With our 2025 harvest almost complete, we sat down with three key members of our Alvi’s Drift winemaking team to reflect on the season’s challenges, triumphs, and standout wines.

From weather conditions and vineyard developments to promising wines now resting in-barrel, here’s what they had to say about our third-generation winery’s near-completed 2025 harvest.

 

“To us, every harvest is a dream, and every dream strives for the very best.” - Riaan Marais, Cellar Master

 

 

Now that the 2025 harvest is nearly done, what are your early impressions of this vintage?

Riaan: 2024 was an incredible year in terms of quality, but I dare to say – just wait for 2025’s Alvi’s Drift red wines. There are truly beautiful flavours and intense colours. 

When it comes to whites, our Chenin Blanc is just as beautiful as last year – let’s just hope the judges agree! Our Viognier is a standout wine this year, with notes of orange peel and orange blossom.

 

Were there any unexpected flavour developments in this year’s wines?

Riaan: Our Sparkling Brut Blanc de Blanc is a beautiful Chardonnay with a great mouthfeel, and our Sparkling Brut Rosé, made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, is showing terrific fruit flavours. In fact, all our early cultivars are displaying incredible flavours.

 

Every vintage tells a story. Could you sum up the 2025 vintage in one sentence?

Riaan: That’s a tough one to sum up in a single sentence. We had a moderate winter, lots of underground water reserves, and good growing conditions. When it comes to our vineyards – that was some of the best foliage I’ve seen in a long time. We like to use the term “happy feet” here – because happy roots always make for a happy plant.

 

Are there any wines from this harvest you believe will be exceptional once bottled?

Riaan: I’m particularly excited about our Chenin Blanc wines – and the Reserve Viognier. Beautiful, intense flavours and a great mouthfeel.

 

Looking beyond 2025, how will this vintage fit into the legacy of Alvi’s Drift?

Riaan: To us, every harvest is a dream, and every dream strives for the very best. This harvest is no exception. We simply do our very best. Mother Nature does the rest – and we all grow together as a result.

Our team was truly phenomenal this year, strengthened by interns Carolin and Lucas (from Germany) and Adam (from France). We all learned a lot from them, and the various personalities made for a great dynamic in our cellar.

However, it was a very long harvest. We are happy to soon look back on a job well done!

 

 

“We are people, and we are people who care. We pour our hearts and souls into our products. But we also work alongside Mother Nature. We are always reliant on her for our blessings.”  – Jan du Toit, Farm Manager

 

How would you describe the 2025 growing season at Alvi’s Drift? 

Jan:  We experienced several floods in previous years, which led to good underground water reserves for this season. This, in turn, created great growing conditions. 2024’s winter was quite moderate, which ensured a good bud break.

The growing season was relatively moderate, but it became considerably hotter from November last year, which put a lot of pressure on foliage management, to prevent fruit from getting scorched by the sun.

Our 2025 harvest was about two weeks later than usual, and for certain cultivars, it was almost three weeks later than normal. This resulted in a very drawn-out harvest season, running from the beginning of February until the end of April.

 

Which grape varieties stood out for you this year?

Jan:  Pinotage showed beautiful flavours – from the Pinotage Rosé that was pressed early in the harvest, up to the Verreaux Pinotage, our top vineyard block.

 

Can you share some insights into the people behind the harvest?

Jan: It’s early mornings for the machine-harvested grapes, and late nights for the hand-harvested ones. We do our best to harvest grapes at optimal ripeness, and for that, we need hands.

On average, hand-harvested grapes come in at about one tonne per person per day – if the grapes are well positioned on the vine. Then there are the so-called skaamblokke, which are more challenging – you really have to search for the grapes. For those, you need resilience!

 

Were there any new vineyard or sustainability initiatives this season?

Jan: Not this year. Last year, we installed our underground drip irrigation system. This year, we’re in a complete renewal cycle, with 4 ha of Chenin Blanc and 4 ha of Chardonnay planted.

Much of our time and attention was focused on re-evaluating processes in our citrus crops, and we’ll implement our learnings from this into our vineyards – irrigation, soil types, and the use of more effective, environmentally friendly products for pest control.

 

What excites you most about what’s to come for Alvi’s Drift?

Jan:  We are people, and we are people who care. We pour our hearts and souls into our products. But we also work alongside Mother Nature. We are always reliant on her for our blessings.

 

What were some of the biggest challenges in the Alvi’s Drift cellar this year?

Bernard:  This season was very drawn out and even felt a bit monotonous at times. But, then again, working on the barrels took much of our time and attention to compensate! Overall, the harvest ran smoothly, with sufficient time to focus where it was needed.

 

How has the 2025 harvest influenced the flavour of Alvi’s Drift’s white wines?

Bernard: I feel that we had plenty of time to give attention to every cultivar – something that can be challenging when grapes arrive in quick succession. The Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc in particular showed beautiful flavours this year, and operationally, things were very manageable in the cellar.

 

What does a typical day in the cellar look like during harvest?

Bernard: We start at 7 am. By this time, juice has already been received from the morning pressing teams. The juice then gets prepared for fermentation, each batch prepared with a specific goal in mind.

The people who work alongside me are very focused, and they’re well aware that if they don’t do their job right, it will affect the quality of the wine. In my team, each person has their own vision of what they want to achieve as individuals. All of us want to be in the cellar – to us, this is not just a job.

 

Were there any standout white wines this year that surprised you?

Bernard: Once again, the Reserve Viognier’s components are beautiful – the same with the Chenin Blanc. Lovely flavours with a great mouthfeel.

 

How do you see Alvi’s Drift’s 2025 white wines evolving? 

Bernard: I’m excited about the Chenin, which is already displaying stunning qualities in-barrel. As with many things in life, we must now just be patient until it is ready for the next phase.

 

Another Successful Harvest Season

Thank you, Riaan, Jan, and Bernard, for sharing your thoughts on the 2025 Alvi’s Drift harvest with us!

As our wines now continue their journey in our cellar, we look forward to sampling our 2025 vintage wines – and what promises to be another exciting chapter in our third-generation Scherpenheuvel winery’s story.

 

 

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