Like many of you here who live in the Western Cape, the rain this month has been pretty jaw-dropping. Our dams literally filled up in 2 weeks and it’s the wettest June we have had here since I started taking records in 2001. It’s always amazing to see the damage Mother Nature can inflict in such a short space of time and around Paarl and Wellington the Berg River broke its banks all over the place causing some serious flooding.
This month we hosted the Taransaud Hello Merlot wine competition here at Vondeling. It aims to find the best Merlot that South Africa produces and there were 71 entries from various leading wineries. I am happy to report that the Vondeling Barrel Selection Merlot 2020 gained top 10 status for the second year running. A wonderful achievement.
Winemakers Emile van der Merwe (left) & Matthew Copeland (right)
This month also saw us packaging our first-ever raw almonds grown on Vondeling. You can buy them at the Vondeling tasting room. Raw, healthy, and delicious.
Our new birding hide has been seeing good traffic and a group of experts from UCT have been carrying out various research operations on the farm. Below is the first ever peafowl (female peacock) tagged in South Africa. An historic event!
We have recently been trying to get to grips with the increasing problem of leaf roll virus prevalent in the majority of South African vineyards (indeed all over the world). I invited Professor Gerhard Petersen from Stellenbosch University ( a world-leading expert on the subject) to come and give a talk. It was a very fascinating evening. Those present were all Vondeling winemakers and Managers. Viticulturists from Boland and Perdeberg cellars, Johan Wiese and Koos Malan from Voor Groenburg Nurseries, PD Bosman and Lourans Steyn from Bosman Adama, Neil Ennis from Cape Vines, Rijk Melck and his winemaker Hatting from Muratie, Jan Eksteen and our other neighbours.
We also enjoyed a glass of wine after the presentation…
There have been a couple of lovely weddings this month as well. A truly beautiful place to tie the knot!
