The third harvest at The Vineyard Hotel

We were summoned to the Vineyard at 7 am on Monday morning for a glass of fresh orange juice or some bubbly and marshalled into helping harvest the rows of grapes that grow alongside the Lieesbek River. Our vine had over 24 bunches this year, smaller than last year and they had been sulphured to stave off the rot. We await this year’s wine (being made at Meerlust) with great interest

The nets have been lifted and we can see the good harvest of grapes that need picking in this tiny vineyard. The good news is that soon they are going to extend the vineyard with some Chardonnay vines which will be planted on the property at the top of the vineyard, which they also own

A glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to wake up the senses. Many lug boxes wait to be filled with the grapes.

It's a good harvest

This is the vine that we look after, filled with bunches of ripe sauvignon blanc grapes

More awake, we can't wait to get going

It’s not difficult, it’s a bit sticky and you just have to watch those sharp secateurs

Busy, busy. Candice Bresler of The Phoenix Partnership and Kerry Sutherland of Waterford Estate

Lynne doing triage on the bunches, removing the bad grapes

Filling up our lug box

Roy Davies GM of the Vineyard Hotel, and Kerry Sutherland tweeting about the Harvest

We finished in less than an hour so it was time for a good glass of Simonsig Brut MCC

The matriarch of the Vineyard Hotel, Kitty Petousis helping herself to a healthy breakfast

Lots of lovely things available for hungry harvesters

Lynne veers more to the savoury side

And with breakfast, more Simonsig to refresh us

Yes, we think this is a much better use for the jam pot

Bottles of the last two vintages. We were finished by 9 and could go back to work

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Durbanville Feast of the Grape

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

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015