The first quarter of the year is almost here and its time to reflect on what has happended in the last few months of last year and also update on happenings lately . Its been a exciting time of late , the harvest 2012 is well underway , we look at some new products our new markets and also new developements on the farm as such .

Hope you enjoy !

Napier Winery Team

Lion Creek is keeping up with the Kardashians and now is showing a brand new face .... Lion Creek never sits still in line with its philosophy : Inspire . Create . Enjoy . setting the cool trend in wine and therefore the facelift was a easy choice to make !!

Watch out for the brand new Chenin Blanc hitting the shelves middle May 2011 !

Last Friday the team took the I out of team ,or lets rather say... put the team's eye on the most important thing for producing premuim wines... teamwork .

It was a proper team affair with Leon's dad Coenie ( a well respected training guru ) helping our team understand the importance of problemsolving ,communication and teamwork . In -House Glamour Photographer Nelia ( Leon's wife) made sure to capture the moments during the day . Great fun was had and our team seems to eye a follow up session later in the year. Thanks Oom Coenie for the great inspiration and skills to use...

Our Cellarmaster is a man that takes great pride in his wine  and keeps a watchful eye on all tanks in the cellar . Its quite clear from the picture below that somebody else shares the same sentiment . Our friend however did not stay to long...!

The day has come for all of us to celebrate... our first grapes for 2011 are being harvested as we speak! See below , 1.8 tonnes chenin blanc ready to find their way into the cellar!

Quite recently Wellington (still a ward of Paarl) provided 8 of the 9 category winners in the Paarl District and produced no fewer than 4 National winners in the SA Terroir Awards for Top Malbec, Petit Verdot, Barrel-fermented Chenin and Pinotage.

Ive learned a long time ago that production teams in the wine industry are a friendly bunch ..except ... in harvest . The conversation flow ,due to manic work pressure and long hours ,tend to be one -sided with yes,no,maybe answers abound . As Harvest season has now officially past the production team seems to be able to string many words and sentences together again and I saw the opportunity to sit down with Johan Kruger one of our newest members of our team to find out a little bit more about him ...

I never seem to be to busy when Leon sticks his head around the corner and says: " Are you busy ? If not please come with me i would like to show you something ".

We are standing at a location formally planted with Chardonnay . This barren land now is being prepared to be replanted with ... wait for it ..... Chardonnay . I might enlighten you in a follow up post with WHY we are replanting , but for now this is the status quo . 

What I found fascinating from standing here is once again how far it strecthes to produce premuim quality wines .  Let me explain: In the picture below you will see this excavation machine to dig deep to break up the soil about 1,5 metres.

As one of our longest serving production team wizards , Trevor is not only close to a decade working for Napier but also a rugby player of note . Ive asked him some questions while busy doing his thing in the cellar...

My previous entry explained our weather station just a interesting side note... the data on this weather station reaches us after its been to Cape Town hub on route to Rotterdam back to Cape Town before we receive the weekly updated information ... clocking in proper flyer miles I guess... I include the map for all our friends that might not know where Rotterdam or SOUTH AFRICA is. As you would see Wellington is slightly inland from Cape Town 80 km to be precise!!!

In 2007 Michael and Cathy Loubser who lived in Canada for many years attended the Lifford Wine Tasting in Toronto and were interviewed here is an extract from that interview ...

Making sure that the Napier Wines find there way to tables wordwide means a lot of travelling . In South Africa we have 3  low cost airlines and up to 3 months ago the difference between these competitors were pretty much whoever could offer me the best price on the particular date got my seat .

Well what happens when you pay for a seat but you dont actually have one....?

Johannesburg is a great place , but ask any Capetonian where they would like to be at 19h00 on a Friday and the answer would very quickly come with a glass of wine ,hopefully at the beach ,with sun going down !! This was my intended  modus operani and i was quite quick to board my flight scheduled for 17h15 to Cape Town . 21 C . " Excuse me Mr Du Toit ... your ticket is wrong you should be sitting at 32 C can you please come with us .."  but..it says here im at 21 C , well the ticket is wrong there is another Mr Du Toit sitting at 21 C could you please move to 32 C . NO PROBLEM.

10 minutes later , " Excuse me Mr Du Toit , but there is another Mr Du Toit suppose to be sitting at 32 C you would have to leave the plane..." WHAT ??! EXCUSE ME ? MY LUGGAGE IS BOOKED IN < YOU HAVE ALLOCATED ME A SEAT AND NOW YOU ARE TELLING ME IM NOT ON THIS FLIGHT ? WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHEN WOULD BE THE NEXT FLIGHT ? " Im so sorry Mr du Toit , but there is 4 people with the surname Du Toit on this flight and only place for 3 the plane is fully booked and somehow your name is not on our system ...you therefore will have to aboard this plane immediately ! The next plane you can take will be the 22h15 arriving at 24h15 in Cape Town ." YOU ARE NOT SERIOUS ! " I m sorry Sir but that is procedure !"

Captain Theunis du Toit ( as you can gather quite a common SA surname ) overhears our exchange and comes to my rescue : " Excuse me Sir , im willing to offer you the jump seat if you are willing to follow procedure and will be happy sitting with us for the duration of the flight ? "

Happy... what a interesting word ... ABSOLUTELY , CAPTAIN IT WOULD BE A GREAT PRIVILIGED !!!!

I enjoyed this flight tremendiously and i must say what struck me of our Captain is his pride in showing me how the different controls work and how much enjoyment he has with flying this plane and getting people back to there loved ones .

So ,  Captain Theunis it was a great priviliged to have met you ! I hope you enjoy our wines that was crafted with the same pride and joy and that i hopefully meet you again soon . In the meantime keep flying High!!

We were fortunate enough our friends from up North came to visit us and have Sunday lunch . Miquel and his family flew down for the weekend and chose Napier Winery to spend there Sunday afternoon. As a liquor retailer time off is sacred and therefore we enjoyed having him and his family here !!! Looking forward to see you soon up in Gauteng on my next trip Miquel... in the meantime we hope you enjoy the Sir George .