“You may feel a little bit light-headed later on,” Durbanville Hills white wine-maker, Gunther Kellerman advises us. It seems like rather an apt warning; I’m at the Feast of the Grape Festival, the Durbanville wine valley’s harvest festival held in late March. There are no less than twelve wine farms participating – with vineyard tours, grape stomps, bottling masterclasses and all manner of vertical tastings – and I’m determined to visit as many as possible.

As it turns out though, Gunther is not even referring to the effect of the alcohol.

“That smell you’re smelling is the CO2”, he says, gesturing towards the vast, silver 100 000 litre tanks that we’re passing between, on our tour through the high-tech cellar. Inside these tanks is the 2011 harvest; slowly fermenting with yeast, huffing out carbon dioxide, getting ready to become wine. In the cellar, after our tour, I get to taste the new-born wines; the class of 2011. Drawn from the barrels this very morning by Gunther, they’re still cloudy and yellow; right now they look more like lemonade than wine. But already, they have the beginnings of a personality. There is a nuanced, oaked Chardonnay that everyone loves, but, Gunther explains, after a year in French Oak, it will grow to be very wooded indeed, and will be blended with an un-oaked Chardonnay for balance. There’s also a neat, tasty Rosé, which also seems like it’s going to grow up to be popular.

After our tasting, I push on, determined to see what else is on offer. At Hillcrest, in the winery’s dramatic quarry, I sample roosterkoek with grape jam, made from their Shiraz grapes, and watch the energetic grape stomping. Judging by the kids running around, red from shoulders to bare feet, there has been some swimming, as well as stomping going on in the big blue vats of grapes. At Nitida, there is a grape jam bottling masterclass underway, live music, picnicking and canoeing on the dam. At Altydgedacht, vineyard tours in the farm Unimog are on the menu, along with restaurateur, Sharon Kriel’s fabulous bacon quiches in filo pastry. There are also grape oil massages being conducted, as light jazz filters through the trees.

So how has this year’s harvest been? Hot, most wine-makers agree, and in most cases, the harvesting is ending sooner than usual. But this hasn’t been the case everywhere. “Most of the areas had a bit of a smaller harvest, but this is actually one of our better years”, Nikie de Villiers, resident wine-maker at De Vallei, tells me later on in my adventure. They’ve hosted a ‘Pinknic’ for the festival, turning out fabulous, vast picnic baskets for festival goers. While other areas had too much heat this season, and not enough rain, Nikie explains that De Vallei is South-facing, and hence a little cooler.

Even so, he tells us, with grapes, it’s always tough to get the balance right. “If they start shrivelling too early, it goes jammy. And if they don’t shrivel, you end up with a greeny character. It’ll usually be just one part in the vineyard that you’ll get it right.” Nikie started making his own wines on the farm in 2006, but already his 2010 vintage is peppered with gold and silver Michelangelo and Veritas stickers. After tasting some of them, it’s clear he’s getting something right.

So what else looks good this year? Bloemendal’s General Manager, Mike Crawford, predicts that the region’s speciality will impress once again, “The Sauvignon Blanc grapes are really looking good and the Shiraz grapes are good this year; the juices are just really phenomenal”. Bloemendal are also bringing back their Cap Classique again, which Mike is excited about. “There are lovely green flavours coming through.”  Mike has hosted a full program of tastings, vineyard tours, process demonstrations, and lunch and live music for 250 people.

The harvest is now all but over, and what sort of wines the grapes will become is now down to the winemakers. But judging from the festivities – and the fact that the only people spitting anything out are the wine-makers – I’d say that the early signs are good for the class of 2011.

By Katharine Jacobs

Photos: Katharine Jacobs and Ian McNaught Davis