Learning to fly ...continued However to remain in the limelight in an increasingly competitive market requires much insight and planning. Viticultural knowledge progresses as much as wine drinkers' tastes change, and the successful wine producer has to keep pace with the one and ahead of the other. To safely walk this particular tightrope, Spatz had to purchase land beyond the Drie Sprong boundaries. The Drie Sprong vineyards have Hutton-type soils, predominately sandy loams. Only 50 ha of this farm is planted to vine for two reasons. Firstly, the higher slopes are still too steep to cultivate, and secondly, the climate at this elevation (between 300 and 480 metres above sea level) is suitable for growing white varieties only. When Spatz took over the running of the farm, his experiments proved that the climatic conditions were unfavourable to make the best red wines. The soils, combined with the cool, high altitude and an annual average rainfall of 850mm per year, favour the production of delicate white wines. The only red variety planted on Drie Sprong is Pinot Noir, its crop being used in the production of the Dry Red blend.