The 2014 vintage is looking good. We experienced sufficient cold winter weather and higher than average rainfall, which guaranteed good conditions for bud burst and our dams and soil water content are at full capacity, which bodes well for the spring and summer season going forward. Bud burst during spring was initially even; however an extremely cold September resulted in bud burst generally 7 to 10 days later for some varieties. More unfavorable and cold weather recently resulted in less fruit set, therefore less grapes volume wise. Hence 2014 vintage is likely to be a smaller one volume wise than 2013, but with our team naturally combating these conditions with the correct treatment, we can assure you that we have a good quality 2014 crop at hand!

In the cellar the next action is that of preparing the 2011 Shiraz and Pinotage for bottling, as well as taking the 2013 Shiraz and Pinotage to barrel for its maturation. All in all we keep ourselves busy in the vineyards and cellar to be making each Aaldering vintage better. I’m happy to inform you that also the latest scores given by Neal Martin for e-robertparker have confirmed this too. Our Shiraz and Pinotage have received straight 90 points scores, a result we are much honored with!