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 "Conditions for 2008 were highly localized and therefore it is difficult to make generalizations about the harvest because the weather conditions just prior and during were unseasonally cool and slightly wetter than normal in our area. Therein lay the opportunity.
There was a danger of rot and dilution, especially on the white grapes, but at Meerlust we only have Chardonnay. The small patches that were not healthy were cut out and our viticulturist, Roelie Joubert, managed to keep 95% of the vineyards disease free, mainly through opening the canopy and crop thinning, with regular anti fungal spraying as well.
The real challenge lay with the reds. Very early on I saw that it was going to produce unevenly ripe fruit, affecting phenolic ripeness. It was possible tp produce elegant, fresh characterful red wines at lower alcohols, but it was essential to thin the crop significantly to ensure the vines had enough capacity to bring the remaining fruit to ripeness. We dropped an average of 35% of our entire crop. We yielded around 35 HL per hectare, on average. We had a long, cool season and the picking date was critical.
We achieved the flavours and balance we wanted at much lower sugars. In the cellar, the trick was to identify and green tannins in the batches and therefore have a much lighter hand in extraction. Merlot was great with beautiful, silky tannins in evidence with the plummy fruit, so we could be more extractive there. But Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc showed uneven ripeness, even after thinning so that meant less remontage and pigeage, with shorter macerations as well. The grapes that did make it to the cellar were healthy, quite small and darkly coloured. With less tannin extraction, we had to be more creative in stabilising colour as soon as possible, which I think we were successful in doing. Cuvaison times were short and we pressed the wines straight into the barrel fermentation. We held back on the new oak as well, much less than the usual 80%.
I heard of many people with heavy crop loads waiting for the elusive phenolic ripeness which never came. The result will be alcoholic wines with green flavours, sweet and sour and this is what I consciously sought to prevent with my wines. The result is finer, fresher, more elegant wines, perhaps with earlier drinkability, but that suits me. It is so vital to faithfully reflect the vintage conditions as much as site, which I was. satisfied to have done.
The cool weather was a bonus for the Pinot Noir though, wonderfully linear with lifted fruit and musk flavours, I am very excited about Pinot this year.
Despite global warming, we see more fringe benefits of climate change, probably because of the influence of the 2 oceans. The last 2 winters have been wetter and cooler, and I hope that trend continues."
Chris Williams
Visit Meerlust's Gallery page to view photo's of the 2008 Meerlust Harvest
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