John & Lynne's Robertson visit

Spring green vines in the Bonnievale valley with rain in the valley beyond

Place of Rocks Chardonnay by Weltevrede, which really expresses the terroir

Lynne chats to Elzette in the Weltevrede tasting room. 

Notice the beautifully carved wine barrel behind them.

This l890 bottle of South African Cape Hermitage wine was bought at Sotheby’s in 1977 and is a proud possession of Weltevrede

Some of the wines we tasted there

Elzette Steyn, Tasting Room Manager at Weltevrede

Lynne chatting to Bonita Malherbe outside the very nearly completed new Van Loveren tasting room

Inside the centre, there is only the “final fix” to complete

Inside Christina’s restaurant

The menu is simple and concise and the food is great

Christina van Loveren Limited Release Sauvignon Blanc

Bonita telling us about the future plans for the venue

Lourens van der Westhuizen of Arendsig joins us for lunch

Discussion about wine, life and everything else

Lourens’ Margarita pizza

The famous sweet corn fritters are now on the menu

The Hawaiian with extra avocado

Lynne’s order of ASB – Avo, Salami and Brie with added mushrooms

John’s spicy Mexican with chicken and added olives

Another view of the tasting room with the water feature

Donkeys and horses at Excelsior

Horses out to pasture after a long life racing and as pets

The view across the dam from the Excelsior tasting cabin, which is built over the water

Getting to taste through their wines

A lovely wine tasting venue

Some of the alpaca herd with a baby

We think this one looks like Sid the Sloth from Ice Age!

At Ashton Winery tasting, again

These reasonably priced wines win some impressive awards

We finally found the Koo factory shop and bought a case of 24 tins of peaches with no labels for a silly amount.

Opposite was a cottage with a beautiful mainly indigenous garden; most of the plants grow locally

This is how you get your unlabelled tinned fruit. Tins may be damaged, so buyer beware

Queuing to see what they have.  Today it was tinned peaches or pears

We finally found a real farm stall with fresh produce, eggs, and home bottled items. Not filled with expensive gift items you don’t really need. We bought eggs and a bottle of boysenberries in syrup which we haven’t seen for years.

Photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012