We wanted to go to Darling Cellars to buy some wine and we took our Dutch friends with us
Lunch was on the schedule so we booked at Hilda's Kitchen restaurant at Groote Post
It was named for the famed 19th Century cook Hildegonda Duckitt
We had heard that husband and wife Shaun and Chef Debbie McLaughlin would be leaving the restaurant in April
after 22 successful years, so we wanted to see them to say goodbye
We have had so many great meals here over the years
Lunch was on the schedule so we booked at Hilda's Kitchen restaurant at Groote Post
It was named for the famed 19th Century cook Hildegonda Duckitt
We had heard that husband and wife Shaun and Chef Debbie McLaughlin would be leaving the restaurant in April
after 22 successful years, so we wanted to see them to say goodbye
We have had so many great meals here over the years
A giraffe or two greeted us on the way into the farm, which has game roaming the hills
You can even book a game drive after you have done the wine tasting and eaten in the restaurant - or before....
and a herd of Springbok
Chef and co-owner Debbie McLaughlin
The menu
Excellent Groote Post Pinot noir rosé. It is only available on the farm
Potato and pea samoosas with a sweet chilli sauce
Grilled pear and blue cheese salad
Pork belly with a fresh plum, sweetcorn and peanut salad. It had very good crackling.
It was rather too hot to sit out on the terrace, so we sat inside in the old kitchen
A name scratched on one of the windows in 1887
Winemaker Lukas Wentzel met us in the cellar
and introduced owner Nick Pentz to our guests
He treated us to a superb tasting
and a taste of the new Salt of the Earth Cinsault Shiraz 2022
An incredible wine, spicy, rich, layered and full of dark berry fruit
with an underlying dollop of that famous minerality found on the farm
Our friends were so delighted to meet Lukas and so enjoyed the tasting
and the opportunity to taste some of the new wines in the tanks
and the opportunity to taste some of the new wines in the tanks
Lukas' wife and son talking to Debbie McLaughlin at the cellar door
His son is studying oenology and viticulture at Stellenbosch and was helping with the harvest and winemaking
Quagga which once roamed the hills of the Cape and were hunted to extinction
They have been reborn from clopse relatives Plains and Burchell's zebras by clever gene manipulation
There are several on Groote Post
A lone blue wildebees (gnu) says "Don't mess with me!"
An attitude shared with one of the partners in our GNU or coalition government
A quagga mare nursing her foal
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