Longacre Olive and Vineyard Estate is located in Langebaan just 3km from the coast, directly inland from the popular resort, Club Mykonos, an hour and a half's drive along the R27 from Cape Town on South Africa's beautiful West Coast. The inspiration to plant the small vineyard came from many visits to olive and wine farms that had both plantings co-existing on their property over the past 5 years. My initial research was confirmed that the general area was well suited to the planting of vines but that very little was planted in the imediate area. I started my research on the best cultivars to plant and when I finally took the decision to go ahead with the project I discussed the cultivar selection with Corius Visser, resident wine maker at Croydon Vineyard Estate, where we own a property www.croydon-estate.co.za I was at this time allmost settled on planting Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Corius suggested that I research Semillon as it was a great cultivar to use for blending and complemented Sauvignon Blanc. My reseach took another turn in that I tasted allmost every Semillon/Sauvinon Blanc blend that I could lay my hands on, until I settled on the final cultivar choice. The small 0.6 Ha consists of 15% Semillon and 85% Savignon Blanc. The initial 1400 vines were obtained from Cape Vine Nursery in Wellington www.capevines.co.za and I received some very usefull advice from Dawie Le Roux on the rootstock to be used for the area and soil conditions. The vineyard is layed out in 42 rows approximately 45m long with  2,4m row and 1.2m vine spacings. A 5 wire Perold trellis was installed before the planting began. 

A second block of vines on about 1 100 sqm have being planted during September 2009 to the north of the existing block. 12 rows of approximately 350 Sauvignon Blanc and 50 Semillon vines are planted.  Planting was done as previous 2.4 x 1.2m. The Sauvignon Blanc is a different clone on the same rootstock.

The 2010 planting season has seen an additional 200 Sauvignon Blanc vines being planted as an extension to the 2nd block. The rootstock of the vines are Paulson P1103, the same rootstock as the Semillon vines.

The details of the vines are as follows:

Block A and B

Scion:          SEMILLON

Clone:          GD1E

Rootstock:    Paulson - P1103

Clone:           PS28A

Scion:           SAUVIGNON BLANC

Clone:           SB316G

Rootstock:     Ruggeri - RU3

Clone:           RU302G

The Second Block details are:

Block C

Scion:               SAUVIGNON BLANC

Clone:               SB 317

Rootstock:         Ruggeri

Scion:               SEMILLON

Clone:               GD1E

Rootstock:         Paulson