Org de Rac White Varieties Keep their Cool in Hot, Dry Year

With the Cape Wineland 2018 harvest scarcely out of the blocks, Swartland organic wine farm Org de Rac, has finished picking its white grapes. According to cellarmaster Frank Meaker, volumes were slightly down due to soil compactness preventing adequate water absorption, but the wine grapes and now fermenting wines show vigour, health and freshness.

“We are actually a few days later in harvesting as a couple of hot 40°C- plus days shut the plants down – no photosynthesis, no ripening,” he says. “I am not even giving a rainfall figure for our farm as there was none to speak of over the past year. The water that did fall, just disappeared as it hit the ground. But what this tough, dry and hot year did show me once again is how incredibly resilient the vine plant is. Nature threw everything at us, yet here we are with ripe white wine grapes showing good juice and great quality. Amazing.”

Org de Rac’s Chardonnay for its Cap Classique base wine is ideal: grapes picked at 18.8°B with total acidity of 9.5 grams per litre and a 3.19pH. The Chardonnay for its popular lightly wooded wine and the Chardonnay Reserve was harvested at between 21°B and 24°B, with total acidity lying between 5.8 and 6.2 grams per litre.

“We harvested Roussanne a bit earlier, as these vines were showing some stress,” says Meaker. “Along with Roussanne we have also introduced Verdelho into the range and they are proving to be welcome and popular additions. Of the Verdelho we harvested 30% a bit greener and kept this earlier portion in the cooler room with the riper Verdelho to extract a generally fresher character.”

The harvested Chenin Blanc, says Meaker, shows typical varietal features. “Smaller berries and lighter bunches, but dripping with varietal expression. This could be classic Chenin Blanc year.”

Frank Meaker, the cellarmaster at Org de Rac.

Although Org de Rac’s red varieties still have to harvested, Meaker is bullish about what he is seeing in the cellar.

“We are fortunate to have all the white varieties in at good levels of ripeness, sugar indicators and good fruit retention,” he says.

Looking ahead at the rest of the season, it is about setting out to achieve balance. “Things can become quiet tricky later in the season as we have sugar ripeness but are lagging and not physiological ripeness due to the lack of cool nights and excessive day temperature,” says Meaker.

“Our water source for irrigation is also coming to a slow end, complicating the ideal ripening phase of stretching to a less stressed vine producing ripe grapes. We are now taking it one day at a time, but in the end the resilience of organic Swartland vines is going pull through into a fine harvest.”