Thursday, December 23, 2021

In MENU This Week. Karoo Trip #25, Newton Johnson, Highland Road, Oak Valley visits, Lunch at Chart Farm


An old wind pump, a Karoo trade mark

And so we, finally, have reached the end of the 2021 road. For much of it, we have been stationary, waiting to be released from self-imposed quarantine bondage. And then, the relief, as we reached October, of seeing other parts of our beautiful country. A wonderful two week road trip, the last of whose experiences we publish here. And the joy of visiting wine farms and seeing old friends, most of whom we had not seen for two years or so. Some of the people we visited might have expected to see these stories earlier. We’ve simply had to delay them because there were so many stories to tell.

Now it’s time to relax. Family celebrations and small, very small, parties with close friends. We hope that you will all enjoy the celebrations in the traditions of your families, and then we’ll all gird our loins in a week’s time and plunge into a new year. Let us hope that it will bring us all good health, comfort and the love of those who mean the most to us. Thank you for reading our stories,

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 25. Weltevrede estate, Bonnievale

The last day of our two week trip was a day of rushing off to appointments, so time had to be squashed a bit. We had intended to head home after Kranskop, but Weltevrede had called the day before and asked us not to come that day, but move the appointment to our last day, as they had a media group from Cape Town coming in a bus to see and experience the new tasting room and their two different cellar tours. Could we make it for lunch? Sadly not, as we already had our appointment with Newald Marais at Kranskop. We managed to re-arrange our day and our planned early departure back to Cape Town and made it by 2.45. Read on…

A taste of Newton Johnson

There are so many excellent wine farms in the beautiful Hemel and Aarde valley, but one we always try to visit is Newton Johnson. Why? Because they produce beautiful elegant wine, wine we love, wine we want to buy and drink. And they happen to be a really friendly and welcoming lot! So, as we were staying in the area and had some late afternoon time, we had to visit. Read on…

Highlands Road wines in Elgin

Our visit to Highlands Road in Elgin nearly didn't start, as the road to the farm was being resurfaced by their neighbour. The recent heavy rains - and Elgin is one of our wettest places in the Cape - our largest Dam is there - had stopped the brick paving operation and made the road a quagmire. Luckily we could phone the farm, and they came to get us in the farm bakkie, so we could leave our car (which is not a 4x4) here. Read on…

Tasting and lunch at Oak Valley

As we were in the area recently, we ,took up an invitation to taste the wines at Oak Valley. We tasted the wines with lunch in the renamed Melting Pot restaurant, which is a wonderful venue for outside and inside meals and tastings

They have a new chef, John van Zyl, who has worked with the very successful Chef Liam Tomlin as head chef at Thali. His style of cooking and offering is summed up here: "The Melting Pot is a flavour packed, global food experience, serving contemporary small plates made for sharing. John’s cooking style is heavily influenced by his travels abroad, giving you a culinary trip around the world in one sitting. The menu is small and vibrant comprising up to ten dishes that change every two weeks or so, with options for everyone. Be bold and order ‘one of everything’ for the full experience". And, indeed, we were to be delighted with what we ate. Read on…

Lunch at The View on Chart Farm

We had thought of going to Klondyke Cherry Farm in Ceres to pick cherries this year, but the huge rise in the petrol price was a major deterrent. Then we remembered that the same family also owns Chart Farm, a rose farm in Constantia and yes, they do sell the Klondyke cherries. So we decided to kill three birds with one stone, do an escape from home, get some cherries and have lunch at The View restaurant on the farm. Read on…


If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment