Wellington Groenberg Festival at Welbedacht

Groenberg Wynstok Talmfees

On Saturday, three of us drove to Wellington for the Groenberg Fest held on Schalk Burger’s farm Welbedacht. The main event was always going to be music and the crowds were expected in the late afternoon and evening. When we arrived at 12 the temperature was already at 38 degrees C and we had a quick rush around the stalls to see who was there and what was on offer. Then we got invited into the cool inner sanctum for a guided tasting of wines from the Groenberg area and that is where we remained for much of a very pleasant afternoon

The festival was held on the Welbedacht Cricket Oval. Rugby may be the game that the Burgers are known for, but they are also keen cricketers

We stared with a chat with Tiaan Burger and Hardus van Heerden, their new winemaker, and a tasting of the Welbedacht wines

Tiaan introduced us to their new MCC bubbly named Mon René after his sister. It is 100% chardonnay, and unoaked

There was a talent contest taking place and these two musicians were performing. There was music all day

Nice to see a winemaker from another region enjoying the festival. Dawie Botha of Antonij Rupert was there with his wife

Too hot for shoes? Dawie and his wife were about to go grape stomping

Then on to taste some wines from Linton Park. There was a lucky draw on entry and Lynne won a case of their 2014 De Slange Rivier Shiraz/Merlot blend, which was a nice surprise. It will go to the back of our cellar to rest a while

and we met the owners of Jacaranda farm René and Birgit Reiser. It is very small with only 2.5 hectares of grapes, but they produce four different wines. New vineyards should come on stream soon

Inside for the start of three guided tastings. The first was of some of the reds of the area: 2 Merlots, 2 Shirazes and 2 Bordeaux Blends. We particularly like the Bohemian Shiraz 2010 from Welbedacht warm and smooth with a kick of spice and very silky sweet fruit, ending in white pepper and some nice soft chalky tannins. This still has a few more years. We discovered that they grow all the Boekenhoutskloof shiraz on the farm and this vineyard is next to that one. The Jacaranda Cab/Merlot also impressed with violets and dark chocolates on the nose, soft fruit and a violet crème with cherries on the silky palate

Schalk Burger senior takes us through the tasting

The second tasting was a food and wine pairing and these different canapés had been made to each match one of the wines. The plate was so generous we didn’t need lunch afterwards and some of the pairings were excellent. The Welbedacht Cricket Pitch flagship wine was paired with the Osso bucco tart, filled with rich meat and garlic, both delicious. A surprise was the match between DGB’s RibShack Red and the open wild boar burger with pesto. Yes we admit prejudice, we were not expecting to like the wine as much as we did. It’s a nice, juicy, easy drinking wine and we would order it if we saw it on a menu. It is extremely well priced. On their stand they offered a rack of ribs and a bottle of RibShack for R80. The chocolate tart was awesome but really needed a dessert wine to pair with it.

Nice to see Wayne Rademeyer of Buffalo Ridge Buffala mozzarella, whose farm is across the road. He had a stand at the festival

Then Schalk took us through the third tasting which was The Best of the Best in the area. The 2005 Chenin Blanc from Welbedacht was their first harvest – it has lasted well and the best compliment we can pay it is that we would happily buy it, its unmistakably a Chenin, rich, layered and complex

The Springbok and Western Province rugby culture is very strong at Welbedacht. Schalk senior and Schalk junior are both proud wearers of the green and gold and the blue and white “streeptrui”. The tasting had to be over by 3, so that the Stormers vs Chiefs match could be screened. Schalk jr played, but the Stormers lost

Back out into the very warm afternoon air. The boys were watching rugby

A novel way to play Noughts and Crosses, while the boys are watching rugby

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

A birthday lunch at Jardine

Rocking the taste buds at Jordan

Great food is the most important thing you want from a good restaurant. Throw in friendly and efficient staff, a warm welcome and views to charm and relax and you are getting close to perfection. Sunday saw us at our favourite restaurant Jordan for a birthday lunch of one of our visitors. He requested Jordan as it has also become one of their favourite places when visiting. We had a table right at the front of the deck with those superb views and the lunch did not disappoint. One of the qualifiers for a great restaurant is that the standard remains excellent even when the boss isn't there. George and Louise were at a birthday celebration elsewhere - the food and service were wonderful

Lunch out on the deck is the favourite spot in summer

This is where Banting takes a back seat. Who can resist those freshly made vetkoek, ciabatta rolls and seed loaf with parsley pesto, garlic aioli and olive tapenade? Not us. Vetkoek (trans. Fat cake) is a traditional South African bread made from a plain yeast dough rolled into balls, deep fried and served hot. The origin is probably the Dutch oliebollen, but the early settlers used to deep fry them in fat rendered from the fat tails of sheep. They are often served in the Cape filled with spiced mince, mixing another of our cultures with another - the Cape Malay foods

A feast for the eyes. A starter of salt and sugar cured springbok ‘tartar’ compressed into a block served with nectarines, a prune and a parsnip cream, Chantilly cream quenelles, sunflower seeds, and topped with crisp shavings of parsnip and sunflower sprouts. The tartar was roughly chopped and therefore had good texture. The contrasts between the savoury and sweet, the soft , the crisp and crunch were perfect

Local mackerel is in season in the Cape, so pan fried as a starter was irresistible to some of us. Served on a base of roasted garlic puree, topped with tomatoes and a “cosmopolitan” sauce, with watercress and fried onion, all these textures and flavours enhanced the rich oily fresh fish

Waiting for the main courses to arrive. We drank the Jordan Inspector Peringuey Chenin blanc and glasses of the Prospector Shiraz

Perfectly cooked aged Chalmar beef rump in a salsa verde, with confit tomatoes served with bone marrow dumplings and topped with thin charred aubergine crisps. The beef was meltingly tender. Oh, and a side order of their hand cut crisp chips. Well you can't have steak without chips

Beautifully, symmetrically plated line caught Yellowtail on a charred tomato velouté, with basil aioli and some crisp salt and pepper squid and roasted olives

Lynne chose the lightly salted East coast hake with a herb crust, in an artichoke velouté, topped with very light, fried potato gnocchi and deep fried cauliflower. The fish was beautifully fresh and delicious, but the herb topping was a little too salty

Dessert for the Birthday celebrant was envied by us all, even those who could not manage a dessert. It is a set vanilla panna cotta topped with strawberry compote, sprinkled with summer berries and topped with vanilla ice cream. So pretty too!

The chocoholics could not resist the Valrhona dark chocolate mousse with poached mango, buffalo labneh cheese, honeycomb pieces and a honey and walnut ice cream. The plates were scraped till clean, as usual. Coffee ended a very successful meal

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015