In the News
Waterkloof’s cellar has become the proud new home of a Coquard press – the only one of its kind in South Africa!
Coquard is the manufacturer of the original basket press that hails from Champagne in France. A modern, horizontal basket press, it features a plate which gently presses the grapes. The plate then retracts to break the cake of grape skins apart, and then presses again.
This method results in a much softer extraction of the juice, given that the press does not need to turn in order to break the cake down. In short, one is able to extract more juice of a higher quality in a shorter amount of time.
Installing the press in an existing gravitational-flow cellar wasn’t the simplest of tasks – we had to remove cellar roof and use an enormous crane to lift the press and place it in position! Watch videos of the installation on our Youtube channel.
We will be using our brand new Coquard press in the production of all of our white and rosé wines. It is situated on the first level of our cellar and is supported by steel beams. The pressed juice will run into the settling tanks using gravity.
Watch this space during harvest 2016 for photos and videos of Nadia putting her new press to work!
Click here to view more photos on our Facebook Page.
