Early morning mist in the Bonnievale valley, near Robertson
This week, we have one story to tell. It has several chapters and they comprise so many different stories that we have held several of them over until next week. For many years, Robertson Wine Valley has been the country’s most active wine region, encouraging tourism and giving us, members of the media, stories to relate to you. Each year they hold seasonal festivals, Hands on Harvest, Robertson Slow, Wine on the River and this, the Wacky Wine Weekend. They are always very well organised by the Robertson Wine Valley management, with the rider that it is up to the individual farms to entertain their visitors to the best of their ability. Read on to see how well they did…
This was our first visit to Robertson Wine Valley's Wacky Wine Weekend since 2011 and we were very happy to be invited this year. Much smaller than in previous years; we were saddened to see how many farms, smaller and larger, no longer take part and wonder whether this is enough to sustain this winter festival…
Our hosted accommodation was at Tanagra Wine Farm in McGregor, which was taking part in the festival with its wines, grappa and Eau de Vie. We were warmly welcomed by the owners, Anette and Robert Rosenbach, and taken to The Garden Cottage where we were to stay, which was very comfortable and is perfect for self catering…
Our first port of call after checking in to Tanagra was Kranskop Wine estate in Klaasvoogds, near Robertson. It was really good to see owner/cellarmaster Newald Marais again. He invited us to stay at Kranskop in October last year, when we visited Robertson for the De Wetshof Chardonnay Celebration…
We asked to visit some of the newer wineries which we had not yet visited and Ex Diem was one of them. It is in the beautiful Klaasvoogds valley behind Kranskop and produces olives, olive oil and some wines…
Our next stop, after ExDiem and Ashton, was at De Wetshof for a comparative tasting of Chardonnays from the area. The view up the jacaranda avenue is superb when it is flowering…
Our tasting at De Wetshof finished at 5.30 and we were only expected at Zandvliet at 6.30 for 7. It would take an hour to drive back and forth to our accommodation so we had time to waste. Most tasting centres would be closed, so we went to see how the river was flowing from the red iron bridge that crosses it, on the way to Bonnievale…
Up bright and early on a wet and cold morning, we rushed the 45 minutes from McGregor via Robertson to Bonnievale. We were reluctant to take the quick route through the mountains because we had been told it could be slippery on the dirt road, so we went the long way round…
Down the road from Weltevrede, through Bonnievale village and around the corner to Bonnievale Cellars which was nice and busy with people tasting the wines…
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