The Feast of the Grape was held this year at D’Aria
farm. It was a very popular and good
“one venue” festival, with all the local farms showcasing their wines, lots and
lots of different food stalls and much else besides to amuse the visitors,
including grape stomping.
Karin de
Villiers of Klein Roosboom with one of her chefs and their charcuterie platter
A warm welcome
from Benny Howard on the Meerendal stand
There was lots
of seating this year and, thankfully, lots and lots of umbrellas as it was a hot
day
Or you could
picnic on the lawn on beanbags
People at tables
enjoying the wine, food and the live music
The De Grendel
team
These
Sauvignon Blanc Slushies were remarkably popular. You could have them with or
without alcohol
A new concept
for us, Biltong pies. They were a bit
small though
Good Namibian
biltong was also a popular choice
Pony rides for
the children
People having
fun
And building
their relationships
All the
essentials of a festival - Wine and water
Martin Moore, Cellarmaster at Durbanville Hills about to start his presentation
of some older Durbanville reds. He began with a harvest joke: What is the
difference between a winemaker and God? God doesn't think He’s a winemaker
He was ably
assisted by Lombard Loubser of Bloemendal
Presentations
by Martin always hold the attention of the audience as he is full of good
information and irreverence, and amusement
“So he said..”
Martin gave us
a very informative view of the wines we tasted, including information about the
harvest of that year, the terroir, their constituent parts and quality. It is
always a great opportunity to taste older wines from a specific area that have
been kept correctly and are ready for drinking. We learn a great
deal. Several of these have won major
awards
These were the
wines we tasted. The Altydgedacht Pinotage 2011 is full of spicy dark fruit
with a soft velvety mouthfeel. The Pinot parent shows with plums and cooked
cherries and enjoyable chalky end. The
Diemersdal Reserve 2013 has sweet vanilla wood, a herbal nose with cassis and
cherries. Major cassis on the palate, it
shows long restrained flavours with slight acidity on the end, held together by
wood.
We liked the
2011 Kleine Roosboom which was spicy with sweet fruit and some umami notes with
red and black cherries and some mint chocolate. It is ‘sappig’ (juicy) and
worth drinking now. The Meerendal Merlot
2004 has After Eight mints on the nose and triple fruit layers with nice wood and a
tomato cocktail end. SA can make good
Merlots. The Durbanville Rhinofield 2008 Shiraz (made by Martin) has buchu,
spice and black pepper on the nose with warm chilli, turmeric and coriander
seed hints on warm cassis fruit and soft chalky tannins. Eminently drinkable, this wine got into the
Vin du Mond Top 10. D’Aria SV has only
2% of Viognier added to the Shiraz but it shows well. Nice soft sweet fruit,
very feminine floral notes, violets, rhubarb and red cherries with chalky
tannins on the end.
It was good to
taste Bloemendal’s (to be released later this year) 2013 Shiraz as an extra. It
has marzipan, pepper and chocolate over red fruit, it is a very concentrated
and layered red wine, still chalky but has the guts to go far, with umami
tomato cocktail on the end. Is this a Durbanville identifier? We usually notice salt, but probably more on
the white wines
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
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