Restless River in the Hemel en Aarde Valley

They have coots in the farm dam

and lots of the indigenous blue water lilies

A well thought out indigenous waterwise garden

Although it looks like an old building, Anne and her husband Craig built this house when they bought the farm in 2004. They have 20 hectares. Some of the vines were already there when they arrived, having been planted by the previous owner in 1999, making them the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay vines in the valley.

Lightning must have hit this gum tree and cleaved it

Wonderful views of the Babylonstoren mountains

It's not all fun!

The small barrel cellar, which contains the currently fermenting Chardonnay. this will stay in barrel for 8 - 9 months. The Cabernet Sauvignon is fermented on the skins in open tanks then fed to the basket press and then into 225 L French oak barrels, some new.  Since 2013 the wines have scored 4 or 4.5 stars in Platter

and some recreational equipment

It's going through a nice slow fermentation

The house and wine cellar fit so well in the landscape.  In 2013 they planted a single vineyard registered block of Pinot Noir. Craig is self taught and makes all the wine himself. He is committed to making only single varietal wines.

We went inside to taste the two wines currently available. The annual production is very small and normally sells out in 3 to 6 months. They are sold in Cape Town at Wine Concepts but most sells from the farm, in good restaurants like the Test Kitchen and La Colombe or overseas

These are the current releases

The 2013 Chardonnay is very French in character, rather like a Chablis, creamy and leesy with limes and melons on the nose, crisp minerality with some soft chalky tannins, the palate has limes, lemons and some soft wood notes on the end.  It has elegance and quality. 3866 bottles, all numbered, it sells for R275 a bottle. We liked it immensely

The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon has cooked plums and herbs on the nose with cassis and plums on the palate and some tight chalky tannins and good wood so it needs time.  It sells for R290 a bottle

Some beautiful wall plates a couple of centuries old.

The outside veranda

Its a very elegant place to taste good wine

Their characterful Staffie, Frankie

The ripening Cabernet Sauvignon looks great and nearly ready to pick

Wonderful colour.  Anne gave us the two opened bottles to take home and we really enjoyed them with our supper that night.  Thank you for taking time to show us your wines

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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Tasting the wines of Waterford

Waterford wines are worth tasting

On the way back down the mountain from Keermont and De Trafford, you come to Waterford and, as we had a friend from Australia with us, we went in for their superb tasting

The classic Tuscan style entrance

The fountain is the logo on all the Waterford wines

A tasting under the plane trees

or on the shaded terrace

In the tasting room

Where they post news of the current harvest

A table set for a larger group

We decided to do the combined tasting, which includes their famous chocolate and wine pairing. Their excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Natural Sweet wine are paired with dark and milk chocolate. We particularly liked the rose geranium chocolate with the natural sweet Heatherleigh blend of Muscat d’Alexandre and Semillon. The entire tasting is a tour de force

The tasting was superb and we were so well taken care of by Nick Battle, who works in the tasting room. He started work here while he was a student at Stellenbosch University and now has lots of experience of the Waterford wines and what the customers' needs are. Do go and treat yourself to this tasting, you will love it. Or you can do a wine drive around the estate in their Game Viewing Land Rover

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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Oak Valley Poolroom revisited

We stopped off for a proper lunch this time at the Pool Room on our way to a stay in the Hemel en Aarde Valley. It certainly was worthwhile

The view from our table under the umbrellas next to the pool. It was a lovely warm day, so we did not have starters

The bread selection

Lynne’s choice of fried gnocchi in a rich cream truffle and mushroom sauce, topped with courgette ribbons. She was not feeling too well, so a great comforting choice

Pan fried line fish, which was Bronze bream served with olive tapenade, Mediterranean vegetables  on humus

The rest of the party all ordered the Rib eye steak which is the Wagyu beef farmed on Oak Valley. They raved about its flavour. The chips were pretty special too, really crispy and the right potatoes were used. We had a salad for the table. We drank a little Oak Valley Riesling and a bottle of their Shiraz

Kyle Martin, who handles sales for Oak Valley, was also there enjoying lunch under the trees with his family

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Open day at Keermont Vineyards, Stellenbosch

Keermont Open Day

This was a great chance to taste Keermont wines, some older vintages and some just being released. The farm is high up in the hills above Stellenbosch and they have vineyards on both sides of the valley between the Stellenbosch and Helderberg mountains, facing each other

Meeting in the foyer

Keermont's winemaker Alex Starey with Kyle Martin, who does their marketing, and Kyle’s wife Sjanel

How to appreciate a glass of their new rosé, made from Shiraz. Owner Mark Wraith with guests

The newly released Shiraz Sweetwater Rosé

Keermont white wines. We tasted the excellent 5 star Platter 2014 Riverside Chenin Blanc, made from old bush vines, the 2014 Terrasse white blend of Chenin, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and 5% Viognier which gives it s lovely peach apricot notes and the 2009 which has notes of melon. a lovely full juicy character with hints of wood

The very clean wine cellar. The white tanks and barrels in the foreground contain red wines fermenting on the skins. We were invited to help punch down. They are still harvesting

Winemaker Alex Starey doing some necessary punch down in the kuip next to their press

A view from the top

Fermenting wine in the kuipe

More guests arrived

The punch stick on the thick layer of grape skins, which rises to the top of the fermenting wine and needs to be punched down throughout the day so that the wine can get more colour and flavour from contact with the grapes

"Please can we see?" Alex Starey's daughters taking an interest

Owner Mark Wraith talking about their wines

Alex explaining about this harvest and the wines he is vinifying

Wines were dotted around the winery for us to taste along with a very good spread. This is their honey sweet Fleurfontein vine dried Sauvignon Blanc, a sweet dessert wine tasting of apricots and vanilla with a residual sugar level of 216 gm/l

We were lucky enough to be able to taste some older Shirazes as well as the current release. They are fruit driven with notes of spice and pepper, liquorice and chocolate

We also tasted the Keermont, their flagship Merlot driven Bordeaux blend. Firm chalky tannins, classic cherry cassis with some savoury notes from the Malbec. Hand selected and harvested the different varietals are all vinified separately and then barrel selected and blended. And two vintages of the Companion, which is made from the barrels that don't go into the Keermont, a classic Bordeaux blend of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cab Franc, Malbec. This wine needs time but has loads of future potential.

John Hartley talking about the wines

Time for some food. Good sourdough bread ..

... to accompany the table of charcuterie and cheese

Rich coppa ham

Silverside

Melon, olives and a good selection of cheeses

Help yourself

and taste some wine with the food

Linda and John Hartley enjoying themselves

The recent award from Platter of 5 stars for the Keermont Riverside Chenin Blanc 2014

The powers behind the throne: Juanita Schultz, Linda Hartley, Farieda Scheepers

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