Hidden Valley Wines

Winter is here

2010-05-06T00:28:00.001-07:00

Come and enjoy our lovely winter food at Hidden Valley's tasting room.
Overture restaurant also has a special on food and wine @ R200 per person with wine included R250 per person.

Another one of out stunning brides at our beautiful venue

2010-03-01T06:04:00.001-08:00

2010-03-01T05:33:00.001-08:00

Another day at the office, sigh.

2009-10-30T02:30:00.000-07:00

Life can be tough in Africa. Every day we have to look at this view. Lets have another glass of Sauvignon blanc.

See the sea

2009-10-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

We are 9,7 km form the sea as the crow flies, and 300m metres above sea level, so ideally suited for the production of Sauvignon blanc.

The Helderberg is a very unique area, and all these attributes add up to something special.

Cape of Storms

2009-10-09T04:03:00.000-07:00

A totally wild beauty grips you at Agulhas at the most southernly point of africa, where our Land's End grapes come from.

The vineyards are just starting to bud and we expect a lot from the 2010 harvest.

How does your garden grow?

2009-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a map of our farm showing all the cultivars. So far we are still waiting for the Cabernet sauvignon to bud, but the early cultivars like the Viognier and Merlot have budded some time ago. The weather has been cool so far, so we just hope it will continue like that.

Grobbie reckons that the Cabernet will bud next week. Lets see what the season brings.

Spreading the good word tralalaaa

2009-09-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Louis will be a jetsetter ( Jetsetter da daa) this week flying to the tropics of Durban and the bustling settlement of Gauteng, to spread the good word for Hidden Valley. This is only two day's work for our hero.

You want rocks, we got 'em!

2009-09-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

Altogether 600 tons of rock went into our wall. The stone came from a quarry nearby at Blaawklippen, and were meticulously laid by skilled craftsman. The rocks at the bottom are the biggest, and get smaller on the way up.

Looking from our Olive grove this is quite an amazing site, but is not easily seen from the road because it blends into the surrounding countryside.

Bottling 2009 Hidden Valley Sblanc and 2007 Syrah

2009-09-16T04:39:00.000-07:00

We finally bottled the 2009 Sblanc yesterday. It went smoothly with the Sblanc, but we only managed to bottle about 2500 bottles of the 2007 Lands End Syrah.

We are waiting for the capsules to arrive from Spain, so hopefuly we will have the Syrah labelled in a months time.

The Lands End Sblanc wil be labeled next month.

Our period of waiting is over. This is the time.

2008-01-31T02:36:00.000-08:00

Grapes at last!

We received the first grapes of the 2008 harvest today and it is looking good. The Chardonnay grapes arrived today at 08:00 and we pressed them wholebunch.

We used the Champagne cycle to gently press the grapes, thus asuring that we get only the best quality juice. The grapes came in at 19,0°B and with an acid of 10,3 g/L.

We will settle the juice overnight, rack it tomorrow, inoculate and start the fermentation in tank. On Monday the fermentation will be well on its way and we will transfer the juice to barrel.

Everything went smoothly, so here is hoping for the best for the rest of the season.

Reaching for the stars

2008-01-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

We are making some sparkling wine this year, but it will probably be so little we will just serve it in the Overture restaurant, and enjoy it with friends.

We are planning to harvest just one ton of grapes, and from that we will make 500 bottles by the end of next year, just in time for Christmas.
We have been monitoring the grapes and it looks like they will be ready this week. We want to harvest the grapes at about 19 Balling (% sugar) and from the graph we can see that ripeness will probably occur on Thursday. Hold thumbs because we have to do this just right.

Settling in

2008-01-23T22:37:00.001-08:00

I am finally getting into the swing of things here in my new job.

I'm so excited and there will be so many new challenges this year, I just can't wait. My new office is to die for and I am the envy of everybody. Just look at my view.

Besides the good coffee, I am looking forward to getting to know the personality of all the different vineyards. Wine is made in the vineyard, as the cliché goes.