Experiencing Harvest 2020 at Graham Beck Winery
Last week the Cap Classique team got to experience Graham Beck’s Harvest in full swing! Graham Beck is one of South Africa’s leading Cap Classique producers and is situated in the breath taking Breede River Valley. The exceptional climate of this wine region, combined with the rich limestone soils means it really is the perfect spot for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to thrive - and boy, do these grapes thrive. As we entered the estate and drove amongst the vineyards, you couldn’t help but admire the healthy, plump, green & purple bunches shining in the sun, just waiting to be picked!
Upon arrival, Mr Bubbles (aka Pieter Ferreira the pioneering Celler Master at Graham Beck) greeted us, together with two interns, one from New Zealand and the other from Italy, with much enthusiasm. We were then treated to a light lunch, before we got put to work in the cellar. Harvest 2020 marks the 30th Jubilee Harvest at Graham Beck and entering the cellar and winery you could feel the buzzing energy in the air. Everyone we encountered was hard at work, always approachable and incredibly patient with us “newbies”! From the picking, dropping of grapes, sorting, pressing, racking and numerous changing of tubes and pipes, we were lucky enough to get the full cellar experience and had only the best teaches in showing us the processes. Fun, energetic tunes were playing in the background and everyone was all smiles despite the fact that the pressure was on - temperatures in Robertson were 35 degrees and rising everyday - the grapes perfectly ripe for picking! Next up we got to see the bottling station, which is a seriously slick operating system. A combination of automation and human intervention means bottles are being disgorged, dosaged, labelled and packed extremely efficiently and with the right amount of due care and skill. We ended the day being treated to a cellar tasting by Pieter, and what a treat that was. Graham Beck has a large Cap Classique portfolio with currently 8 different wines on offer. Each demonstrating their own character and meeting the high quality standard that Graham Beck represents.
We thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Graham Beck. The teams passion, hard work and dedication to excellence is inspiring and we are super excited to see what Harvest 2020 will produce…