Welcome to 2025! May the year bring you happiness, pleasant surprises, and opportunities! To some, 2025 was often used at school (or just for future-gazing) as that long way into the future— ‘imagine you are in the year 2025…’ Well, it’s arrived – are things how you imagined them?
One thing is for sure, we live in interesting times. The pace of change continues to accelerate, and despite a tendency for the news to carry negative stories, to my mind, much of the change I see as positive, and in many cases, points to a time of Abundance. Undoubtedly, the path forward will be one with many ups and downs, but it is always fascinating. This time last year, we checked in with AI as a bit of a novelty; now, I use AI for most tasks, and it is rapidly improving – my conclusion is the pace of change in 2025 will continue to accelerate, and the next five years, I believe, are going to change everything.
Despite the changes coming, our connection to Nature, the soil, and the traditions of farming and winemaking provides a vital anchor – stability. However, that doesn’t mean we will not modernise our practices through technology – we certainly will. Our central mission to improve the soil health on the farm is facilitated by the racing pace of improving soil science and a better understanding of how Nature works. It is likely that this year, in the vineyards, we will begin trials of drone technology for various interventions, improving our precision and increasing our understanding of these actions. Increasingly, we will use AI alongside our farming practices, and in a short time, it will play an essential role in furthering our understanding of Nature.
The science of winemaking is constantly evolving, and Nic spends much time staying current with new ideas and incorporating those that apply to his process. He is, however, also staying true to our less interventionist and more natural approach to winemaking, such as wild yeast ferments. The coming harvest – only moments away is exciting as Nic will be using amphorae for some of his fermentations. Amphorae have been used for making, storing and transporting wines for over 8000 years, and it can be considered a more natural method of making wines. (more on this later in the year) It is a classic case of ‘old school’ modern technology.
Christo’s team is working hard on our vineyard canopy management as we head into harvest, ensuring our canopies allow reasonable amounts of sunlight to filter through onto the bunches, promoting essential homogenous ripening. Good airflow through these lighter canopies also provides for a consistent temperature environment in the vineyard blocks—everything is focused on quality rather than quantity—a definite case of less is more. The season has been cool and dry, and the vineyards look stunning, so we keep our fingers crossed that the next two and a half months continue on this path.
We are pleased to announce that we finalised new distribution in the later stages of last year. In Italy, one of Barolo’s most historic and respected wineries – Pio Cesare, has joined forces with us to distribute our wines in the Italian market. It is our first such collaboration, and we hope our winemaking commonality will bring strength and success to this partnership. We are happy to partner with Savinis, a South African wine specialist in Switzerland, and I look forward to joining them later this year to host some enjoyable wine events. We have also found a partner in the middle of the Pacific Ocean—Lawhill Wines in Fiji will carry our wines. We are proud to extend our distribution and work with our new valued partners.
One of the strongest trends we see as we enter 2025 is that of more and more noise (aka media storm) about people drinking less. Younger generations have moved away or not taken up drinking(alcohol). Consumption of no or low-alcohol wines is growing rapidly, and many pundits are preaching the virtues of not drinking or cutting down.
Our take is simple—less is more. Drink less but drink better quality. Our natural and artisan approach to winemaking and the sustainable practices incorporated into our viticulture are essential to creating more natural wines. What we love about wine is that it encapsulates Nature and is best for sharing with friends—it comes from a time and place, lives in its bottle, and travels across the world, where it is enjoyed and celebrated.
Wine connects people – less is more.
