Last day ...

Today was my last day at work and it was nice. The sun is shining again and I hope the weekend will be sunny too.

Tomorrow I will fetch Ulli from the the airport and then our holiday may start. Actually we are leaving on Monday morning up the West coast heading for the West Coast National Parc. 

I am not exactly sure if we have Internet all the time but I´ll try to update the Blog regullary.

In the meantime, enjoy your summer and I will enjoy my "winter" holiday.

rain, rain ... and yes again ... rain

Today is Sunday and it is the 4th day in a row with rain. The weather forecast was actually pretty precise. Rain, storm, floodings, ... but we had 19 deg on Wednesday. That is winter in Cape Town. Rain and sun to equal parts.

Next week is my last working week at KC and then ... 1 month!!!! holiday in South Africa. Ulli is arriving on Saturday morning and we will go up the West coast, then the little Karoo till Port Elizabeth and afterwards back the South coast. But we will just hit the road on Monday and then we will see ...

I have taken some pics during the week:

theme "winter in Cape Town"

vineyard:

bell:

KC cellar outside:

yes, it is winter:

back in the cellar

I am back in the cellar again to help "Schlecht" (that is the nickname of the frenchman given by the cellar workers, I don´t need to explain it, or??) as Regi and Adam are both on leave for the rest of the week. 

It is quite nice to be in the cellar this week as a pretty big storm from the South pole will hit the Cape region today. Weather forecast for the next days: heavy rainfalls, strong winds and the swell of the sea is supposed to be 5m an more (the surfers are going to have fun!!)

Next week is my last week at work ... yehaa .. holiday I am coming!!

vineyards

The next week I will join Flo, the KC farm manager, for 1 week. I am really looking forward to work with him as he is in charge of many people and I will hopefully learn something about setting up shifts, dealing with workers (could be a problem as I can understand Afrikaans but can not speak it),vineyards, irrigation, ....

Pruning at KC has started last week ... by the way ..  today is 19 deg Celsius!!!!  ... and it is winter now!!

Austrian tasting

Yesterday after work I was the proud host of the first "Austrian tasting" at Klein Constantia.

25 winemakers, sommeliers, journalists and friends were keen to taste some Austrian wines.

My presentation covered the history of viticulture, facts and figures about our winecountry, soils, varieties, climate, ... and so on.

I described the different wine regions, showed some pics, played "Heurigen" music and we tasted 18 Austrian wines from nearly all winegrowing areas.

From light crisp Grüner Veltliner and Welschriesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling Smaragd, Rotgipfler, Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch, Pinot Noir and Sankt Laurent to TBAs was the tasting range and I am proud to say that my guests were stunned by the quality and versatility of Austrian wines.

After the tasting we had a braai and the wines proved once more that they are "the most food friendly wines" in the world.

my guests:

the wines:

Topsommelier Miguel and I:

Some could not get enough:

Germans ...

Today I had lunch with Thomas and his wife Albertina at the "winhuis" in Stellenbosch. I met them about 2 month ago in Cape Town and they spent the last 6 weeks or so in South America. Chile and Argentina was pretty cool but never go to Venezuela!!

They are going back to Germany tomorrow morning after 8 month travelling the world. How cool is that!!! I strongly believe the experiences they made are definitly worth the expenses and they will benefit from this trip in their new jobs.

We will see each other again as I am welcome in Cologne when ever I want! 

Carnival, I am coming!!

FAQs

Franz: And the last wine is our famous Vin de Constance. .... Yes, it is sweet. The RS is about 130g/l.

Visitor: You don´t have something sweeter??

------------------

Visitor(after discovering that I am Austrian): What!! There are vineyards in Austria???? I was in Switzerland last month but nobody told me.

Franz: There are some vineyards in Switzerland too.

Visitor: No way!! I just saw mountains.

Tasting Counter

Tuesday morning the annual audit by the government started. As Linton is busy to show them "where all the money" is, I have changed to the Tasting counter and that is more difficult then expected.

I thought to talk about wine and pour some samples is quite an easy job. Wrong! That´s not easy for me as I am thinking differently as most of the consumers. I tend to be to technical in wine descriptions or just to detailed and by some of the questions of our visitors I am just stunned.

Most favourite FAQ yesterday:

Franz: Our Madame Marlbrook is a blend with 60% Semillon, 37% Sauvignon Blanc and 3% Muscat.

Visitor: Does the Muscat make the wine taste sweet?

(I did not know that Muscat is linked to sweet as one can make every wine in an off-dry style!)

As I find it really interesting/amusing I will try to post my most favourite FAQ everyday this week ... because we all should finish our day at work with a smile!!

Cheers Franz

Export

This week I have worked with Therese. She is in charge of all exports (Klein Constantia Estate exports about 60% of the annunal production all over the world). 

I have learned to issue invoices, Export Certificates, Certificates of origin, Transfer forms, ...

Glady, I took "Aussenhandel" (Prof. Ambichl) at the BOKU. I was not completely lost with INCO terms as FOB, CIF, ..

We had to load two 40ft containers for Denmark and two 20ft containers what was rather difficult as the container were skew and the floor was really worn. It took 4 men (including me) to push and tow and squeeze the pallets in.

Next week I am supposed to work with Linton from the Accouning Dep. That´s going to be fun as I am "completely" plain about accounting. But it will be a short week as Monday is a public holiday. Yeeehhaaaa!! 

Comments ...

Nachdem (abgesehen von Claudia !!) die Comments ziemlich eingeschlafen sind, ist wieder mal ein Weckruf nötig. 

Diesmal in Deutsch! Da , auch wenn der Blog in Ausländisch ist, immer noch Deutsch meine Muttersprache ist und ich auch deutsche Comments beantworte. Ausserdem braucht niemand afraid sein, wenn sein English a little bit schlecht is. Meins is too schlecht!! (As my german is!) 

Cheers

Franz

Next week ...

Next week I will work with Therese. She is in charge of Export and ?? I do not really know what she is doing, but I will find out! I think she is responsible for the PR too.

As my second focus in my master study, besides viticuluture, is wine marketing and PR this is going to be a very interesting week. 

Bottling ..

We started bottling SB this afternoon. After a few starting troubles with the timing of the line (the input star hates me) we were on full speed when the time was up, but as the bottling line and I became acquainted today, we are going to fall in love tomorrow, ... hopefully ;-)

Labelling

After 2 days labelling Noble Late Harvest Rhine Riesling bottles by hand I am able to tell if a label is skew just after one quick glance. But with Jimi Hendrix and Co. from my fancy iPod touch (thanks Ulli for this gorgeous Christmas present!!) it is rather relaxing to work on my own at my own pace.

Change ...

This Friday was my last day in the cellar. Next week will start a kind of job rotation for me. 

I will move from now on through the different job positions within the estate.

First week: stock and bottling line (yeehhaa!!! ... 60.000 L of SB are waiting for me!)

Tasting counter, deliveries, marketing, .... and so on are the upcoming the next few weeks.

As my master study is focusing on wine marketing too, it will be a great experience besides the art of  "New World wine making" I have learned by now. I am quite sure that both sides will benefit from this new partnership (at least I hope so)!!

Cheers, Franz

Swartland

Last Thursday Adam, Stiaan, Manu and I made a small study trip to Lammershoek winery near Malmesbury in the Swartland region.

The estate is owned by Mr. Paul Kretzel, an Austrian from St. Aegid near Mariazell, who lives in South Africa since 36 years. It was very cool to discover that he is an Austrian and he knows lots of Austrian winemakers (Knoll, Pichler, .. and Weinpfarrer Denk!!), of course. His wines will be available at Wein&Co soon.

My fellow student Lena Fink will do her internship at Lammershoek estate next year!!

We tasted some wines out of barrels and visited the vineyards. A big part of the farm is bush vines and they have maybe the oldest and biggest vine in South Africa (according to Adam and Stiaan). 

A 50 year old, maybe Chenin Blanc, vine but nobody knows exactly what it is.

Lammershoek:

Perdeberg wine area:

Bush vines:

Autumn in Constantia

Just a few Autumn impressions from Klein Constantia.

Cottages:

CS vineyard:

Morning sun:

Blending

This week we had a lot of work in the cellar. I took samples of all the "small" lots of SB and other varieties, blended them in little bottles and than the tasting started. A little bit more of this, a little more fruit, a little more "weight", ... Nearly 2 days of trials before we made our final decision in a blind tasting.

Thursday Regi and I blended over 110.000 l SB (KC, Klein Constantia, Perdeblok), Muscat de Frontignan and Madame Marlbrook in tanks and barrels.

Next week finings, if needed and the preparation for bottling for the KC Range.

Wine Affair and Potjie Contest

Last week was a big wine fair at the V & A Waterfront. Allan, Wayne and I had to pour wine on Friday evening. 

The wine fair is a bit different as our tastings at home. Here are also Restaurants on the show and one can taste small pieces of Thai curry, Sushi, Parma Ham and Parmigiano, even fresh oysters from Knysna but they were sold for R7 per piece. I thought this is really cheap but as I told Zanelle and her friend Amelie they were rather shocked how expensive it was.

The wines were good but I found also some Brett and even worse cork. Why do some people pour wine, represent an Estate and can not taste a cork taint??? Not a really good choice to build your brand image. One girl told me right away that she does not know wine at all but she is studying marketing and wants to work in the wine industry. Maybe it is a good idea to know about the thing one wants to sell, or???

After the tasting I joined the other winemakers of the Constantia wine route at the annual Potjiekos (for the Austrians: it is said - Peukikos) competition. This year at Klein Constantia Estate.

Lots of different Potjies (Oxtail, Indian style, 4 with seafood, ...) were bubbling in the night and a chef had to decide who´s the best Potjie.

And the winner is:

1. Steenberg Vineyards

2. Cape Point Vineyards

3. Eagles Nest Farm

Anyway, all were good and if you are hungry ...

Tasting Club

This Monday I had the opportunity to join Adam at his monthly tasting club meeting. 

Theme for this evening was Sauvignon/Semillion and blends between them all over the world. It works like this:

One member is in charge to supply all wines for the tasting and the costs are shared between all.

The tasting is always blind and everybody is supposed to bring his own glasses to keep the running "maintenance" low.

My tasting notes will follow, because I have got no time now to write them. I have to go to the Waterfront tonight to help Allan and Wyane (KC staff) at a wine fair in town. Should be very interesting to see how the tastings work out here and of course there will be some wines to taste for me too.

Oh, I forgot: the members of the tasting club

3 winemakers from different regions, 2 winetrades/buyers, 2 Topsommeliers (Miguel Chan and Mia Martensson)

Yes, I know Fredrik. You are very jealous now ;)

Coffee and Baguette ...

I love South Africa. 16 public holidays in 1 year ... amazing ... and 2 of them were in this week. Freedom day, to celebrate the first free elections back in 1994 after the apartheit and of course 1st of May, workers day! This means just 2 days in the cellar for us. 

I spent this morning in Kalk Bay, a small village near Muizenberg and I made the most pleasant discovery what is possible on a Saturday morning. I found a French bakery in the back of an Art gallery and the lovely smell of fresh bread and coffee was overwhelming. Illy Capuccino and fresh baked baguette with homemade basil pesto, feta and tomatoes. Delicious!!!!

Afterwards I joined a tasting in Lisa´s Little Wine Shop, which is situated in the Artvark Gallery. But check out her Blog: www.tastematters.co.za

The last pic in this post is on my way home on Boyes drive, direction False Bay. Enjoy more Illy coffee ... good coffee is really hard to find here in South Africa and that is a big minus for the country. As we see likes and don´t likes are quite close ...

Jo´s bakery:

The most delicious breakfast:

The thing with the cat is true:

Artvark Gallery: (and the guitar works!!)

False Bay: