To tranquil Tulbagh
We had been invited to visit several places in or near
Tulbagh and some of the invitations were more than a year old; we just struggle
to cram the many places and invitations we receive into our agenda. We had a
reasonably clear week, so we accepted as many as we could. Car problems set us
back and the original 5 days planned turned into three, but we had an amazing
time with lovely sunny days and chilly late winter nights. Our hired car was
great. What follows are various chapters of our lovely three days with the
hospitable people of Tulbagh. Besides tasting great wines, it was also rather
an eating marathon. Tulbagh is a small historic town nestled up a quiet and
beautiful valley one and a half hours drive from Cape Town. You do need to plan
a visit, you will love it
We began at Saronsberg
They have several commodious self catering cottages on
the farm which they let out all year round and they kindly offered us
accommodation there for the two nights we were in Tulbagh. We arrived on Monday
morning, settled in and then made for the tasting room.
Our cottage was a two bedroom - one double bedded room
and one single. You park outside and all the cottages have outdoor braai areas
and terraces
The open fire in the lounge area was welcome and the
small self catering kitchen is adequately supplied with both a microwave and a
small oven grill
They had provided us with a bottle of Saronsberg 2014
Viognier and a bottle of the much lauded 2014 Shiraz
Our bedroom had both air conditioning, a ceiling fan
and an electric fire; the latter worked so well to warm up the room on the cold
nights.
The single bedroom
We had stopped off at a Wellington farm stall to buy
two pepper steak pies for lunch and we enjoyed these enormous pies (one would
probably have been sufficient for both of us!) with the floral Saronsberg
Viognier, full of peaches and apricots but fresh and textured. It is wooded but
subtly so. The views are magnificent.
Sitting under the vine pergola when it is in leaf in the summer must
be lovely
And on Tuesday we had a light lunch on the terrace and
an opportunity to taste their superb 2014 Grenache, with slightly wild notes on
this robust and friendly red wine that sings of the south. More on that wine
next week
© John & Lynne
Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016
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