Cold Link Africa November / December 2019 | Page 14

PROJECT INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN Continued from page 1 New table grape packhouse takes cold chain seriously M odderdrift is the name of the original farm, which is just over 100ha in size. In 2015 the business expanded to include two additional units, Brandwacht and La Montagne, both located at Brandwacht, 30km to the southwest in the Breede River Valley. Initially these farms had approximately 60ha of vineyards, but in the near future the Brandwacht vineyards will also be expanded to around 120ha which will expand the total hectares under vine to over 220ha. The farms and packhouses have well-developed operational infrastructure, including state-of-the- art packing, sorting and cold-storage facilities. The development of the production methods and post-harvest infrastructure to the best industry standards added value to the product and the market is provided with only the best quality. A new state-of-the-art table grape packhouse in Modderdrift was designed A monorail was installed so that different types and weights of grapes can be handled at the same time. PRE-COOLER by Jan Neethling of JA Verkoeling. The project started in May 2018 and When arriving from the vineyard, the was completed in record time by the grapes (in pallets) are off-loaded into first week of December 2018, ready to the airlock with the door closed. The pack in time for the new season. They trucks will then pick up empty crates previously had a smaller store, but the and return to the vineyard. need arose for a bigger, more secure The grapes stand here for about facility. an hour and could have an internal So, a new 55m x 20m packhouse with temperature as high as 30-35°C. This mechanical cooling was built. Packing depends when the grapes were picked generally happens from December until as the morning grapes are obviously Easter weekend for this farm specifically. much cooler. The new Moddersdrift Boerdery in Worcester in the Western Cape. There are 102 packing stations inside the facility. 14 www.coldlinkafrica.co.za The condensers were all built locally by Colcoil. COLD LINK AFRICA • November/December 2019