A day in the life of Klawer Wine Cellars' winemakers and viticulturist during harvest

What a privilege to hear directly from our winemakers. It is heartwarming to hear stories from people who have dedicated their lives to winemaking. The Klawer Wine Cellars team works hard every season to produce fine wines.

Pieter van Aarde, production manager

Pieter van Aarde has been in the winemaking industry for 24 years, and 13 of those years he poured into Klawer Wine Cellars. He is currently the production manager and, ultimately, his role is to ensure that everything runs “smoothly”. He prefers making red wine as it requires more physical work and creates the opportunity to be more “hands on”.

A typical morning for Pieter starts with planning the day ahead and sharing the schedule with his team. Furthermore, he has to monitor the process to make sure things are done properly.

His favorite time of the year as a winemaker is tasting time, when all the hard work is done and he gets to try the final product. There were many challenges he's faced, but for Pieter loadshedding was one of the main challenges in the last year. He says that the weather of 2023 presented heavy rains and some very hot summer days in January that raised some concern.

On a positive note, his motto for harvest season is never to quit. To the aspiring young winemakers out there, his message is to be present and part of solutions.

Roelof van Schalkwyk, red winemaker

Roelof van Schalkwyk completed his first harvest in 1999 and he still loves what he does. His main focus is on The Villa Esposto range, more specially the Pinotage rosé. He perfects the Pinotage rosé through use of high-quality grapes and proper cellar practices. He is also part of the production of all red and rosé wines, and he is always willing to help where he can.

Roelof starts his morning with planning for the day ahead, and at the end of the day he does a bit extra to make the next day easier.

Harvest season is his favorite time of the year, as every day is an adventure.

Which leads us to his motto, “Just be lekker”. As a winemaker you face many challenges daily, but it helps to do as much as you can during harvest season. Do what you have to thoroughly, to ensure an easy year ahead. To newcomers, he says: "You need to be ready for the good, bad and the ugly and the only way to make it is to keep being lekker!"

Klaas Coetzee, viticulturist

Klaas Coetzee has been part of the winemaking industry for 26 years. The winemaking processes that he enjoys the most are that of Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc.

A typical day in the life of a viticulturist starts with a quick stop at the office to do some planning and then heading out to the vineyards while its still cool outside.

Thereafter, he spends the rest of the afternoon planning on the next day’s harvest and meetings with producers. Klaas explains how the heat in January lead to an early harvest and that prior to that there were some worries over downy mildew, but the grapes are looking good nonetheless. His main aim is to ensure the grape quality remains high.

His motto for the harvest season is that, "You have approximately 30 seasons in a lifetime to make wine, so make every season count!" His advice to aspiring winemakers is to focus on doing the “basics” 100% correct.