Durbanville is one of our favourite wine producing areas. It is only 30 minutes from central Cape Town and has great wine producers. We
were asked to attend this fair last week and, on arrival, were given a map of the
valley with a star next to the name of the farm we would be visiting first. It turned out that we
would not be visiting the farm, but a
stall in the hall at Cassia restaurant on Nitida. It turned out
to be an information day with each farm having a stand with representatives who could tell us what the farm has to offer. Afterwards, there was a bar, with a red and
white wine from each farm to taste and some snacks
An early start at 10 am with fruit kebabs, coffee
and rusks. We had been offered transport, but only from Canal Walk, and, as we
live in Sea Point, we went under our own steam. Canal Walk is almost the same distance from us as
Durbanville
Fruit kebabs for breakfast
Bran rusks
Opening speeches started with Angela Fourie,
Durbanville's PRO
Liezel van der Westhuizen was MC for the day
The audience standing for the speeches. Lynne did
eventually manage to find a chair on the De Grendel stand. Some of us cannot
stand for a long time
Grant Newton, marketing manager of Groot Constantia, is also a member of the Cape Tourism board and spoke on their behalf
Then
Then a presentation from one of the
sponsors, Yoco, who have a new credit card machine
This is where we started. Everyone had a different
starting point. You had to stay on your designated stand until they rang a bell,
then you could move, which seemed to happen every 10 minutes. It did not take that
long to find out what was on offer, so people just started moving in their own
time
We thought it rather strange that the farms were not allowed to give
tastings of their wines, as many of the invited guests were not wine media, but
travel and hospitality operators not all of whom were acquainted with Durbanville. And it might have encouraged people to stay longer at
each stand. Two, Diemersdal and Nitida, did have one wine each. Some farms,
sadly, had untrained staff who had very little to tell us about their special attractions.
We were just given some leaflets on some of them and not all were able to give prices. There were some promotional gifts
like key rings and coasters. We wondered what their brief was. And are tasting
room staff the right people to promote the farms' features? Some farms did shine
and had lots of interesting information, given by people who knew their business
John started at Signal Gun, was given leaflets and moved quickly to Diemersdal where he tasted their Grüner
Veltliner. Lynne chatted to Bennie Howard CWM on Meerendal, had a small sample of
butternut soup from Carlucci’s restaurant there and admired Bennie’s mountain
bike; they have an MTB route on the farm
Cassia Restaurant had this lovely sample of their food on the Nitida stand which John managed to taste, smoked salmon on a beetroot
rösti. Lynne wasn’t that lucky
Cassia Restaurant owner Warren Swaffield with Inga Rix of Nitida. Nitida was one of the stars and their winemaker, Danie Keulder, was there with Inga to speak to the guests
A question for Karin de Villiers, owner of Klein Roosboom
There was a raffle for the Pebbles Project for R10 a
ticket.
Maryna Strachan with Grant Newton
An potential customer for the Yoco card machine
The lovely girls on the Durbanville Hills stand
were very welcoming and were well-informed
Finally, time to taste some wine and we started
with the local Bubbles
The snacks
Sweets
Small quiches
One of the stars of the fair was
They had their new labels on show and we tasted
the Suider Terras Sauvignon Blanc at the bar. It has always been a great wine.
We wait with bated breath to hear what is going to happen at the Restaurant at
the top of their hill as the lease of the current occupier is up. A great site which needs a good operator
Flatbread stuffed with butternut? Not sure, we
didn't taste.. There was not much to eat if you were Banting
© John & Lynne
Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016
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