my head around. Its berries are much smaller than the higher-lying vineyards but the growth is very uneven so I will have to pick selectively.
Roll on August, when the pruning and vineyard management begins. 
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