Aasvoël 2019

In 2014 I received a phone call from a fellow winemaker. “Do you need some Verdelho?” he asked. I am always on the lookout for something interesting and Stellenbosch Verdelho fits the bill. 

He is the buyer for this little vineyard but the 2014 crop was huge and his tanks were full. I bought what grapes he had left and the wine turned out to be fantastic! So obviously I would love to buy some every year, but the production of a normal year is not high enough to accommodate another buyer. So I became an Aasvoel  - an Afrikaans word for a ”vulture” - sitting on a pole, watching the vineyard. If something falls off the truck, I pick it up (figuratively speaking of course!). In other words, if it is a high production year, I get some grapes. In 2015 I got nothing, 2016 and 2017 came and went and I was still sitting on the pole - eagerly watching. And then in harvest 2018 it came: the call “do you want to make another Aasvoel?” Total production 914 bottles - 100% Stellenbosch Verdelho. 

And here I am again, on the pole - waiting…