.: Opening of the Lanzerac tasting Room in Stellenbosch

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Opening of the Lanzerac tasting Room in Stellenbosch

The historic Lanzerac Manor House

We were invited this week to the launch of the new Lanzerac tasting room, which has been completely changed and now has outside access on the rear as well as on the front facing the werf

There are lots of tables for the tasting and a counter, where you can buy wine to take home

Some good canapés were on offer. A caprese salad topped with Parma ham

Small jars of duck liver paté, topped with sticky orange and onion jam and a rather large grissini

They make a range of onion marmalades for sale in the new Deli

The list of the canapés we enjoyed

The deli has a bakery

and also stocks charcuterie and cheeses

The Deli menu, which also shows the picnic baskets which you can select on the day and pay the per kilo prices, or you can pre-order one for R595 which comes with a bottle of Lanzerac wine. They require a R400 deposit for the picnic basket. How does this compare with other picnics on offer? Check out our other picnic blogs

Lots of comfortable chairs in the tasting room and they have air conditioning, which is very necessary in a hot Stellenbosch summer

Here the media listen to Aylinda Booysen talk about the Tasting room and its history

or you can sit up at the tasting bar

The tasting menu offers several options. Some are rather expensive, but two of the tastings do come with handmade chocolates, also on sale in the tasting room

The Deli Menu with drinks

Duimpie Bayly, who worked at Lanzerac in the early days, makes the opening speech

Great memories for Michael Olivier, who started as a young 20 year old and ended up as the Restaurant Manager

Winemaker Wynand Lategan tells us of the history of the teardrop bottle, which Lanzerac has now reintroduced for its Alma Mater range

We heard some lovely stories from the past about Lanzerac, its owners and customers from Michael Olivier, Manager of Lanzerac for 1975 to 77, and Hermanus (Oom Manie) Anthony, who is now the head waiter and has worked at Lanzerac for over 40 years.

They reminisced about the cheese lunches which cost 75c per person when they first started (currently an 8 cheese platter costs R140) and became iconic part of Lanzerac’s history – everyone has a story of them. Then there was the famous Sunday Buffet for only R1.75 and, just as with Luke Dale Roberts' Test Kitchen these days, you sometimes had to book up to six months in advance. And one of the journalists reminded us that it was the only restaurant for which you could book a table through the South African embassy in London! We loved the story of Chef David Broughton putting the famous restaurant manageress, Mrs Green’s, white cat into cochineal dye.

Executive Chef Steven Fraser, who is also in charge of the Deli

Some of the open sandwiches offered to us for lunch

and some of the filled mini rolls

We could help ourselves from a board with local cheeses, fruit and onion jams

or from a charcuterie selection

Chef Steven Fraser, Marketing manager Jo-Anna Looms and Pippa Pringle, PRO for Lanzerac

One of the cakes available for purchase in the Deli

Three historic personages involved with Lanzerac in the 70s: Duimpie Bayly, Oom Manie and Michael Olivier

We had dessert with sweet wine on the lawn of the new picnic area, which is on the top of the cellar. Winemaker Herman Lategan pouring us glasses of the Special Late Harvest dessert wine