News today from South Africa from the ever popular Lynx Wine Estate on the outskirts of Franschhoek
"We were all very excited about the 2020 vintage. Its promising to be one of the best we've had in a couple of years and after the protracted drought we were all optimistic about the South African wine industry's recovery. And then Covid-19 outbreak happened...
Short term it's been devastating for us. With a complete ban on the sales of wine as well as the transport their of, the whole industry came to a complete standstill. Initially we all thought we could mostly continue with our operations (apart from the Hospitality side), but even that was limited. Part of the ban also included Export and this has caused a delay in our Importers around the world getting their stock in time for the summer season. One of those orders were for Carte-du-Vin and it meant that we had to wait until the 4th of May before we could have the order exported...
At Lynx we were fortunate that we were finished with our Harvest and from a winemaking and vineyard point of view the first round of our National Lockdown, wasn't too detrimental. We were gearing up for a bottling in April, but because even that was prohibited we had to move it out to the end of May. This is a month later than normally, but the wines survived their extended tank maturation and a small blessing is that everything went through Malolactic Fermentation in the tanks instead of the barrels, which logistically makes life a lot easier.
As of the 1st of June, we will be allowed to sell wine domestically so for all of us life slowly returns to a resemblance of normalcy.
Going forward is going to be interesting. The hospitality industry is still shut down (guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, tasting rooms) and this will have a major impact on the recovery of the wine industry. But the South African Wine Industry has faced numerous challenges in the past and we will again get back up from our knees.
Looking to the vineyards, this is were you will find the smallest impact of the Covid-19 pandemic at Lynx. During the Level 5 Lockdown, we sent all of our staff home to safely isolate, while only a small core team (myself, Pierre (our assistant Winemaker) and Jason (our Tasting Room Manager) stayed on the farm and isolated here. This meant we could continue working in the vineyards to make sure that everything that was of critical importance happened. The vineyards have not suffered once during the whole time and currently we are allowed to resume our farming activities (albeit with a lot of safety measures in place). The next harvest is on track and barring any other major crisis we should be just fine.
One of the advantages of being a small Boutique Estate is that we are very hands-on and are also very personal in our dealings with our clients. This has meant that even though we weren't allowed to sell wine, I could still make contact with our South African clients and secure orders. The pandemic has probably led to our business becoming even more personal, where you can always have a nice chat with the winemaker."
Thank you Helgard for this in depth report - Lynx has been on our list for 10 years and a best seller
Unfortunately we are very low on stock as our wine delivery (mentioned above) still hasn't left South Africa!
We can still offer the following:-
S.M.G - £14.95
Cabernet Sauvignon - £15.75
Blanc de Noir - £11.95 out of stock
Viognier - £13.95 out of stock
Shiraz - £15.75 out of stock
Pinot Noir - £17.75 out of stock