The last grapes are in! And the 2025 vintage at Springfontein has shaped up to be one of character, balance, and exciting quality — a harvest that truly reflects our unique terroir and careful farming approach.
Weather & Growing Conditions
The season started off strong, with exceptional winter rainfall in 2024, giving our vines the boost they needed for healthy growth and development. Spring brought its challenges, with strong winds during flowering, but the dry, moderate summer helped keep disease pressure low and supported even ripening and clean, healthy fruit.
A warm, dry February did speed up sugar accumulation, particularly in red cultivars, so timing during harvest was critical. As always, nature kept us on our toes — and the birds were especially busy this year!
Harvest Highlights
We began picking on February 17th, starting as we always do with our traditional harvest prayer. The spirit among the team was high, despite some early bird damage. While yields came in a bit lighter than usual — due to smaller berry sizes and bunch weights, as well as the feathered visitors — the fruit that came in was beautifully concentrated and full of promise.
The white cultivars are already showing incredible potential. Chenel, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chenin Blanc stand out with their crisp acidity, pure aromatics, and clear expression of our coastal limestone soils. Among the reds, Pinotage and Merlot are looking particularly promising, with smaller berries contributing to depth, colour, and age-worthy structure.
People & Practices
As part of our Springfontein tradition, we were thrilled to welcome a group of young winemakers from Europe to join this year’s harvest team: Pietro from Ticino (Switzerland), as well as Louis and Yann from Burgundy (France). Their fresh perspectives, energy, and openness to learning made (and still make 😊) a wonderful contribution, not just in the cellar, but also out in the vineyards. They are involved in everything from composting and organic vineyard care to low-intervention practices during fermentation.
Winemaking Trends
The 2025 harvest saw a mix of tried-and-true techniques and a few exciting experiments. As usual, our juices ferment spontaneously with wild yeast. We continued to explore skin contact, whole bunch fermentation, and for our Chenel, continued working with intracellular fermentation — all part of our ongoing journey to craft expressive, terroir-driven wines that are as natural and honest as possible.
Thank you for being part of our journey. We’re grateful for your continued support and can’t wait to share the 2025 wines with you. Until then — happy Easter from all of us at Springfontein!
