Processing
A full-ripe grape harvest in good health will be an essential precondition
for quality wine. To be able to develop its full potential, each individual
cluster of grapes will require six to seven principal leaves. This definite
oenological finding is applied to Capaia through limiting crop quantity
to a maximum of 1.2 kilograms of grapes per vine.
Selection is performed on site by way of "green" harvest. Grapes are picked
by hand, and carried speedily to the winery, in small containers holding
a maximum of 12 kg each. Further processing will be done in an extremely
careful way: no conveyor pumps or suction screws are used, with the gravitational
power inherent in natural declivity being put to work.
Vineyard cultivation is in the hands of Matthys Bothma. This young agronomist
attended Elsenburg agricultural college, and was in charge of the Kirsten
farms in Paarl, which are world-famous for their table grapes. He also put
his expertise to use in the planting of two olive groves with approximately
one thousand trees, which produce the low-acid, aromatic Capaia oil.
As a rule, red grapes will be left for fermentation on skins for 25 to 30
days. White wine, our Sauvignon Blanc, will be aged exclusively in stainless-steel
tanks being six in number, with a capacity of 8,000 litres each. For the
maturing of red wines, a vat cellar with 1,500 barriques is available; these
were also supplied by Taransaud. The resident cellar master, and assistant
to Tibor Gál, is Tertius Naudé, who was born in 1978. He is from Johannesburg,
and studied vinification and viticulture at Stellenbosch university.
