Flooded campsite at Rivierzicht in the Goree Valley on the Breede River

Late Sunday afternoon

Early Monday morning

Mo & Rose at Soekershof, near Robertson

This new restaurant in Klaas Voogds West, near Robertson, was opened by Axel Daniel and Monika Schmalzl two months ago. Axel, born and bred in Germany, earned his diploma as “Hotel-Professional” in Cologne and came to South Africa in 2001 to work for the Grande Roche (Relais & Chateau) in Paarl. Some years later, having returned to Germany, he came back to open and run his own guest house, the “Stables Lodge” in Stellenbosch. In 2008 he sold it and prepared for an exciting African adventure. He rode his motor bike all the way up from Cape Town to Khartoum in Sudan. After this extraordinary experience, he joined his parents at the Canyon Lodge in Namibia, where they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. That day, he met Monika, who is Italian. She had visited Africa for the first time at the age of 20, since when she had been dreaming of the Masai Mara and the Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp. Over the years she studied International Business and Economics in Europe, wrote her thesis in China and ended up creating her own advertising agency in Italy. After seven years of creating advertising campaigns and corporate design concepts, she took a three week holiday in Namibia and met Axel....

Soekershof has three 4 star rooms at present but more are being built.

The old barn has been reroofed and converted into a modern contemporary restaurant. 

This is a view of the bar with Axel behind the counter and looking through to the simple kitchen you can see Monika, who is the MO part of the name. The "Roses" reflects the Robertson Valley of Wine & Roses.

Our table in the corner, warm and cosy on a very cold night. Modern and clean furniture work well in the traditional barn. 

You can just see the glass ceiling of the wine cellar below in the foreground. Those French doors open out onto the patio for dining outside in the summer

The menu changes all the time and is seasonal and fresh.  See the Wacky Antipasti Platter for two with 2 glasses of Kranskop wine, a bargain at R170.

John and Jean’s starter of springbok carpaccio with pomegranate was deliciously tender and full of flavour

Audrey loved her dish of simply and perfectly grilled Salmon trout on baby potatoes with spinach and tomato concasse

Lynne chose the chicken and prawn curry with basmati rice and an avocado salsa which was beautifully spiced for the cold weather.

John’s steak with a béarnaise Sauce and perfect frites (French fries)

We will be back.

All these photographs are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc

Chardonnay tasting at Dewetshof

Dewetshof's magnificent underground barrel cellar, where the tasting was held

Johan de Wet and winemaker Mervyn Williams opening the bottles we were about to taste

There is some superb art in the cellar. This is a bronze of a Bateleur eagle in flight

The crowd assembling, including Richard Rowe, KWV cellarmaster

The wines for tasting. 

From the left: Just bottled but not labelled Bon Vallon 2012 Chardonnay; Limestone Hill 2012 Chardonnay; Finesse 2010; The Site 2011 single vineyard chardonnay; Bateleur 2009; Clos de Mouches from Burgundy, also 2009

Johan gave us the history of the wine

What we came especially to taste: the two chardonnays from the same vines, the 2009 Bateleur from Robertson and the 2009 Clos de Mouches from Burgundy

The eagle in flight

Bennie Stipp,  Dewetshof’s  brilliant marketing Director

Winemaker Mervyn Williams

These wines have a similar fingerprint, you can see their parentage immediately. They are both grown on chalk soils.  The South African wine has more sunshine in it but both wines are dry, crisp and elegant.  Bateleur has a beautiful nose, very perfumed and attractive with wood hints and a much wider spectrum of flavours due to the sunshine it gets.  It has had 12 months on new medium toast Duvelle barrels and is full of citrus and minerality. The Clos de Mouches has less nose and less new oak.  It is more austere and has more minerality but also full of pear William hints, Iimes and elderflower notes, with a nutty element. Both of these wines cry out for food to compliment them.

According to Johann de Wet, the Clos des Mouches is the ancestral home of De Wetshof's Bateleur vineyard; it was the source of the original cuttings for the vines.
During the daily tasting of Chardonnay and other wines, Johann de Wet from De Wetshof presented two wines establishing the Estate's Burgundian origins. Among the Chardonnays we tasted were the Bateleur 2009, South Africa's oldest single-vineyard Chardonnay, made from a vineyard planted 25 years ago. Together with the Bateleur, Johann presented a Burgundian Chardonnay - the Joseph Drouhin Clos des Mouches, also from the 2009 vintage.
The connection between the Bateleur and the Clos des Mouches is that the former wine is made from the same plant material as found on the vineyard of Clos des Mouches outside the Burgundy capital of Beaune. This makes the Clos des Mouches the Bateleur's forefather, and visitors to Wacky Wine will be able to experience the link between these two wines.

"Both vineyards are rich in limestone and planted to the same Chardonnay clone, so Clos des Mouches is a distant relative to the Bateleur," said De Wet in his introduction. "By appraising the wines alongside each other, wine enthusiasts visiting us during Wacky Wine Week-end will be able to see how grapes from the same plant material react differently to wine-making techniques, as well as the climatic variation between ourselves and Burgundy." The Clos de Mouches vines are now 60 years old. They are a Premier Cru vineyard on the Cote de Beaune owned by Joseph Drouhin.  Bateleur Chardonnay is made by Danie de Wet, the owner of Dewetshof.

Cape Port Producers’ Association Port & Wine Awards at Muratie

Carel Nel of Boplaas, Lynne, and Mike Neebe of Axe Hill

Muratie’s list of owners at the entrance to the farm with one of the farm dogs

Meeting in front of the rustic cellar

Artifacts in the cellar vestibule

The 10 winning ports

The 10 winning wines made from Port varietals

Muratie’s wines

The beautiful, historic window in the tasting room, with its iconic cobwebs – some say they should be a national monument

Tasting commences and lots of chatting about the wines and port

Carel Nel announces the awards with Sandra Lotz, the organiser of the function

Dave Hughes speaks about the awards

Dave presents Mike Neebe with his award

Dave presents Chris du Toit of Bergsig with his award

All the award winners with their certificates

The normal daily menu from Muratie’s Cellar Kitchen (for those of you overseas, Afval is offal)

A serious discussion over lunch - about port and farming no doubt

Lunch begins at our table with (from the left around the table) Mike Neebe, Lynne, David Biggs, Mike Bampfield-Duggan of Wine Concepts, Colin Frith, Cathy Marston

Another view of the charming time-warp Voorkamer (front room) – used as the tasting room

All these photographs are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc

Lourens and Lizelle van der Westhuizen at Arendsig, Robertson

Arendsig tasting room, rebuilt, with its Langtafel ready for interesting future events and delicious wine pairing dinners

Some of the current Arendsig wines, which are available for tasting

The small cellar where Lourens makes amazing wine, not just for himself but for several other farms in the area

Small cooling tanks and large oak fermenting tanks.  Much of the wine is made reductively.

Lourens believes in using older wood

Tank sampling in the cellar, lots of very interesting wines to come.  Watch this space.

Lourens waxing lyrical about his excellent Blanc de Noir

The 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, before we put a case in the car for later drinking – in a year or two

Lourens’s lovely wife, Lizelle

A view of the lovely Bonnievale valley from the lawn

Looking down the valley towards the Robertson valley and the Langeberg mountains

Vineyard workers having their lunch break on the banks of the Breede River. The river is in full flood after the heavy rains last week.

All these photographs are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc