Open day at Beaumont

The open day at Beaumont in Bot River is one of our favourite events of the year and where we get the chance to taste through their entire range and we drove out there on Sunday morning.

It turned into a scorcher of a day and it was superb that they had their marquee up so there was some shade.

Ariane Beaumont and her husband Jean-Pierre Rossouw have just become the proud parents of twins, so there was lots to celebrate with the family, as well as tasting the lovely wines and dipping into the great spread on the central table. It is a great family effort, with Sebastian responsible for the wines,

his wife Nicci and her partner Jennifer Franklin, (who have the catering company called Zest Catering) looking after the food.

Jen and Nicci with Jen's mother, who is visiting from Spain

Great dips of aubergine, olive and artichoke, lovely Brie - completely ‘à point’ (completely at the point of ripeness and readiness) - fresh fruit and crisp grapes, a huge Klein Rivier gruyere to chip at, wonderful chutneys and preserves, and very crisp, hot falafel balls with humus, biscuits and bread amongst others things. And they do organize events and weddings on the farm.

Lynne loved the Raoul’s Jackal’s River white blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc and semillon, all grown on the farm and insisted that we bought a case to enjoy at home. Their two Chenin Blancs are both superb, full deep and rich ripe fruit, very suitable for keeping for a while and John succumbed to three bottles of the magnificent barrel fermented Hope Marguerite 2010. We both loved the rich spicy Shiraz Mourvedre, so we had to have some of that as well. We had intended to stay for a picnic by the lake but it was so hot that we fled home along the magnificent coast road with the aircon full on, so that John could complete his UCT assignment.

One of the farm’s attractions is the beautifully restored water mill, which produces the flour used to make the farm’s delicious bread.

In the small art gallery, there was an interesting exhibit of hand knitted garments made of alpaca wool. The alpacas are reared by Christopher and Alison Notley at Helderstroom Alpacas and the garments knitted by ladies from the Villiersdorp community as an empowerment project.