Monday, February 02, 2015

Riesling (and Rarities) Rocked at Hartenberg

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
Our tasting samples
Some new acolytes
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
Live music for the event
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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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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