Mellasat Winery.

 

For the last three months I have be working at small winery in Paarl called Mellasat Winery.

  

When Stephen was in his teen years. Stephen’s grandfather introduced him into the wine world and it has become a passion for Stephen ever since.  Stephen Norfolk born and bred living on his farm decided he wanted to pursue his passion for wine. It became clear to him that the East Anglia weather wasn’t the most suitable of all weathers to produce fine wines.  Stephen moved to Paarl in South Africa and bought the 1693 Dekkersvlei farm in 1996. Starting from scratch Mellasat was created and has been around for 15 years. 

I arrived on the 19^th January 2011 for three months to work on the 2011 harvest.

Work started at 6am until we finished which varied from 4 – 7pm everyday. The mornings for me don’t go hand in hand, with a few loud voices echoing in the winery on occasions. To top things off Monty the dog (dachshund), had the urge to join in with the loud shouting by barking up the tree to hunt for squirrels and Cindy the guard dog keeping everyone on the farm in order.

The evenings were great Janet the professional chef, Stephen’s wife cooking fabulous meals was definitely a good way to end a hard day of work.

During my three month work experience, I learnt and gained a lot of experience from the knowledgeable Stephen and was involved in all aspects, from grape sampling, processing, inoculations, punch downs on open fermenting bins, pumpovers, pressing and barrel work. 

Mellasat winery participates in the festival event “Ommiberg” Round the Rock – an event for wineries in Paarl allowing families from all over the Cape to have a preview of the young wines and a general fun day out for the kids too. The reason why I mentioned this was because I was involved in running the wine mastermind quiz as well as grape stomping. Keeping traditions going.

All in all this was a thoroughly enjoyable three months work experience. It was definitely worthwhile and I would highly recommend this to anyone who would like to work in South Africa, to see the country and gain experience.  Email me if you are keen for next years harvest.