Friday, August 12, 2016

Waverley Hills - Organic wines, beautiful gardens and good food

We last met Cellarmaster Johan Delport and Managing Director Kobus du Toit of Waverley Hills winery at the Green Wine Awards last year and we have had to keep postponing acceptance of their invitation to visit the farm. Finally, on a lovely early spring day we got there. The farm is just behind Wolseley on the road to Ceres. Brenn-O-Kem owns the farm. Run by the du Toit family, of which our host Kobus is a director, Brenn-O-Kem is in the old historic Waverley Blankets factory and the wine farm has grown from their expansion. Brenn-O-Kem  recycles wine production waste: skins, seeds and lees and runs this eco-friendly organically certified wine farm. It has a lovely site on the side of the mountain looking down over the valley and they have a really good restaurant, where we had an extremely good four course lunch following our cellar tour and barrel tasting
The very modern tasting and colourful room. All their wines are organically grown and made and are low in sulphur. They have a special range called No Sulphites Added for those with sulphur allergies
We went on a tour of the wine cellars with Johan and Kobus. This is the soaring barrel cellar
We were delighted to be offered some wines to taste from the barrels. First a good 2015 Semillon with fynbos herbs, pepper and buchu with the desired 'mutton fat' mouth, lovely kiwi fruit and maraschino on the end with good wooding. A silky 2013 SMV with cherries, spice and vanilla. Then a 2015 blend of Viognier, Semillon and Chardonnay (VSC) which is beautifully perfumed with peaches with a lovely rich mouthful from the Semillon and peaches from the Viognier with lemony acidity and good fruit sugars to balance this dry wine. The 2015 Chardonnay which is a component of the VSC has the same perfume and tastes of citrus with caramel on the end from the wood. A nice concentration of gentle flavours. We found all these wines to be open and generous rather than tight and restrained. The CW 2015 Reserve Shiraz was made to honour Kobus and Wynand's late father, Chris du Toit. The elegant nose shows herbs, good wood and had delicate fruit, more a northern style of Shiraz with nice soft tannins which give it aging ability
Time for a tour of the indigenous garden below the winery
It has water features, lots of trees and many birds and insects. And there is a children's play area
Lovely views of the mountains beyond. Bains Kloof Pass gave access through them from the Cape to Tulbagh and the hinterland in the 19th Century
Spring daisies lifting their faces to the sun
Red king protea (Protea cynaroides Madiba) named in honour of Nelson Mandela
The winery and restaurant from the gardens. Beneath the restaurant is a conference venue where weddings can be held. They have their own chapel too
The flowers were attracting the sunbirds. This is a southern double-collared sunbird or lesser double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus)
This mountain, part of the Witzenberg Mountain Range is sometimes covered in snow in winter. It is at the entrance to the pass to Ceres
Kobus du Toit told us about Brenn-O-Kem. They produce many things from the by-products of the wine industry such as cream of tartar. From the grape pomace: grape seed oil, tannins and grape skin by-products; wine spirits for the distilling industry. They produce pharmaceuticals: Grape Seed Extract, a powerful antioxidant, Sceletium Extract, and a range of Nutraceuticals. Even a natural tempura ingredient for Japan and the cream of tartar is used in bath fizz balls and baking sodas. The pomace waste is used as fertiliser
We began lunch with a glass of their MCC Chardonnay Brut 2013 which spent 18 months on the lees. Yeasty, crisp and dry with cooked apples, a hint of fynbos and a good sparkle
Lunch began with herb crusted salmon trout on a bed of spinach puree, topped with a poached egg and sprinkled with our local wild rosemary flowers. This was accompanied by the 2016 Semillon which is tropical with pears and melon, like a summer fruit salad. Lynne panicked rather when she heard this was the first of four courses. it was quite a large serving
The next course was empanada like, fold over pies of chicken and mushroom served with a divine truffle cream
John had some soy chicken with tempura broccoli instead of the mushroom pie
The main course was good crisp pork belly with creamy mash, pomegranate sauce and aruls, beans and courgette spaghetti. We had this course with the 2012 SMV which was spicy and peppery with full on vanilla ice cream notes then lovely ripe red fruit with a chocolate end. It was a great match as the wine echoed the fruit flavours of the sauce
And then there was dessert. Malva pudding, light and fluffy with a rich rooibos ice cream. Luckily it was not redolent of rooibos, just a nice rich and creamy complement to the pudding. Served with Waverley Hills stonkingly good Red Muscadel 2013 Dark and fruity with caramel notes this would also go so well with Christmas pudding
The meal was cooked by chef Francois du Toit who was previously at the Royal Hotel in Riebeek. We loved meeting him and talking to him about his good food. We think he will go far. We suggest you make a trip to the restaurant to try out his excellent menu and the Waverley Hills wines that are paired with it
Brilliant spring daisies flowering early on the farm.
After a coffee we left for home and an adventurous trip over Bains Kloof Pass, where we saw only two other cars on the entire trip up. Thank you for the kind hospitality, Waverley Hills
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

A visit to Tulbagh - The houses, museums and gardens of Church Street

On Tuesday, we at last managed to book this historic tour. You meet at the church that gives Kerk Straat its name. Built for the population after the arrival of the Rev. Arnoldus Mauritius Meiring in 1743, it turned a sleepy hollow into a town. The minister had the presence of mind to sell off land in Church Street to wealthy people and soon a vibrant community was in occupation, attracting business and people to the town. In 1969, Tulbagh suffered a devastating earthquake (6.3 on the Richter scale) which destroyed many of the houses and seriously damaged others. Thanks to the Fagan brothers, architects and builders, much of this was restored and Church Street is now the jewel of the town. You can walk the length of the street with a guide and hear the history of the town
The church is now a museum filled with interesting antiques
One of our guides, Henrilene Links, who works for the tourist board
Jason Clark, who owns an accommodation establishment in the street, is the main guide and is training Henrilene to take some of the pressure off himself
The scallop and frog gable
Peaceful Church Street
It's a lovely gentle walk of about an hour and a half, learning about the street and Tulbagh
A sleepy local bandit, one of the Readers Restaurant cats
A view of the mountains behind Tulbagh. So many of these houses were damaged or destroyed. It is a triumph of reconstruction
Looking back towards the church
Many of the houses are museums, some are privately owned, some are bed and breakfasts, this is a health clinic
The house that was the famous Paddagang restaurant. It is now a Belgian café
A beautiful example of Cape Dutch gabled architecture
This is a museum
Some are restaurants
In the middle of the road, there is now an organic kitchen garden project which is open to the public to come and pick their own vegetables. Much of this produce currently goes to the Neighbourhood market in the Waterfront, held every Saturday. Jason was so inspired by the gardens at Babylonstoren wine farm that he started this for the people of Tulbagh. We went back the following day and picked ourselves a bunch of asparagus, which we had for supper on Thursday night. It was superb and the prices are very good
Readers restaurant sponsors their own patch
Jason runs this Guest House, which is opposite the house in which he lives when he is in Tulbagh
The hillside was covered in carpets of white spring daisies
The garden is laid out in a geometric pattern and they have lots of plans to expand and plant different crops
Inside one of the historic houses is a colourful shop selling local handicrafts
This historic very early photograph, taken in the 1860s, shows what the town looked like in the mid 19th Century. It was used to reconstruct the buildings damaged or destroyed in the 1969 earthquake
Several of the houses are now museums which you can visit. Sadly, they were closed when we did our walk on the public holiday. We returned on Wednesday morning but, other than the Tourist board offices, most were still closed. We did have a very quick tour of the old church
The interior of the church, still with its pulpit and choir stalls can be used for weddings and other functions
The curator of the Church, Annelien Fredericks, kindly showed us around and played this Symphonium for us. They have many extra discs for more tunes
There is some magnificent old Cape Dutch furniture
And a very old interesting map of the Cape in the 18th century
A beautiful drum table, on which Governor Sir Lord Charles Somerset signed the document declaring the Cape a British colony in 1805
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

Thursday, August 11, 2016

A visit to Tulbagh - Saronsberg farm

A Tour of Saronsberg Farm with winemaker Dewaldt Heyns
Dewaldt is a competent cook and, on Women's Day, he made us breakfast with lovely eggs and bacon, croissants and great Chilean black coffee in his house. This feast set us up for a tour of the farm in his twin cab bakkie (utility vehicle). It is a very beautiful, fruitful valley, not only with wine but fruit, some of which is in full blossom at the moment
Our walk to the farmhouse took us past the pasture filled with Nguni cattle, mostly mothers with their newborn calves. This pasture is next to the cottages and we heard the gentle lowing of the cattle in the evening and early morning.
They have such interesting markings, this calf a completely different coloured coat from his mother. They are an ancient African breed, well suited to the warm and dry conditions
Saronsberg has two separate farms, with vineyards that are above on the slopes of this mountain and below on the farm in the alluvial valley
A huge stand of blue gum trees hides the farmhouse
Early morning mist in the valley
Aloes, rather than roses, planted alongside the vines
Aloes flower profusely in winter and are a mainstay food for birds like the sunbirds
The Tulbagh Drostdy or old town hall from 1804. This was destroyed in the 1969 earthquake and has been beautifully restored. It is now part of the KWV vineyards
Up on the mountain, the vineyards are a mixture of bush vine and trellis. They are currently being pruned
The bush vine Grenache is making a bolt with early bud break
We then drove down the valley to the alluvial parts of the farm, where most of the red wines are grown. Saronsberg has over 550 hectares on their two farms combined
Tulbagh has suffered drought, as have most of the West Coast areas this year, but they are lucky to have a lot of water from the mountains and, with the recent rains, lots of the dams are refilling well
Saronsberg vineyards going right up the mountainside
A baby cow taking a break
The mothers watching us carefully. You have to watch out for those horns
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016