As spring turns to early summer in the Stellenbosch winelands, the vineyards come alive with energy and colour. November is a month of transformation – when the quiet promise of spring gives way to the confident rhythm of the growing season.

Golden days and mild nights create the perfect conditions for the vines to stretch and flourish, their shoots reaching skyward and unfurling into lush green canopies. It’s a busy time for vineyard teams, who move through the rows each day, guiding and tending the vines to ensure healthy growth.

Nestled in the Boland Mountains, the Jonkershoek Valley, with its many peaks and ravines, has long been a fertile ground for human activity. Hunter-gatherers left behind hand axes and sandstone tools, while Middle Stone Age peoples settled the area between 150,000 and 30,000 years ago. About 2,000 years ago, Khoekhoen herders and migrating Khoi cleared fynbos for pastoral land. Surrounded by Cape lions, mountain leopards, antelope, birds of prey, and abundant fynbos, they lived in harmony with the valley’s natural beauty.

At the valley’s entrance, a farm was granted to Isaaq Schrijver, who aptly named it “Schoongezicht,” meaning “beautiful view.” Schrijver later purchased Mostertsdrift, expanding Schoongezicht, and unknowingly acquiring land that would play a key role in the creation of Pinotage centuries later.

Over the years, Schoongezicht passed through many hands until, in 1920, a widow from Somerset East renamed the farm Lanzerac. Mrs Elizabeth Katarina English, a remarkable woman, undertook significant improvements to the estate and introduced the first Lanzerac wine around 1922.

Lanzerac’s vines draw deeply from the Jonkershoek soil as they channel energy into growth. The work done in November sets the foundation for flavour and quality later in the season.

By now, the tiny buds that first appeared in early spring have grown into small bunches of bright green grapes in the making. Flowering is either just finishing or in full swing, depending on the region and grape variety. These delicate blossoms are easy to miss, but they hold the future of the next vintage. Each one has the potential to become a grape that will eventually find its way into a glass of wine months from now.

November is spring’s last hurrah. The last gasp of the season of change before the bustle of summer arrives in earnest. November presents a last chance for calm before the calendar fills with celebration, invitations and the mirth of the busy festive season. Take the time to pause, reflect on the year, glass in hand. Great wine is, after all, about more than what’s in the glass.