.: Winter special at Harvest and Laborie

The photographs were taken on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday

The menu. You, too, can go and enjoy this good value winter menu at Harvest restaurant on Laborie

We learned about this superb winter special when we visited in February and thought it would be great to bring our wine club here for the weekend. Sadly, we were informed by the General Manager, Zelda Oelofse-Cornthwaite, that the offer is now completely sold out, so you will have to wait until next year to experience this great offer. Or just pay full price and go after September; it is so worth it. We had an amazing time, starting with dinner at Harvest restaurant on Friday evening

We all assembled in the Jonkershuis for a drink and some nibbles at 6 pm on Friday. We had six bottles of the Laborie 2012 Blanc de Blanc Brut, crisp and delicious and a huge bargain at R100 a bottle from the farm. Laborie generously supplied 4 of them and some hand cut potato crisps

Then to Harvest for the three course winter special menu, which was included in the price of the weekend. We were seated in a private room with a fireplace. Drinks were for our own account. The wines are very affordably priced. We had three bottles of KWV Mentors Chardonnay (A Decanter trophy winner), two of Laborie Chenin and four KWV Classic Cabernet sauvignon. With coffees and a tip, we spent R90 per head on our beverages at dinner, For our British audience, that was about £4 each

Everyone chatting. The Oenophiles wine club is one of the oldest in the Cape and we have all known each other for a long time. We did have four guests with us for the weekend

Chicken liver paté with sticky onion and raisin chutney and a toasted baguette

An enormous portion of hearty goulash soup

Most people chose the grass fed sirloin steak with either a mushroom and sherry or brandy and peppercorn sauce. This came with classic French fries and a good portion of baby vegetables

Lynne chose the Tempura hake goujons, quite salty with a good tartar sauce and crisp chips and a rocket salad
The apple tart Tatin was very popular and had nice crisp pastry

This was the traditional Cape Brandy pudding with a honey Anglaise custard

Morning at Laborie. This is the row of suites, each with its own stoep

Under Paarl Rock

Cellar, the Laborie cat, is rather affectionate, but only after a little bribery; she can scratch. Magnificent winter coat

The full English breakfast, cooked fresh

Scrambled egg, topped with smoked trout

Everyone tucking in at the Langtafel

John’s cheese omelette and bacon

Early morning meeting

Distant view across the Paarl valley

Bare branches on the pecan tree

The back of the Laborie manor house

There are still lots of squirrels in the Laborie trees

In the late afternoon on Saturday, there was rugby in the Bar di Bar craft beer tavern. The Springboks played well against the All Blacks, but not well enough and the result was disappointing. Afterwards, we enjoyed a beer tasting of 6 of their beers (included in the special offer price)

Then we went to Taste Restaurant in the tasting room and enjoyed a meal of three tapas each. Every couple shared a bottle of wine. All were included in the special

You can picnic under these trees in the summer

Bare winter vines on Laborie

Also included in the weekend special was a chocolate and wine pairing which we enjoyed after breakfast on Sunday after we had checked out of our rooms. This was on the terrace of Taste restaurant

The four glasses paired with the appropriate chocolate which is made by Marionette. Top left: Laborie Chardonnay with White Lemon Verbena; below it, Laborie Cabernet Sauvignon with Dark Cherry Tobacco - this is an incredibly good match, despite having to taste tobacco! Then, on the right, is a glass of Pineau de Laborie, paired with the white plum and Vanilla chocolate, again a great match, the plum flavours really sing. And finally, Lynne’s favourite SA brandy, the Laborie Alambic (world's best Brandy in 2010) paired with the Dark Orange chocolate. The brandy rather overtakes the chocolate; it is so special, but if you melt it slowly on your tongue, it works very well.