Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Pinotage on Tap 2018 at Diemersfontein Wine Estate

This lovely festival at Diemersfontein in Wellington was graced with beautiful weather in what had been a rather wet week. We hadn’t attended for a while so accepted the invitation with glee. We parked in a huge flower meadow which had some lovely spring flowers to admire. This is a Moraea vegeta, a member of the Iris family
And several Spiloxene capensis, a star flower
The walk took us up to the family's manor house,
the ‘Groot Huis’, where we could pick up our tickets
Lots of people still arriving
A Selfie place
And we began with a glass of the Diemersfontein Pinotage. Tickets cost R295 per person and included a goodie bag and a glass on arrival. Pinotage and other wines flowed abundantly from the barrels too. All included in the price. This year we would have Freshly Ground on stage with Jesse Clegg as the supporting act
Dry ice cream makers, with unusual flavours
Lots of food vans if you needed some lunch
and, thankfully, some of them took cards
Two smiling ladies on their truck
and things to buy on other stalls
David Sonnenberg, owner of Diemersfontein, meeting guests and enjoying the sunshine
He was about to make his opening speech
People were spreading out their blankets, putting up their chairs and getting out their lunch while listening to the very good bands. Jesse Clegg was playing when we arrived and the main group was the very popular Freshly Ground
Our lunch was Spare ribs, and a Pulled pork bun both with chips
We bought a bottle of Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc to go with it
You could take part in Welly Wanging - throwing a Wellington boot
to see if you could get it into the barrel
The Thokozani stand with its friendly staff, where you could taste some Ovation Spumante
A charity auction happening on stage
It was a large crowd, very well behaved and enjoying the day
Quoits. Ring the bottle!
Crossed swords of marshmallows and strawberries dipped in dark chocolate
Also included in your ticket were the three chocolate fountains,
with mounds of marshmallows and strawberries
You could have as many as you liked. This is the dark chocolate fountain
There were two with milk chocolate
Very generous and very yummy
Freshly Ground on stage
Delivering a glass
and enjoying the day!
Getting in the groove
Dancing with your friends
The Spumante Fairies
Helpful staff
filling the empty glasses
Time to wend our way home along the flowery path to the car park
The Festival and concert continued
and more beautiful spring flowers. These are Morea, otherwise known as the Cape Tulip

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