On tour in Franschhoek and Durbanville

John has had some wonderful groups of American tourists in between all the other activities we write about this week. While Lynne was tasting at L'Ormarins, he was touring in Franschhoek, starting at Haute Cabrière, where Eben Kleintjies gave a very eloquent presentation about the production of Mèthode Cape Classique wines

finishing with a demonstration of sabrage, following the tradition set by Cellarmaster Achim von Arnim

After Cabrière, the party moved to Chamonix, where Gottfried Mocke led us through his cellar, starting with the destemmer, where newly harvested Pinot Noir grapes were being brought in and prepared for processing

His explanation of the wine-making process was followed with interest

These concrete eggs are used to ferment part of the premium chardonnay

The maturation cellar is deep under the hillside

and Gottfried told the party about the barrels he uses and the maturation process

The oldest part of the cellar is more than 300 years old and is used to mature his very small production MCC

After the cellar tour, we enjoyed a tutored tasting of the Chamonix wines

Then, as it was time for lunch, we moved on to Foliage Restaurant, where chef Chris Erasmus produces wonderful food using fresh local ingredients. This was his terrine of foie gras, served with a brioche muffin

and the best pork belly John has ever enjoyed, with the most evenly crisp crackling, tender meat and almost no fat

Foliage is waiting for their wine licence, so we brought in the wines Chris will serve as his house wines: Reyneke Organic white and red blends, sold to us by Ludwig Maske at La Cotte wine sales

Then on to La Bri, with apologies to Irene Waller for keeping her waiting while the guests wanted to visit flea markets etc. She was, as ever, the perfect lady and greeted us with her typical charm, enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the wine business, leading us through a tasting of her best wines

showing us the fermenting red grapes in the tank

and even letting the guests try punching down the cap of red grape skins in the fermenting juice

Then, a few days later, off to Durbanville with another group, where Durbanville Hills cellarmaster Martin Moore led us through his 

huge cellar which produces massive quantities of affordable, good quality wines and also smaller quantities of premium quality wines

which were shown to us by Brand Home Manager Kate Jackson

Then on to Nitida, to see how quality wines are produced on a much smaller scale

with tasting room manager Inge taking us through the extensive Nitida range of wines

Winemaker Danie Keulder then took us through his cellar, where we tasted the new sauvignon juice, part fermented  and fully fermented 2015 sauvignon blanc

Time had caught up with us and we had to skip the cellar tour at Altydgedacht, but Nikki led us through a comprehensive tasting of their wines, including the excellent Gewurztraminer. the Barbera and the very newly bottled 2015 Sauvignon blanc

after which we were off through the evening traffic to Constantia to drop the guests off at their guesthouse and continue to L'Avenir in Stellenbosch for the launch of the new Pinotage Lounge. Another beautiful day in the Cape wine country

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015