This was the feeling that prevailed as our vineyard team set forth at the crack of dawn to pick the first Pinot Noir grapes for our 2024 MCC. Which of course is aptly named … ‘Elation’. Here’s to the love of agriculture and fine wine!

This is what Professor Gabriel Lepousez had to say about the 2018 Elation vintage: “Méthode Cap Classique, Brut Nature, Elation, Creation, South Africa. Southeast of Cape Town, in the cool, high valley of Hemel-en-Aarde, amid extraordinary biodiversity set on schist, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have found a new home. The cool oceanic nights give rise to ripe grapes with a beautiful freshness, which this 48-month champagne method on lees transcribes perfectly: fine, dynamic bubbles, an elegant, salivating acidic structure that gradually gains in volume with the Pinot Noir, all dressed up with aromas of citrus fruit, nectarine, raspberry and brioche.”

Creation. Working with Institutions Globally

OBREAL is a non-profit association based in Spain that promotes interregional cooperation and dialogue in the Higher Education sector. I was recently invited to partake in a podcast discussion on the vital subject of ‘The challenges and opportunities that vineyards face due to Climate Change’. Here are a few of my contributions:

Having a very intact ecosystem means that the whole ecosystem really takes care of itself and we don’t have pests that kind of arrive and take over. So that’s one of the important things: the environment is taking care of the ecosystem.  So we use natural predators from the smallest . . . to look after the health of our vineyards, to the biggest natural predators like the leopard to look after the rest of the ecosystem.

How do we work across the world with scientists and with students and with industry to secure the future of the vine? This is the most important thing for us. It is not about how we work in a competitive way. It is about how we collaborate for innovation and how we use our experiences and knowledge to assist each other across the world.

And so we know that when we have a very healthy environment and ecosystem, then we actually can produce really fine wines that have very distinctive characteristics of the site from where they come.

Wine tourism is a great opportunity to create knowledge and awareness about this beautiful product which celebrates agriculture. . . . And that’s so important for us, for the world, actually. . . . The opportunity is to go through a beautiful, educative process while people enjoy good, great wines and fine wines and fine food. And also to explain more about the terroir. So we’ve got a sensorial tasting menu around the terroir.

Please click here to listen to the entire podcast.