Wednesday, December 22, 2021

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 25. Weltevrede estate, Bonnievale

The last day of our two week trip was a day of rushing off to appointments, so time had to be squashed a bit. We had intended to head home after our visit to Kranskop, but Weltevrede had called the day before and asked us not to come that day, but move the appointment to our last day. They had a media group from Cape Town coming in a bus to see and experience the new tasting room and their two different cellar tours. Could we make it for lunch? Sadly not, as we already had our lunch appointment with Newald Marais at Kranskop. We managed to re-arrange our day and our planned early departure back to Cape Town and made it by 2.45

They have made amazing changes to the farm while we have been in lock down. Such impressive new building and landscaping. They wanted to provide many more attractions for visitors and they have really succeeded

This is the new path from the car park, with outside seating and a leiwater rill

which runs from the new Tasting room entrance and fills the pond at the bottom
The entrance to the indoor tasting room has changed beyond recognition, and all for the better


A warm welcome from Elzette Steyn, who runs the tasting room and the Three Experiences,
and Marketing Manager Steyn Fullard


They have created three new Experiences for visitors. The old underground kuipe (concrete tanks in which wine is made) have been drilled through and opened up to create two separate tours through them. The tour on the left is CAPTIVATED BY CHARDONNAY - Share in the worldwide fascination of Chardonnay and taste the new collection of WELTEVREDE Chardonnays. Learn about the history of wine, globally understand the terroir of the Robertson valley. And the one on the Right is CAPTIVATED BY CAP CLASSIQUE. Join the world celebration of Cap Classique and Champagne and taste the latest vintages of Philip Jonker Brut. Learn about the fascinating production process from vineyard to glass. And you get to taste some Cap Classique on the tour as well. You can book for them on line or here when you arrive at the farm


The third Experience is CREATE CAP CLASSIQUE

Create your very own bottle of Cap Classique to take home, which is on the area at the top of the new tasting room: You go from one machine to the next, with a guide, degorging, dosing, re-corking, putting on the muselet cap, then the wire, the foil, the labelling and having a LOT of fun. This experience costs R200, which is very good value as a bottle already done would cost you R150. We did not get to join in, but we had done something similar on the farm in a previous visit


A space in the cellar area for storage of boxes of wines for sale

Having enormous fun on one of the machines

Chatting to friends in the media while they bottled their Cap Classique,
we enjoyed a glass Entheos Cap Classique, 60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir


The view looking down on the new, very impressive tasting room


This is how you put on the muselet - the wire cage and metal cap at the top which keep the cork in place
Steyn supervises and aids


Degorging the bottle is the first step - it is when the frozen impurities in the neck of the inverted bottle are removed

Marketing Manager Steyn Fullard took us on the CAPTIVATED BY CAP CLASSIQUE tour
(Wines made by the Méthode Champenois)

First, we visited the room where the remuage of the bottles is carried out. After the wine has fermented and gone through a long period of compulsory rest and maturation, several years, it comes here. Each bottle is turned a small amount each day and then moved into a slightly more vertical position. This method, done gently and over a long time, slowly brings the lees of the wine into the neck, so that when they are ready to put in the cork, the neck of the bottle can be frozen and the frozen plug of lees expelled by the pressure inside the bottle. It is then topped up and quickly corked

Explanations on the wall


Then we went into the small tasting room in the cellar where the media group had had a tasting of the Cape Classiques

A lovely display of maturing Cap Classique bottles, nicely dusty as they must not be disturbed in their quiet sleep
while they grow in stature, flavour and excellence. You can see the details of this 2014 vintage of The Ring

 

The Maturation information and the time that each different country prescribes
as a minimum maturation period for its sparkling wines

A display of some well known French Champagnes

A good selection of South African Cap Classiques

and some famous quotes about Champagne

Some storage!

The two Weltevrede Cap Classiques, The current vintage of The Ring Blanc de Blancs is 2013 (100% Chardonnay),
and the Non-Vintage Entheos, which is 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir

We then had a very special individual tour with Philip of the Chardonnay tour cellar,
when the media group had finished their day

A beautiful old and very large Foudre wine barrel, carved with the Jonker family crest
These were made in Germany and used for many years on the farm. Now they use French oak barrels

and on the base a lovely line which translates: Sing of the wine and drink to the song

Each kuip has been opened up with an arched door

In one, you can watch a very informative video
in which Philip talks about the Chardonnays he makes. It is his passion


A box of the full Chardonnay collection. There is lots of atmosphere and sound and light features on the tour


Different styles of Chardonnay, Chablis in France being one of the most sought after styles worldwide
for its tight minerality and wonderful crispness with great fruit

Philip pouring us a taste of The Weltevrede Calcrete Chardonnay

It is a classic Chardonnay from the area, crisp and zingy with lovely lime and lemon flavours
and lot of minerality from the almost impenetrable chalk soil it is grown in

A rock of calcrete in the cellar. How the vine roots penetrate this is a miracle

Many of the Chardonnays have won impressive awards

Some older bottles and packaging

One survivor from 1982

And a superb collection going back to the 1970s

A description of the Poet's Prayer Chardonnay and a picture of Table Mountain with Dutch ships in the bay. The wine industry here began after a way station at the Cape was established by the Dutch East India Company to provision their ships going to and from the East

More history is told

And some Jonker family history too

and an appropriate last word from one of the posters in the cellar
Lynne's best description of a great wine - she calls it a "Dive In" nose; 
when the wine being nosed is so good that you want to get into it - So well depicted here

Thank you to all at Weltevrede for your time. We think that the new experiences are very exciting indeed
and will bring many people to the farm to enjoy them and the wines

As we were finishing the visit and were saying our goodbyes, we realised that we could hear thunder rumbling outside and then there was lighting and, just as we got to our car, down came the rain, very heavily. Luckily, it did not last long and eased up as we headed towards Worcester to join the N1 where, thankfully, it stopped. We were home by 6.30

All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

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Posted by MENU at 4:21 pm 3 comments

Saturday, December 18, 2021

In MENU This Week – Robertson - TheLAB, DeWetshof, Silverthorn, Springfield and Kranskop

A palm tree silhouetted against a fiery Robertson sunset

We really thought that this would be the last MENU of 2021, but decided that bombarding you with ten stories would be a bit too painful. So we’ve held five over for the final issue of the year and will try to get it out before mid-week. This week, and some of next week, is about Robertson, that beautiful and hospitable river valley on the edge of the Karoo, lush in the middle because of the Breede River and rocky and arid around the edges. It is one of our favourite places on earth and we hope you’ll like the stories and think about visiting. It is less than two hours from Cape Town, a comfortable and scenic drive.

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 20. Robertson - DeWetshof

We made very good time coming from Knysna and reached Robertson before 12. This is our favourite wine area of them all; the people are so friendly and genuine, and the wines are excellent. We have made lots of friends there. The two valleys of Robertson and Bonnievale are very fruitful and beautiful. It is easy to get around and we like it so much that we even contemplated moving here at one time. All our appointments for the two days were ably organised for us by Renate le Roux at the Robertson Tourism office. Our first wine estate visit was to De Wetshof, which produces some of the best wines in the valley.  Read on…

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 21. Silverthorn, Bonnievale

Our next appointment was at Silverthorn in Bonnievale. Warmly welcomed by John and Karen Loubser, we were so impressed with what they have done to the farm in the two years since we last visited. The tasting room, which they were still decorating and fitting when we were there before, is now so comfortable and relaxing. How did the farm get its name? "In the middle of winter, when the vines have shed the last of their amber leaves and roots are drawing their strength for summer; when the grey-green veld sparkles after the rain and the tallest peaks of the Riviersonderend Mountains are dusted in snow, it is the Karoo Acacia, with its profusion of dazzling white thorns, that commands attention. It is this image of one of the Karoo’s most prolific thorn trees that inspired the name Silverthorn Wines". Read on…

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 22. Robertson - theLAB Boutique hotel

It had been a long day since we set out from Knysna and we were becoming a bit tired, so we headed for our overnight accommodation in the Klaasvoogds area. Called theLAB, it’s a very interesting place, a modern “Eco-centric guest house“ with lots of solar panels, a terrace with beautiful sunsets and views, a restaurant, and a spa. Read on…

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 23. Springfield, Robertson

The last day of our trip. We had a good breakfast at theLAB, packed the car one last time and headed off to our first appointment of the day, Springfield at 10 am. A lovely avenue leads you into the farm. They have improved the tasting room over the last few years and will soon enlarge it. During Covid, you need to sit outside; there is a canopy. Roses grow so well on the Robertson soils; these are really beautiful. Read on…

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 24. Robertson – Kranskop

After our tasting at Springfield, it was time to rush off to our lunch date with Newald Marais at Kranskop. Newald has been so hospitable to us in the past and nothing has changed; we are very fond of him. The first vines were planted on Kranskop circa 1792. The craggy, rocky ledge atop Kranskop was inspiration for the hill’s name, which means wreath cap. Read on…

Our Road trip

For those who’d like to see the earlier stories about our road trip through the Karoo and the Garden Route, you’ll find them in the November and December lists in the Archive, just below the Contact panel in the Right hand column on our site at https://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/

If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com
Posted by MENU at 2:28 pm 0 comments

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 24. Robertson - Kranskop

After our tasting at Springfield, it was time to rush off to our lunch date with Newald Marais at Kranskop
Newald has been so hospitable to us in the past and nothing has changed; we are very fond of him

The first vines were planted on Kranskop circa 1792
The craggy, rocky ledge above Kranskop was inspiration for the hill’s name, which means wreath head



The winery and tasting room with the new improved deck above

Good spacing of tables, a new roof, floor and a bar
A good place for small celebrations, should we ever be safe enough to hold them
And, if the weather deteriorates, they can wind down blinds to insulate the area

The views across the valley are great

Tasting through his 15 wines and enjoying his company, with a lot of industry chat, was not only fun but a great experience. The farm is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. The wines are of such good quality; Newald would have nothing else, and they are made with years of experience. He studied viticulture and pomology at Elsenburg Agricultural College near Stellenbosch and then at Weinbauschule Weinsberg in Germany. He achieved great success as wine maker at prominent wine estates, and succeeded the legendary Günter Brözel as cellarmaster at Nederburg. After retiring from that position, Newald returned to his valley of origin in 2002 to become a sought-after wine making consultant to a variety of cellars and then to own his own farm

We only had a short time and tasting through 15 plus wines was going to be a challenge, so it was a rather speedy tasting. The new Kranskop 2021 Sauvignon Blanc was crisp and crunchy, with more tropical flavours 

He provided a very good local cheese and charcuterie platter with great chutneys, pickles, green figs and dried fruit for our lunch, which we could munch while we chatted, catching up with lots of Robertson news



The drier style 2021 Viognier has quality, 20% wood fermentation and has crisp flavours and good fruit,
with almond, peach and apricots; very enjoyable

The 2021 Chenin Blanc is nice and yeasty on the classic nose; it has had partial wood fermentation
Lovely fruit with quince and yellow stone fruits and good acidity. It is from a 33 year old vineyard; a lovely wine

The 2021 unwooded Chardonnay was initially shy,
with brioche on the nose, then crisp limes and buttery lees on the long palate

The 2021 Kranskop Rosé is a 50/50 blend of Petit Syrah and Viognier, matured on the lees
Candy floss, raspberry and strawberries with a soupcon of sweetness

The 2020 Pinot Noir has rose petals on the nose with raspberry fruit
On the palate, it has intense cherries and berries, with some ripeness and warmth
12 months maturation in French oak, 20% in new barrels, the remaining 80% in third fill

The 2018 Merlot has dark berry fruit on the nose and cherry, mulberry and cassis on the intriguing palate
12 months wood maturation, 35% in new, 35% in 2nd fill & & 30% in 3rd fill French oak medium toasted barrels

 The 2018 Shiraz is very dark in colour
Juicy berries and spice on the nose, Dark berries, heavy chalky tannins and long spicy flavours on the palate

The label for the 2019 Beekeepers Block is lovely and should jump off the shelves
From a single vineyard, nearly surrounded by fynbos which attracts the bees, this Shiraz has lots of fruit initially,
then herbal & spicy notes with incense wood. On the palate, cherries, mulberries and rhubarb
The wine is nicely made, hand crafted and is a barrel selection. It has had exposure to new and old oak

Newald is known as Mr Tannat and his two wines made with the grape are excellent. Tannat is a red wine grape, historically from the Madiran AOC in South West France, and is now the most prominent grape in Uruguay, where it is considered the "national grape". It seems to have better fruit if grown in warmer terroirs. The 2015 Kranskop Tannat has dark berries and spice in layers on the attractive nose, with licorice, rhubarb, white pepper, cherry and smoke. Juicy on the palate with maraschino, black and Morello cherries; delicious. Supporting tannins and wood

The MCT is a blend of 55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet and 10% Tannat. It is quite intriguing and unfamiliar on the nose. On the palate, there are strong flavours of blueberries, cherries, licorice and wood and almost biting tannins. It is juicy and definitely a great food wine for red meats and game. It spends 18 months in French oak barrels, 25% new, the rest in 2nd and 3rd fill

The 2017 Kranskop Cabernet Sauvignon has a lovely classic Cabernet nose with lots of cassis
and is followed up with even more on the palate, with deep cassis flavours and deliciousness
It has soft chalky tannins and the wood is there, but just supporting. It is very Bordeaux in style

Before we left, we managed a small tasting of the 2020 Viognier Noble Late Harvest
Pure honey on the nose and palate, with apricot, nuts and limes on the end. Yum

It was a really great tasting, if a bit speedy. and we are sorry we had to rush away to our next appointment
 Thank you again, Newald, for your generosity, your time and your friendship

and, to end the trip, more bubbles at Weltevrede (coming soon)

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Posted by MENU at 10:32 am 0 comments
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