Boutes Cooperage – Our contact: Marketing Manager Julien Segura
Beychac et Caillau, France.
Today Andries, William and myself visited a family owned cooperage, Boutes, close to Bordeaux. The company (just like ours) has their roots in tradition and heritage and their story starting in 1880.
The company assembles some 30 000 casks per year. On our visit there we were very lucky to be able to see the whole process from where the seasoned oak come from their continental climate storage plot in Allier,to their production site.
The French oak for the casks are bought on auction in October and November and that makes their team in the forest of utmost importance-making sure that the price they offer for a plot is applicable and to make sure that they allocate oak to their needs for casks that will only be assembled in 2 to 3 years time.
I’ve known these barrels for some time now and especially for its structure,length and elegance. It was therefor so interesting to see the process in action and how much care is taken in regards to detail.
Thank you very much to Julien and Tibo for your hospitality.
It seems that the De Bos farm, where we have our clonal garden, (used for our Lelienfontein Vine nursery) will always be a wealth of things we will be itching to show you. A vinous treasure trove so to speak. We took our camera with on our last grape visit, and we were not dissapointed.
Roobernet is a South African crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and Alicante Bouschet (which also has coloured pulp). The parentage was confirmed by *ENTAV in 2007.
So here is a picture of a small Roobernet berry and the red juice it holds within. There are few people that actually make the connection that red grapes have colourless juice. That’s why my winemaker colleagues and I slave away extracting the colour from the skins in order to stain the juice to make our beloved red tipple.
So on a Bosman wiki-vine note:
“Teinturier, a French language term meaning to dye or stain, is a wine term applied to grapes whose flesh and juice is red in colour due to anthocyanin pigments accumulating within the pulp of the grape berry itself ” In short – red pulp and red juice other than most other like Cabernet, Shiraz et al which has colourless pulp and juice.
*L’Etablissement National Technique pour l’Amélioration de la Viticulture or translated: The National Technical Association for Viticultural Improvement
With our customers celebrating Fairtrade fortnight in the UK, I thought it could be insightful to hear from a winemaker`s perspective what Fairtrade means in my working environment on a day to day basis.
I joined Bosman Family Vineyards in 2006 by this time the Bosman family have been farming in an ethical way for generations. The Family decided to make it official and in a landmark transaction a well-earned share in De Bos and other prime vineyard land in Hermanus & Wellington was obtained by the families farming with the Bosman family. Please see our site here for more information about this.
Fairtrade does have a direct influence on what I do daily. Please see the following video for my reasons why!
You wouldn’t be able to ask me the question above…because I do and I am biased. But luckily there are a quite a few of my kind who do love good Pinotage, and with an better understanding of the grape and the vine, a whole new generation of wine lovers will be seeing much more of these examples.
Abraham Izak Perlod was born in the Cape and schooled here in our own home town, Wellington. His life story sounds like something between Indiana Jones and Darwin. Imagine being asked by the government to go and expand the Capes range of grape varieties… After a scouting mission he brought some varieties back from overseas (a whole 177), but then he also started establishing new ones. Pinotage was borne from a crossing between Pinot noir and Cinsaut. Unlikely parent to this special local grape.
I have always felt that we have a very special connection with Pinotage here in Wellington. We have ample sunlight and a long growing season that fits Pinotage very well (not taking away that there are some awesome cool climate Pinotages out there). The vineyards that we use for the production of our Bosman Family Vineyards Pinotage, is from the farm Lelienfontein in Wellington. It is the same vineyard that is used in the production of the Wellington Wines La Cave Pinotage (a connection that we are very proud of).
We went to the vineyard on Monday to have a look at the grapes before harvest. I`ve added a video of Heinie Nel, our viticulturist, on his thoughts about the 2012 growing season in regards to the Pinotage. Will keep you updated on the harvest itself in the next post.
*Disclaimer: For more lovely news and facts on Pinotage please consult the new South Africa Pinotage Wine Guide published by the Pinotage Association and also Peter May`s book “Pinotage : Behind the Legends of South Africa`s Own Wine”
We have had a lovely breather from the hot weather of end of January. We actually had some rain on Friday evening and a really cool weekend in the cellar. We are hoping that the grapes, that have become more sugar ripe the last few weeks, will now also have the opportunity to mature in regards to crunchy pips, soft skins and grape flavour maturity.
So our weekend in pictures. The view from my cellar window: cloudy and cool – just after the night’s rain.
While we were pressing, some of Elsenburg Agricultural college’s students came by for a tasting. Happy to report an enthusiastic and eager group. I wish them well with their viticulture and oenology studies for this coming year. May you learn that in wine, one never ceases to learn!
Sunday morning saw the drawing off of some lovely clear juice to start fermenting our Chardonnay from our De Bos farm in the Upper Hemel –en –Aarde Valley. The grapes are from high density bush vines surrounded by fynbos and some of the most beautiful surroundings known to the wine world. Hoping we will do the area justice with the wine we are pampering.
Yesterday, late evening, I went to see her. I knew it would be sunny earlier on, and she would maybe not want to see me before – she`s flashy that way. I took my daughter with because Nelleke loves listening to new stories and being shown around.
As I sat in her company I knew that she looked so much younger than her years, everything about her so well kept and groomed. She has some signs of the times, but put her on the cover of a glossy mag, and she`ll turn heads for sure.
By her well-formed legs I can see that she loves dancing in the wind – you know, those fancy steps when no one is watching.
Where you come from is key, your roots, she told me… I heard she was born, and grew up here in Wellington. She told me her age. “Sixty this year – you know, it’s the new forty!” I believe her.
Her name is Optenhorst. Vineyard C1, according to our Wine and Spirits Board. She`s single (as in single vineyard unit) and by research done by the Chenin Blanc Association and also by Rosa Kruger, she is one of the oldest.
She`s a striking lady, and I feel honoured to know her…
Today was a great breather from the warmer weather we have been experiencing the last few days. We were very interested to see what the heat`s influence was on our grape`s analysis so this morning we started sampling and testing!
In the photo below, we are testing our Chenin Blanc from a vineyard called Driehoek (or Triangle vineyard). Some of the plantings in this vineyard date back to 1963 and 1979, which makes it quite humbling (note the winemaker and viticulturist not even being a twinkle in our parent’s eyes in those years).
As said in the previous post we had experienced some cloudy weather during flowering, so to make sure that we get samples that paints the best possible clear picture – we are using bunch samples this year.
Results on this vineyard show that we did not have a significantly higher rise in sugar in the last few days, but we did lose a small bit of valuable acidity. Still have a few days before these grapes do come in. In the meanwhile, we will be dreaming of the lovely granny smith and honeysuckle notes released from these little berries. Bliss…
A harvest is made not only in the weeks before picking but starts in the preceding winter. We had a very good winter season, except for the below average rain precipitation. Good, even bud break followed and flowering this year was in cool, sometimes cloudy conditions. We were fortunate that there were no storms and wind damage in flowering which sometimes can be quite severe. The cool weather we experienced in November and December was ideal. January onwards has brought some interesting conditions with temperatures rising above 35oC. This will definitely speed up the ripening process that we have thought, before the heat, will put harvest back some two weeks.
All in all we are still very impressed by good growth and bunches with small berries. The adaptability of the noble vine gives us hope that this harvest will still be of good quality. Its success will depend, in part also, on the decisions we make in regards to water management and the timing of harvesting.
Viticulturist Heinie Nel, Assistant Charlene Ferreira, Hospitality Manager Tina Steenkamp and Operations boffin Martin November raise a glass on Harvest 2012
Bosman Family Vineyards, walked away with the top honours at this year’s inaugural Perold ABSA Cape Blend competition.
Absa and the Pinotage Association announced the Absa Perold Cape Blend Competition, aimed at creating a signature style for the composition of true Cape Blends.
Key to the competition is the requirement that the blended wine should contain a minimum of 30% and maximum of 70% Pinotage. Pinotage, as a uniquely South Africa cultivar represents the African spirit in the depth of flavour and range of aromas and is the ideal basis on which the competition is built.
Says Beyers Truter, chairperson of the Pinotage Association: “The Cape Blend competition is long overdue. There has been much debate about what really constitutes a Cape Blend. Today we set the benchmark by specifying that Pinotage has to form part of the blend, but we also include minimum and maximum percentages.”
KWV, where Prof Abraham Perold was the chief oenologist when he created Pinotage, and who is the owner of the Abraham Perold brand, granted the Pinotage Association permission to use the name, solely for use for the Cape Blend Competition.
Blended wines generally appeal to a wider consumer group as the highest rated blends use the best qualities of the different cultivars to create wines for connoisseurs and wine lovers alike.
“Absa first started sponsoring the Absa Top 10 Pinotage competition to raise the profile of Pinotage and to assist winemakers in improving the quality of their wines year-on-year. With the Absa Perold Cape Blend Competition, our aim is to assist the wine industry to set a standard in what constitutes a Cape Blend,” says Ernst Janovsky, General Manager of Absa AgriBusiness.
Bosman ‘Erfenis’ 2010 was the only Fairtrade wine on the coveted Perold ABSA Top Cape Blend List. Bosman Family Wines ‘Sur Lie’ Chenin Blanc was also nominated as the best Fairtrade White Wine earlier this year at the Michelangelo International Wine Awards.
We know that Corleas Bosman ‘Erfenis’ 2010 will be a Cape blend that will leave a proud legacy in years to come.
Bosman Family Vineyards have been successful in achieving Top 100 status during the recent Top 100 South African Wines Challenge.
What makes this achievement special for us is that both the wines that we entered and judged by the international panel lead by Tim Atkin (MW), were placed on the coveted Top 100 South African wines list.
These wines are:
• Bosman Family Vineyards Pinotage 2009
• Bosman Family Vineyards Optenhorst Chenin Blanc 2009 (bush vines planted in 1952)
The entries were judged rigorously by the panel and the top scoring wines were then selected as the Top 100 South African wines.
Petrus Bosman, is thrilled with the result: “We are very grateful and believe that the vineyards used to produce these wines are very special. For years, they have proven themselves and have always produced superior quality wines. It is fantastic that this quality is being acknowledged.”
He went on to commend his wine making team: “Our winemaker, Corlea Fourie, and her winemaking team have been fantastic in their approach, dedication and focus, working hard with our viticulturist, Heinie Nel, to achieve the very best quality possible. My sincere thanks go out to them for their commitment and enthusiasm.”
Join Our Wine Club