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Viticulture and Wine Making at Journey's End.......
The vineyards were replanted between 1996 and 1998; using the best and most suitable clones and rootstocks for these South-West facing slopes. These same vines remain today, producing the exceptional fruit used to make these award-winning wines from Chardonnay, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot since 2004.
	Chaapenberg is increasingly recognised as one of the premier cool-climate growing areas in South Africa and includes Morgenster, Vergelegen and Journey’s End (which b orders with Vergelegen). The slopes of Schaapenberg boast a myriad of different aspects and variations in topography. This diversity is regarded as an asset, providing several different terroir units. The Cape Doctor wind, so often cited as a negative factor, can play havoc with the vines at flowering. For Journey’s End it brings benefits through the resulting long ripening period of the grapes which produces concentrated berries with fantastic firm acidity.
Rigorous pruning ensures very low yields with just 2.5 tons per acre (well below the magic 3 tonnes per acre perceived as a benchmark for premium grapes). Wines are made only from Journey’s End vines. The grapes are picked at night and transported no further than 150m, preserving grape quality. Their journey ends at the newly built winery (just finished this year) situated at the heart of the vineyards. Although not organic by name, the company is able to largely avoid spraying and the use of pesticides due to their coastal position. They rely on organic practices where possible, such as planting crops between the vines and smearing molasses on the base of the vines to conserve the area's biodiversity, whilst being extremely vigilant with disease control. 2008 saw the purchase of a further 6ha of Schaapenberg vineyard planted with Sauvignon Blanc. Further planned plantings for 2009 include Viognier, Sémillon, Petit Verdot and Mourvèdre .
Journey's End White Wines
The berries for the white wines are carefully selected by hand in the vineyard. Half of the harvest is whole bunch pressed at low pressure and the rest is crushed and undergoes 3 hours of skin contact before it is pressed. The free-run juice and the press juice are kept separately. The free run juice is then cold-soaked for 48 hours with settling enzymes before it is racked into barrels for a 10 to 15 day fermentation process. Fermentation starts spontaneously and continues at a low temperature. Nitrogen is added to the barrels to keep the yeast from stressing. After fermentation, the wine is inoculated with an Oenococcus oeni culture to facilitate malolactic fermentation.
This is followed by bâtonnage (the process of stirring the lees) twice a week for 2 months. After which the wine is racked from the lees and checked. The barrels are then cleaned and filled again to undergo 9 months of barrel maturation. After this time the best barrels are carefully selected and blended for bottling.
	Journey's End Red Wines
	All the red wine grapes are hand-selected and meticulously sorted before being de-stemmed. They are then lightly crushed in order to retain lots of whole berries in the fermentation tank. These tanks are cooled down to 5 degrees Celsius and the grapes cold-soaked with a colouring extraction enzyme for 2 days before fermentation. After two days of cold-soaking the grapes are inoculated with a Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast in order for the fermentation process to begin. At the start of this 7 to 12 day fermentation process, typically 3 pump-overs a day are executed, with an occasional aeration pump-over to keep the yeast in contact with oxygen. During this time the acidity is closely monitored and nitrogen is added as a supplement for the yeast, helping it to avoid stress during the process of fermentation.
When the tank is part-fermented the pump-overs are adjusted to twice a day. On completion of fermentation the winemaker allows further skin contact, and only wets the cap once a day. After extracting sufficient tannin, the tank is pressed and the free-run wine kept separately. Then the pressed wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrels. Once this process is finished, the wine is racked off the lees from the barrel. The sulphur and acidity are adjusted and the wine pumped back into the barrels for maturation. Once the wine has extracted the desired oak characteristics the wine is racked into tanks to be prepared for blending and bottling. Only French oak is used from François Frères, Mercurey, Taransaud and Demptos. Minimum interference with fruit is central to the Journey’s End winemaking philosophy. Only French oak is used, enabling winemaker Leon Esterhuizen to produce varietal wines that are elegant, balanced, complex and more European in style than New World. CELLAR & TASTING ROOM NEARS COMPLETION: Journey’s End new tasting room and barrel store will be completed by March 2009. The winemaker is looking forward to hosting private tastings by appointment only at this venue. For more detail or bookings please email on info@journeysend.co.za NEW VINES UPDATE: Six hectare Sauvignon Banc was planted this year and we expect our first harvest in 2011. In order to further enhance that quality and character of our wines, we at Journey’s End will shortly be planting Viognier, Mourvèdre and Semillon vines.

Viticulture and Wine Making at Journey's End.......