Short reads

• Harvest Report
• Florida East Coast Swing
• The winners are…

The first quarter of 2019 has come and gone and with it the Southern Hemisphere Harvest has concluded. The 2019 harvest will likely be one of the smallest in years due to the lingering effects of the prolonged drought between 2016 and 2018. In agricultural terms, the drought was so severe that the outer roots of the vines desiccated and died, leaving the vines perpetually 'thirsty'. Our experience with both 2016 and 2017, however, has been that the grapes produced by these stressed vines are packed with flavor. During the harvest we welcomed new egg shaped fermenters (see our Instagram posts here and here). The elliptical shape of the eggs allow the flow currents produced by the fermenting juice to naturally and gently circulate, minimizing human intervention and increasing extraction of flavors from the grapes. We are eagerly awaiting the results. For more about the harvest in South Africa, check out the harvest videos from the Cape Independent Winemakers Guild Facebook site here.

Florida East Coast Swing

In March, Lynne had a wonderful opportunity to visit the Naked Grape Wine Bar in Fort Lauderdale which was voted Greater Miami's best wine bar where she entertained old and new friends while pouring the Safriel House range (see our Instagram post here). She was in hot demand and we now have Safriel House wines at several fine wine bars and restaurants on the East Coast of Florida. We were also very chuffed that the our Rosé was chosen for the tasting at the Sommeliers Cup competition in Miami.

We Win!

Finally, on a high note. The Safriel House Chardonnay and Rosé both won silver medals at the prestigious TEXSOM International Wine Awards. Our Reserve Cabernet 2017 won a bronze medal, one of the few medals handed out to such a young wine. To put it in perspective, in a November 2017 paper titled "Wine Competitions: Reevaluating the Gold Standard", published by the Journal of Wine Economics, a high-quality, peer-reviewed research journal published by the American Association of Wine Economists, the TEXSOM International Wine Awards was called out for being the most selective among the competitions studied. The final finding of the paper is that all awards are not created equal—some competitions appear to be able to differentiate more effectively amongst quality levels than others. The implication is that the TEXSOM International Wine Awards was at the top of the pyramid. They pointed out that the evaluation methods for the TEXSOM International Wine Awards are far more detailed and rigorous than is typical of other competitions.

Talking and Listening To You

This is the first of what will hopefully become regular (but not spammish) newsletters. So we’d welcome any feedback or questions and, um, orders.

All the best,

 Lynne and Yair