.: Elgin Wine Valley Christmas Tweetup

Thursday, December 03, 2015

Elgin Wine Valley Christmas Tweetup

The Elgin Winemakers Guild decided to reward all the hard work by the Tweeters this year with a last tasting for 2015 and Christmas lunch party in Elgin at South Hill. Transport was arranged for many of us from town and a great day was had by all

The first pick up was for Atlantic coast people and was at the Mouille Point lighthouse, where you can park free all day. We then picked up more people at The River Club and in Somerset West

Sadly, road works on the N2 made for heavy traffic for a while, but we made it in time

The first white wines we tasted were Iona 2015 Sauvignon Blanc (our favourite), Elgin Ridge 2014 Sauvignon Blanc and South Hill 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. Two superb white blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon: Highlands Road 2012 Sine Cera and Oak Valley 2011 Mountain Reserve, made by the late Pieter Visser

Everyone getting their phones, tablets and computers tuned into the Internet. We had some problems getting connected, but not overwhelming as we all appeared to have 3G connectivity

The next flight we tasted was Chardonnays: Paul Cluver 2014 (the wine that wowed Lynne the last time she tasted it), the excellent Hannay 2014 made by Richard Kershaw, Winters Drift 2014 and Almenkerk 2012

Then we were on to the reds

Dead soldiers

Karen Glanfield Pawley taking us through the wines

The four really great reds tasted were this marvellous merlot from Shannon - Mount Bullet 2012 made by Gordon Newton Johnson - 2012 Pinot Noir from Elgin Vintners, Richard Kershaw’s 2013 Syrah and Thelema Sutherland 2011 Syrah