We started on Saturday at Hartenberg on the Bottelary
Road for this annual gem of a festival. They only sell 500 tickets so we always
feel honoured to be invited, and they sold out again. It is held in their
beautiful gardens and this year they added the Rarities to the Riesling and
there were some really interesting wines to taste. Lots of food was available
to taste and we were provided with two enormous picnic boxes.
Directions to
the garden
Humour on a
warm day
We arrived nice and early and this was the scene at 12 noon as the festival opened
A view of
Hartenberg’s vines
Wimpie from Groote
Post having a quick bite while serving us their two Rieslings
Hárslevelü from
Lemberg in Tulbagh was really different and so enjoyable we may well buy some.
It is fruity, waxy, very silky soft but with a good dollop of acidity and
couldn’t be identified as anything familiar, which we see as an advantage. We
hope more will be planted. It's normally found in Hungarian wines
On to taste
the classic Thelema and Sutherland Rieslings and their Viognier-Roussanne full
of peaches marzipan and pears and nice soft tannins.
More people
arriving and discussing the merits of the wine
A warm welcome
from Jordan who showed The Real McCoy 2014 Riesling with lots of terpenes and
honey but bone dry. Nice to see them back as they have stock this year but not
much, so if you love, buy soon
Then it was
suddenly one o’clock and time for the Gewürztraminer seminar presented by Paul
Cluver. We tasted three vintages of their Gewürz and they were remarkably
different which shows how climate sensitive this grape can be. Hartenberg have
this wonderful “fresco” map of the farm showing where all the wines are grown,
in their tasting room
A collection of old Montagne (the original name) and Hartenberg wines
Ann Ferreira
was one of the organisers of the festival and she supervised the seminars
These were the
wines we tasted. The 2011 was so typical of the variety bursting with roses,
Turkish delight and marzipan with love clean, crisp, fruity freshness. The 2012
is full of limes and lemons with a little rose and some terpene and crisp
acidity – it was a warm year. The 2014 has rose and spice and, unusually, some
salty licorice. Crisp with soft floral notes. All are food wines and pair
superbly with hot and spicy and aromatic dishes
Paul Cluver
explaining how to grow the grape and turn it into this marvellous wine
Lots of rapt
attention while tasting
Back to the
festival; we visited Pieter du Toit on the Cederberg stand and marvelled at the
Ghost Corner Semillon -full of peas
asparagus, layers of citrus, clean and elegant - and the Cederberg Bukettraube
2014
Pieter enjoying
the day with a fan
Then we found
the Jordans looking happy on the Paul Cluver stand with Jonathan Snashall,
Georgie Prout of Glen Carlou, Paul Cluver and his sister Liesl
Another happy
welcome from Young Winemaker of the Year Jacques Erasmus on the Spier stand, for a taste of their Ideology
Riesling 2012
Christophe Dehosse
of Joostenberg restaurant on his food stand with his menu for the day. We had a
lot of these delicacies in our picnic boxes
We stopped for
our picnic with Eppie and Norman MacFarlane.
This was the
food provided for one person! Charcuterie, cheese, good rolls, a salmon paté, a
caprese salad, humus, potato salad, bread and butter pickle and, for dessert,
pineapple and meringue
It was lovely
sitting on the lawn; the weather was warm but not too hot, no wind and everyone
was having fun
Our last wine
was the Anthonij Rupert Semillon: Perfumed, with a full on layered mouth of
fruit and very elegant. Of special mention was also the Simonsig Roussanne
which has spun sugar candy, limes & lemons with spice and honey, and the
Nitida Semillon which was also loved at our Semillon tasting at our wine club
this week full of green pyrazines with perfume and crispness – such a good food
wine.
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