a new permanent guest on Petrus Place, a breeding pair of Dikkops - as reward for our efforts for a sustainable viticulture, as close to nature as possible.  

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Bein Merlot :
the current vintage 07/08

last update 05/14/2008
March-May 2008
In February, we had again aerial photographs made from our vineyard in the near infrared spectrum. This allows us judging evaluating the physiological state of our vines and consequently subdividing our vineyard into different batches according their vigour, which can then be individually managed. This is a great help in obtaining evenly ripe fruit, since every batch can be ripened to their individual optimal ripeness, and eventually harvested and vinified separately.
Harvest started on Easter Monday. We planned to harvest four days, fill a tank on each day. This Easter Monday we did not get much in, too nice was the day. Only about 1/3 of what we had planned! But three days later the grapes were in the cellar and everybody got a big bowl of Potjiekos and was happy. 

It is our best harvest so far, quality wise. We never had such good fruit with such thick-skinned berries, intense aromas, dark blue colour and crispy ripe tannins. The resulting wine is like black enamel, and we hope this vintage will deliver its promise. Fermentation with different yeast strains went through without any problems, and at the moment the wines are busy with malolactic fermentation in the barriques. Again we made some lovely Pink Merlot this year, which will be ready for our South African customers by end of May. The same applies for the Little Merlot 2007, which has developed into an excellent wine, full of juicy fruit and good mouth fill. Both wines were bottled on 8th of may 08.

January 2008
This year, we only detected the first signs of veraison (change of colour) on the 10th of January, with an estimated 90% completion by the 22nd.  This is clearly later than in other years, and we look forward to a late harvest in middle of March. At this stage, the fruit development is very even, with noticeably smaller berries up to now, which lets us hope for a good quality crop.

2008November 2007
With the late budding and the cool spring weather, flowering was accordingly delayed, with main flowering occurring around end of November. Fruit set was generally good, though the occasional rains during flowering caused again some millerandage. 
Canopy development was also very even though relatively vigorous later in the season, and a lot of work was needed this year to keep the canopy in shape.

But the highlight of the season was the pair of Dikkops that chose our vineyard as breeding ground, and they successfully raised a chick. They are beautiful birds with stunning bright yellow eyes (see picture above), and we value this as reward for our efforts for a sustainable viticulture, as close to nature as possible.

September/October 2007
Cool weather during September delayed budding further, so our work only started end of September, with suckering and removing of the excess buds. And the cool weather stayed on, which resulted in a slow, though very even and controlled development of the vineyard. All in all, a late vintage, up to now about 2 weeks later than usual

June - August 2007: a particularly long, cold and wet winter
We had a particularly long, cold and wet winter, i.e. ideal preconditions for a successful new wine season. Again the dams are full, with Theewaterskloof - our supplier of the irrigation water - at the very high level of over 90% full. Correspondingly, we could delay the final pruning until begin of September, which will help in achieving a good and even budding.

 

To contact us:

Luca and Ingrid Bein
Tel/Fax: +27 (0)21 881 30 25
Email: lib@beinwine.com