Thursday, February 05, 2015

Delheim's Start of the Harvest festival

Then it was time to go back the way we came on Saturday to Stellenbosch to attend this very real harvest festival, where they also have fun and games for the children – it is a really child friendly farm. We were welcomed with a glass of Pinotage grape must (the newly picked and just beginning to ferment juice with traditional mosbolletjies, a soft bread made with the yeasty must as its rising agent. Then there was a lovely buffet lunch, accompanied by their good Pinotage Rose and Chenin Blanc wines, after which we watched the hilarious grape stomping competitions.
They seem to have expanded lots of different areas on the farm. This was the deck behind the wine cellar where we collected our glass of grape must and mosbolletjies
It was a lovely shady position with the tables set below the trees
A plate of Springbok carpaccio for the buffet table
Wine was available by the glass or by the bottle at farm prices
Gypsy violin and accordion music accompanied the whole day, played by Stanislav Angelov and his friend
The famous father of the farm, Michael "Spatz" Sperling and his wife Vera
Their son, Victor Sperling, Managing Director of Delheim
Chef Craig Cormack, taking a welcome weekend break with his wife Heather and their child
The buffet menu. It had quite a German slant, which you would expect on Delheim, with its German background.  Lunch cost R285 pp with R175 for children under 12 and included soft serve ice cream from an ice cream truck!
Pumpkin and Linseed cream cheese balls
Shredded chicken with apple, celery, grapes, flaked almonds and curry mayonnaise
Farm bread
The Bratwurst and Weisswurst German sausages were delicious
A vegetarian option was this lentil salad topped with apple and feta
Zwiebelkuchen (onion and Bacon tartlets)
More mosbolletjies
German potato salad is made with chives and oil rather than mayonnaise
A huge heap of crisp rolls
Wines on offer. We drank some Rose and some Chenin. Both went perfectly with the food.
Wilma van Wyk  keeping the media table supplied with wine and water
John’s lunch selection
Serenaded by the musicians
Spatz Sperling
Rugby journalist Craig Ray kicking a ball around with his six year old son
A bit of rough and tumble Dad
Ah at last a reward! One of the Sperlings' dogs
An Edith Piaf song?
Time for the grape stomping and this first round was for the children
The girls team was awesome and we think they won the round.  Good technique using one foot at a time
These boys had another technique
It’s a little squashed
You could have vanilla or chocolate or both on a sugar cone
Washing off the sticky juice afterwards is essential
The grapes for crushing
The audience
The adults had to fetch their grapes before they could start stomping and they were only allowed to carry them by hand or skirt!
Get the men to do the carrying while you do the crushing
All the grape juice was measured from each barrel to see who won
Another Sperling son was supervising the grape pickup
Getting ready for the OFF!
Charge!
Try to come back with as much as you can carry
The Sperlings and Rowena Glazer watching the race
The ladies learned the one legged method from the girls
Another barrel of squished grapes and juice gets separated and the juice measured
The old traditional barrel cellar when we used these huge vats
There is such a fantastic smell in the cellar at this time of the year, of fresh grapes fermenting
Some old equipment in the tasting room
Wasps getting water from the bird bath
Lots of people tasting wine in the cellar
And getting good advice
Thank you Delheim for a lovely day
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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