Gosh, I can hardly believe that 20 years have passed since we first harvested grapes for Painted Wolf. Each vintage has been different with its own set of challenges, excitement, and success and this vintage was no different. After a relatively dry and mild winter the vines were itching to dust off their winter slumber and burst into life. Early budding is often an indicator of an early harvest, and the 2025-26 growing season is no exception. Weirdly, it’s been all topsy turvy – we harvested Grenache first, on 19th and 20th Jan – by rights it should have been Pinotage. Last year we started with Pinotage on 23rd January, following with Grenache on 30th.
Ten days is a long time in the grape ripening cycle, and our 2026 is far riper than previous with more colour and nice ripe strawberry aromas. I can’t wait for the finished wine. Carignan followed next and then Pinotage on 28th Jan. The Pinotage seeds were all nice and brown, which shows full ripeness, and the berries gave a bright scarlet juice with colour bleeding from soft mature skins. I love it when it does that. Roussanne 2026 came in on Friday 6th Feb and is now gently fermenting in its clay pot and barrels.
We had a deluge of 65mls of rain over the weekend of 7th and 8th February …putting a new twist to the vintage. When it rains mid vintage, it tends to change the dynamic in the vineyard. At best it slows the ripening down and contributes to flavour development and slightly lower alcohol wines, and at worst it creates the conditions for rot. First to harvest after the rain was our 52 years old heritage chenin grapes, which we caught just in time. I’m confident we will make an excellent wine from them. Lastly, during the 4th week of February we harvested both Pinotage and Viognier from the beautiful high-altitude vineyard in Breedekloof. The grapes were totally unscathed by the rain and had great flavour with slightly lower sugar then last year… we wait with bated breath for the yeast miracle that converts grapes juice to wine to complete its magic.
Over the past 20 years I have made wine in 15 different locations; several vintages having wine made in 3 separate cellars. It is incredibly comforting to know that from now onwards we will harvest our grapes into one cellar. Our partner Jordan Wines has a modern well-equipped cellar and a super experienced team whose talent is contributing to a fabulous future for our wines, and we look forward to sharing these “even better” Painted Wolf wines with you. Stay tuned!
Jeremy
