Muratie's Harvest Festival - family fun under the Simonsberg

Muratie opens its doors each year for their Harvest celebration and have a relaxed day in the garden with food, good music, lots of wine and fun. We saw the new Art Gallery, passed on the opportunity to stomp some grapes (much enjoyed by the youngsters), tasted their new fermenting wines, took a tractor ride through the vineyards and chilled under the trees with a huge box full of grapes, figs, cheese, bread and other delights accompanied by their wines. It was "Cool bananas" as the chilled Capetonians say

The fun begins with the grape stomping

We preferred to venture into the cellar for the tasting of the juice and fermenting wine

Supervised by winemaker Hattingh de Villiers, here pouring some wine for us to taste

It was a good, interested crowd

Carefully sipping the fermenting young wine. Sensational flavours of fresh fruit like nectarines and plums. But you don’t want to swallow too much or you will start to ferment. Next to Lynne is broadcaster Jon Meinking, tweeting

Rijk Melck discussing the harvest and the wine

Time to taste a tank sample of the Pinot noir

Peter Kampmeinert tastes a little

You could buy hamburgers, boerewors rolls, smoked salmon sandwiches, samoosas and other delectables for lunch

We had a few of these delicacies on the media table to share. Freshly baked bread, a selection of cheeses, ripe figs and grapes, humus, tapenade and pesto with koeksisters and chocolate brownies

Busy cooks

Under the umbrellas enjoying the day

We drank the Laurens Campher, an inspired blend of Chenin, Sauvignon Blanc Verdelho and Viognier. It was so much enjoyed. Stone fruit, nuts, a little smoke and richness from the Viognier

Magnums of it on our table

A colourful Greg Landman of Country Life enjoying the day

Tractor rides through the vineyards every half hour

No, “we are not drinking coals from Newcastle”, say Yvonne and Peter from Holland, it’s wine for us today

Our skilful tractor driver, Paul

On the way up the hill

Smile! He's a Hashim Amla fan

Enjoying the ride together

In the far distance the Peninsula and Table Mountain

Strange cloud patterns, hinting of rain. It never came, just more heat and wind. The vines were laden with grapes awaiting harvest

Sentinel pines at the farm entrance

The band is always good

A happy day

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

The new MOK Gallery of modern South African art at Muratie

MOK is run by Cecile Blevi, a relative of Muratie's owner, Rijk Melck. Rijk took us to have a look and we were very impressed. It is in an historic 300 year old house on the property, where freed slave Ansela van de Kaap lived with her German husband Lourens Campher from 1695

Rijk showed us the way to the gallery, which is across the road from his wine cellar

The gardens are full of these large bronze figures

Cecile has a very good eye for art and exhibits the works of many, varied South African artists

Amusing pottery from Ayanda Mji, a ceramic artist from the Eastern Cape

Admiring the works. The plaster has been removed to show the way the walls were made from mud bricks

Sometimes Art is the window

Gallery owner Cecile Blevi, The current exhibition is of charcoal drawings by Rentia Retief and oil and watercolour paintings by Johan Coetzee

If you are interested, MOK gallery and Diane Victor offer two advanced drawing workshops in June at Muratie wine estate in Stellenbosch from 26th to 30th June 2017 (Fee: R4100 excluding food and accommodation) and at Cape St. Martin, Britannia Bay from 3rd to 7th July. Check out the details on the MOK Facebook page

Woodcuts by Theo Paul Vorster and ceramics by Lisa Walker

Striking oil on canvas by Thembalethu Manqunyana, and some of his other powerful work

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

Sign the petition! Stop sand mining in the Swartland. PLEASE!

The South African wine community is in a state of shock. An application for sand mining rights in the Paardeberg area of the Swartland has been approved by the Malmesbury municipality. If this is allowed to go ahead, some of the country's best wine producers will be very badly affected, if not ruined. These include Eben Sadie, the Mullineuxs, Adi Badenhorst, Vondeling, David and Nadia and Lammershoek. 

PLEASE go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protect-the-paardeberg and sign the petition against this travesty

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

Celebrating the Harvest at Jordan

Glorious summer brings on the grape harvest in our winelands and many farms are celebrating their success. We hear that this harvest is generally a good one, despite the drought; grapes are smaller, but the juice is very concentrated, with good sugar and acids. We were invited to Jordan with other media people this week to taste some of the juice, the newly fermenting wine and last year's bottled wine and we were very impressed

A welcoming glass of Jordan's Chameleon Rosé was appreciated by all

Gary and Kathy Jordan with Den Anker's owner Elizabeth de Visscher and manager, Réjeanne Vlietman

Gary and Kathy Jordan welcomed us and talked about what is happening on the farm. This is the worst drought for 100 years. Thankfully, Jordan drilled for water 3 years ago, but even that water has to be used sparingly or the boreholes will dry up. Harvest began on the 2nd of February, coincidentally the day on which Jan van Riebeek made the first wine in the Cape in 1659. Jordan starts later because the ±400m altitude of their vineyards meansd that they have a cooler environment than most Stellenbosch estates. This is a cooler year than we have had for some time, with temperatures about 1.5⁰C lower. They have, so far, been spared from the fires that have devastated other wine growing areas

Winemaker Sjaak Nelson's Harvest 2017 T-shirt tells it all: WTF - Wine Time Finally

As we stood in the cellar noises of wine being made were all around us. As they brought in the grapes, the crusher and destemmer were ready to work and tanks were being vented

The best bit, a chance to taste the ripe grapes, the juice and newly fermenting wines, with some of last year's wines to show what the juice can become. We could also smell some of the fermenting yeasts that are used - they are in the chemistry flasks - rather bready and complex, but they do their job so well. We tasted the 2016 Sauvignon Blanc and the unoaked 2016 Chardonnay

Kathy talks about the journey from grape to glass

Gary talks about the chemistry

Jordan shoes?

Time to taste some wine

We moved to the terrace, where tables were set for us under the trees

Happy with harvest

A view of the dam and the country beyond

A taste of the Real McCoy 2016 Riesling

and a shot of chilled Gazpacho. The food for lunch came from the Jordan Bakery

We shared platters of meat, cheese, olives and relishes

and two salads. A Bacon and broccoli with seeds

A beetroot, feta, rocket and sliced onion salad. Great on a hot day

The trees give a lot of good shade

The barman, named Talent, looked after our glasses very well

Oh, those lovely views

With coffee, a tempting selection from the bakery of small bites of their desserts: chocolate tarts, cheese cake, lemon tart, brownies, chocolate covered strawberries and apple pie

All are available at the bakery to eat there or take home

Gary brings out his rock collection of some of the different terroirs on the farm. He started his working life as a geologist

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017