James McKenzie is always worth a visit when we are in the Wellington area and we dropped in to Nabygelegen (translation "Lying nearby") for a chat before we returned to Cape Town. He surprised us by giving us a special tasting from barrels and tanks in his cellar and we talked about doing something exciting with him in the winter. James produces a very good range of award-winning wines as well as a Grappa. This historic farm, established in 1712, has an even longer history and Stone-age implements and hand axes have been found, some dating back over a million years. Most of these finds were discovered in the deep, red, vineyard soils by the vineyard team on their daily rounds. Click here to read more
James’ tribe
of 10 faithful hounds relaxing in the sun outside the tasting room
Inside there
is also small shop selling locally made
items
This building
is one of the originals on the farm and these were stables. You can see the original "riet dak" ceiling, made from
roughly hewn tree trunks, planks and reeds
Lynne
discussing the wines and harvest with James and his partner Adele Strachan
It is a happy
place
with happy
people
Recently they
used only Nabygelegen wines at the Queen's Jubilee Celebrations for the
Commonwealth Heads in London. This is the menu.
They run a
small restaurant and on good days you can sit under the vine pergola and look
out at the countryside
James taps a
barrel of a new wine he is developing, so that we can taste it. Stunning, we felt very privileged
And we were
allowed to taste a tank sample of his new Chenin Blanc. It is going to be a cracker. They had a good
harvest
Faithful
hounds follow everywhere, even into the winery
We went into
town to Biltong King to buy some good biltong after many recommendations in the
valley
Another good
reason to visit this beautiful valley
© John & Lynne
Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
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