Louis Wines

Neigbour's Wrath revisited

2010-01-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

The photo shows what is left of the Neigbour's Wrath vineyard. As you can see there is nothing left of the once lush vineyard.

Partial Tendril Droop

2010-01-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

I consciously switched off from wine for holiday, but now I am back in full force.

You saw the fires raging on TV, that is an indication of the dry weather we have been having. We had great winter rains, but hey it is long gone. We will have tho watch the tendrils on the vines for signs of water stress.

One of the signs of water stress is called PTD, partial tendril droop. It sounds like a male disease, but is actually just the slow wilting of the vine first shown in the tendrils. Irrigation an fix a lot more than it can harm, and judicial use can go a long way towards quality.

Hoo weeee

2009-10-15T11:21:00.001-07:00

I finally got some wine labelled now I just have to sell it. I don't have an agent yet so it will be quite tough going, but I am up for the challenge. Nobody said it would be easy, and failure is not an option.

It is me in the real world.

Link to Steve Tanzer ratings of CWG Wines

2009-09-30T01:40:00.000-07:00

Go here to see the Steve Tanzer ratings for the CWG Wines:

http://www.capewinemakersguild.com/news/article.asp?newsID=106

Beware my friend, your Neigbour's Wrath

2009-09-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

The name "Neigbour's Wrath" stems from a very extreme event in the vineyard's history.

I was getting the grapes from my friend Martin, who had a beautiful piece of land in the Helderberg. There was a narrow piece of vineyard on "Koffieklip", an orange type of soil rich in iron, that I vinified separately, and made two kick arse barrels from.

I was extremely happy with the wine, but shortly after harvest the neighbour came and told us that this piece of the vineyard was actually on his land. We were suprised, but after looking on the map we realised he was right. We offered to swop some other piece of land with him, or give him some grapes, but he would have none of it. Eventually he just came one morning, put a fence right through the vineyard, cutting the fence wires and irrigation pipes in the process. My friend Martin was a bit taken aback by this behaviour, but there was very little he could do.

The neighbour then went ahead and neglected the vineyard totally, not irrigating it, not pruning or spraying the vineyard. Martin was afraid that diseases from the vines would spread to his side of the fence and decided to do some extreme pruning with a chainsaw. The neighbour upon seeing this, attacked poor Martin. It is not common in these civilised times to have your neighbour attacking you so is was quite a traumatic event for Martin.

So it came to pass that this wine that I eventually entered into the CWG auction, turned out to be the vineyard's swan song, and all due to the neighbour's wrath.

Neigbour's Wrath 2007

2009-09-30T01:17:00.000-07:00

Steve Tanzer gave the 2007 Neighbour's Wrath Cabernet Sauvignon 93 points!

The wine is third from last at the CWG auction so it will probably go for a song.