Stanford Wine Route Launch: Don Gelato, African Queen

A great finish to Tuesday was a visit to a Gelateria in Stanford, Don Gelato followed by a braai on the African Queen River Boat on the Klein Rivier, which runs through Stanford and empties into the lagoon

Don Gelato is in the centre of Stanford so easy to find in Queen Victoria Street

Lionello Giovannetti immigrated here from Naples a few years ago and wanted to get South Africa to taste real gelato. To quote Wikipedia : "Gelato is a type of soft ice cream containing a relatively small amount of air. Gelato can be made with milk, cream, various sugars, and flavouring such as fresh fruit and nut purees. It is generally lower in calories, fat and sugar than other styles of ice cream. By statute, gelato in Italy must have at least 3.5% butterfat, with no upper limit established"

The also sell coffee so you can enjoy an Affogato (in Italian, 'drowned') - an espresso with a dollop of ice cream (and it sometimes has a shot of liqueur or grappa but I don't think he has a licence)

Some of the selection of flavours

Inside and, in good weather, outside seating as well

Midweek main street in Stanford. It's a nice sleepy little town during the week

There are some very old and interesting buildings in the village

You find them on the Wandelpad at the riverside on the edge of town. There is plenty of parking

The African Queen. The trip on the river was a wonderful experience, one we hope to be back to enjoy again in the summer

Lots of bird life along the river. We hoped to see kingfishers but it was too late in the day

The sound of wind in the reeds is marvellous

Overhanging trees about to break into bud

Shimmering water

Reeds colonising the waterway

All the members of the Stanford wine route joined our party and they had all added some of their wines to make the party swing

It can be windy in Stanford, but this was a perfectly still evening as we floated down the river

Tariro Masayiti, Chairman of the Wine Route, officially opening the Stanford Wine Route. the 21st in the Cape

We celebrated with an MCC which was ably sabraged by Jorika Dreyer

Ducks taking off with the Misty Mountains in the background

Soon there will be some local MCC, but tonight we celebrated with some Woolworths Villiera MCC Brut

Sunset over the silent water

Ripples and birdlife

It was like being in a watercolour

It’s a painters dream

and so still and quiet, when the boat's engine is turned off! Although it is not that noisy

We dropped anchor to have supper as the twilight died

Someone was having a party at their house on the riverside

Salads out for supper

They have two metal braais (barbeques) suspended from the rails of the boat, so they can cater for a lot of people and the smoke doesn't seem to come into the boat, as their chimneys vent above it

They have a searchlight, so you can see the reeds and the wildlife. There are otters, frogs, and other water creatures

Braai broodtjies (dampers), lamb chops, boerewors sausage on this side

The chicken kebabs were cooked on the other side of the boat. In some parts of meat eating SA, chicken is regarded as a vegetable....

And there were large mixed salads with avocado and strawberries

and cous cous

Girls having fun

Time to depart after a great celebration with good food and amazing wine

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Stanford Wine Route Launch: Walker Bay Vineyards, Birkenhead Brewery

On our last morning in Stanford we were taken for brunch to the boutique winery called Walker Bay Vineyards which is also the home of the Birkenhead brewery. They have 20 hectares of vines and they released their maiden vintage Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay in 2007 followed shortly afterwards by their red blend consisting of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot

The ±20 hectares of vines planted on clay-textured soils and benefitting from the prevailing cool winds from the ocean now also include Shiraz

This is a selection of their wines and beer

In the brewery which was started in 1997, they now make 6 craft beers. It was named after the famous British iron-hulled steam troopship H.M. Birkenhead which foundered on the coast close to the estate in 1852. There were not enough lifeboats for the 643 people aboard and this gave rise to the Navy tradition of "Women and Children First" as the soldiers stood firm and let them take the lifeboats. Only 193 people were saved. The "Birkenhead drill" of Rudyard Kipling's poem describes courage in face of hopeless circumstances

First we enjoyed a beer tasting

A delicious brunch was waiting for us with smoked salmon, cream cheese, croissants ...

... fruit salad, yoghurt, avocado salad and more

Reinhard Odendaal, Winemaker/viticulturist of Walker Bay vineyards, introduces us to the estate

The six beers in the tasting are all extremely well made and are all very different. We do buy them. They can all be purchased on the farm and also are available in many South African cities and towns

Then it was time to taste the Walker Bay wines and they are very drinkable. The 2013 unoaked Chardonnay at R89 is in the Chablis style, crisp and elegant. The oaked chardonnay has a buttery nose and is full of leesy limes and lemons and cooked apple notes, but remains crisp. The Amasteca 2013 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Merlot is very accomplished and we liked the Rosé too. Definitely a winery to watch in the future

Time for breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon with accompaniments

Reinhard is employed by Birkenhead Holdings Limited and is also the GM. A young mover and shaker

His dog charmed everyone

He is recovering from a climbing accident

Then it was off to the Klein River Cheese factory to make some purchases to take home

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Stanford Wine Route Launch: Klein River cheese

We had sampled a few of the Klein River cheeses at the beginning of the trip and know them well having bought them for many years. Now it was time to go to the shop at their factory to buy some cheese to take home. They have a petting zoo in the front garden and it is fun to watch the animals

It is a lovely shop, very reminiscent of our previous shop, Main Ingredient, with products from many of the same excellent suppliers who kept us in business for all those years. The fridge is laden with cheese in many different weights and sizes. And the prices are reasonable

Shelves laden with produce and cheese to taste on the centre table

Great gift ideas too. We had to buy someone a birthday present for the following Sunday and we found everything we needed here

Putting out more cheese samples

You get a view into the cheesery and can see them making the products

Then it was off to visit our last winery before heading home, Misty Mountains

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Stanford Wine Route Launch: Misty Mountains Winery

Misty Mountains is in a huge barn of a place but we hear there are plans to revamp it very soon. It is more like a conference centre at the moment. This is the first winery you encounter if you come through from Hermanus, owned by Gauteng business man, André van Vuuren, who bought it in 2004, establishing the first vineyards in 2005. The first vintage was produced in 2008. Robert Davis is the General Manager, with Stellenbosch University educated Neil Patterson consulting as winemaker. Neil is a fine young winemaker and you can already see the results with his first vintages just released.

The tasting room

Robert Davis tells us about the wines. They also produce O2 bottled water and we think they might have lost focus on the wine in recent years, but now they are back and beginning to produce good wines

The spotless winery

Platters of meat and cheese were served with the wines we were tasting

A meaty platter

And more. We had all had a rather large brunch, so didn't make too much of a dent here

Neil tells us about his two new wines, the 2015 Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, which are both zesty and accomplished even though they have only been in bottle for 2 weeks. If they were suffering from a bit of bottle shock, we didn't find any

A last word from Tariro before we embarked for the trip back to Cape Town

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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