Vine vigour is something growers observe every season—but how do you measure what you see?

Otterkuil

Vine vigour is something growers observe every season—but how do you measure what you see?

by Vinpro | July, 2026

Cane mass provides a practical and repeatable indicator of vegetative growth, offering a window into rootstock performance, vine balance, and seasonal response. Through multi-year measurements at the Otterkuil rootstock demo, these differences are helping to reveal how rootstock–clone combinations respond under dryland conditions.

Key drivers in the 2026 season

Key drivers in the 2026 season

Key drivers in the 2026 season

by ADVICO team | June, 2026

Yield is not a single trait, but the outcome of how many bunches a vine carries, how many berries each bunch contains, and how large those berries develop. In the 2025/26 season, changes in these components, rather than uniform shifts in yield, shaped differences across cultivars and sites. This article unpacks which factors mattered most and how they influenced final yield outcomes.

ADVICO completes its most active harvest season to date

ADVICO launch
ADVICO launch
ADVICO launch
ADVICO launch
ADVICO launch
ADVICO launch
Riebeeksrivier Red Cultivar Demo
ADVICO Team at Vergelegen Cabernet Sauvignon Clone demo
Creation Chardonnay Clone Demo
Goudini White cultivar demo
Graham Beck Chardonnay Clone Demo
Otterkuil Chenin Blanc Rootstock Demo
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ADVICO completes its most active harvest season to date

April, 2026

This was ADVICO’s most active season yet, with 32 demos harvested across 10 districts and the team covering more than 4,200 km in the process. The work included 15 clone demos, 9 rootstock demos, and 8 cultivar demos, with a total of 1,145 grape samples processed.

The season started two weeks earlier than usual, kicking off with the Chardonnay clone demo at Graham Beck on 6 January, and concluded in March with the Cabernet Sauvignon demo at Vergelegen. It also marked our first harvest at Creation, and Paul Clüver, an exciting milestone for the team.

We look forward to analysing this past season’s results and gaining further insights from the data collected across all sites.

New Chardonnay clone demo at Creation Wines – watching these 14 clones grow in Hemel-en-Aarde

New Chardonnay clone demo at Creation Wines

New Chardonnay clone demo at Creation Wines - watching these 14 clones grow in Hemel-en-Aarde

by ADVICO team | March, 2026

In 2022, fourteen Chardonnay clones grafted onto Richter 110 were established at Creation Wines. Each clone is represented by approximately 50 vines, allowing for meaningful comparisons of growth, yield and fruit composition.

The 2026 season marks the first year of structured monitoring, with replicate panels of each clone measured individually.