Friday, October 13, 2023

Meerendal Estate celebrates 50 years as Wine Estate

Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville is celebrating its 50th anniversary as an Estate
We were invited to join them, celebrate and learn some of the history of the farm
It was founded in 1702 and 60,000 vines were planted then. Today they have over 150,000 vines on the Estate
The Cape Dutch style homestead was built in 1936, is now a fine Boutique hotel

The Cape started growing vines in the early 1650s and has produced wine since February 1659,
longer than any other wine area outside Europe and the Mediterranean
Meerendal's first modern vineyards were planted to Shiraz and Pinotage, and they are still producing wine,
now from seriously old and precious vines

An aerial view of the first vineyard on Meerendal, which is still in existence
It shows the oldest vineyard in Durbanville, a Pinotage vineyard that was planted in 1955, 68 years ago

Herman Coertze and his wife Aletta are the owners of Meerendal

In September 1973, Meerendal was officially declared a Wine Estate,
one of the first fourteen wine farms in South Africa to receive estate status
Meerendal marketing manager Bennie Howard CWM was one of the founding members who began this journey

A welcome to Meerendal by Bennie 

We were served a taste of the just degorged new Meerendal Sauvignon Blanc sparkling wine,
made by Meerendal GM and Winemaker Wade Roger-Lund
It  spent 6 month on the lees and is delicious, with yeasty, long, clean crisp flavours and a good lively mousse

and we drank a toast to the farm, to wine and to life

Something new at Meerendal, chocolate company CocoaFair has moved there, so exciting things are planned
More about this soon...

These two ancient Pear trees were planted so long ago that no one really knows when,
but they are the oldest trees on the estate

and they still produce fruit; these are late and shrivelled pears that survived the winter

Bennie knows all the history of the farm; he has worked there for many years

Meerendal general manager and winemaker Wade Roger-Lund

Wade showed us these very old Muscat d'Alexandrie (Hanepoot) vines
which must be the oldest surviving Hanepoot vines in the Cape

They have been gently pruned by old vine expert Rosa Kruger and will produce fruit every year

The amazing survival of a very old vine

We took a tour of the Heritage wine cellar

These are the old Kuipe (cement wine tanks), built in 1943, in which the wine was and still is, fermented
when the grapes first come in
(They also ferment wine in steel tanks and oak barrels)
They have been brought up to date with modern plumbing, cooling and automatic punch-down machinery

Meerendal has so many wonderful wines and two restaurants, but they also cater for many other interests
with running, hiking and mountain bike trails, events, conferences and weddings
Check out their website and Facebook page
We then tasted some older wines. First, Meerendal Shiraz 1989, so 34 years old
The vineyard was planted in 1972/3 by Oom Kosie Stark from cuttings taken from a 1930 vineyard
It became the mother block for their Shiraz grapes and plants
The nose opened with good fruit and you can still smell the French oak
Then rich raspberry fruit and other berry fruits, with morello cherry and some chalk and earthy minerality on the end Extraordinary
The 2005 Heritage Block Pinotage has incense wood, fruit gums, cassis and mulberry on the nose
Lovely red berry fruit, tea leaves, chalky grippy tannins and sweet and sour fruit. It still has time

Meerendal was the first of the 14 Durbanville estates to put the logo on the back labels of the wine - in 1957

We also tasted three current wines: the Sauvignon Blanc, which has all the classic Durbanville flavours
- granadilla, green pepper and lime, a bit tropical on opening then the green shows. A great wine for food pairing
The 2022 Rosé is 100% Pinotage with fruit gums on the nose, mulberry follows through on lighter palate
The Pinotage has such richness, dark cherries with smoke and huge minerality and salinity on the nose,
soft and sweeter fruit on the palate, long flavours ending in licorice wood

Meerendal is a Certified Heritage Vineyards Member



and so to Chocolate, a Deli and the new Tasting Room...
Read on...

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The new Meerendal Tasting Room with Cocoafair taste pairing

Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville has made some exciting new changes
They want to make Meerendal a destination for wine lovers and Foodies
 There is a new, commodious Tasting Room where food and wine pairings will feature
and the CocoaFair chocolate factory, bakery, and Deli where they will be selling their own produce
There are very exciting, innovative wine and canapé pairings in the tasting room

 The new Tasting Room is exceptional and you can taste inside and outside on the terrace

Chef Thelo van Wyk, who will head up the factory
with Sharon Musasa and Steffan making both the chocolate and the Deli food

The chefs involved in making the canapés for the tasting, Steffan, Sharon and Head chef Thelo

Heinrich Kotze, MD of CocoaFair. He told us that he has had a lifelong affair with wine and chocolate

 Chef Thelo in his new CocoaFair kitchen

Chutneys and jams out for tasting

Heinrich in the Deli

In the deli, freshly baked breads, bagels and rolls, 

Luche Hugo in the chocolate sales area
The great news is that if you loved one or some of the sweet items in the food and wine pairing,
you can order more from the shop
We saw one table with twelve chocolates in a box to go home with a buyer

Very talented chocolatier and baker Sharon Musasa with those amazing filled Craqueline Choux buns

Some of the chocolates you can buy to take home

A selection of deliciousness

Comfort in the tasting room

A huge wood burning fire in the centre, making it perfect for winter visits

The wines available for tasting and a window into the wine cellar

Customers enjoying their pairing

The new menu for the Wine and Food pairings
You can pair them both with either 3 white wines or 3 red wines and there is one for the children as well

Wines available in the Tasting room


We chose to do one each and then taste the other's as well

GM and Winemaker Wade Roger-Lund is very excited about the pairings
and knows it will bring lots of new customers flocking to the tasting room
We agree, we really enjoyed the experience and the pairings were super. The pastries were exceptional

The Savoury Pairing comes with two white wines and a Rosé,
but you can change to the red wine selection according to your taste. R110
From Left to Right:
A crisp sourdough herbed crouton topped with a creamy Chevin goats cheese round and a citrus and onion marmalade
A deep fried Wonton wrapper filled with Pineapple and Szechuan pepper marinated chicken and a sweet chilli relish
A Grissini breadstick flavoured with Dijon mustard and rocket then wrapped in Parma ham
We liked the Chardonnay so much that we bought a case to take home

The Sweet Pairing costs R110, here with three red wines
From  Left to Right:
A gooey and rich chocolate brownie with nuts, with a chocolate cream
A Craquelin Choux Bun filed with banana & passionfruit curd and vanilla cream
Absolutely divine, you will want more of these from the bakery
Honey nougat dipped in 71% dark CocoaFair chocolate,
also really delicious and they are all very good with the red wines 

The wine and canapé tasting had made us rather hungry, so we stopped at Meerendal's La Romantica Restaurant for a bite to eat,
only to discover that at lunchtime every weekday they have very good specials
and so had some of the others who did the pairing with us

Nice and busy

The current lunch promo

A drought beer to refresh us after the wine

And they call this half a pizza!  Lynne took half home. It's a Morituri 
Feta, Avocado, Bacon, Chicken & Roasted Red
Peppers, usually 169 for the whole pizza, here the special at R79 for half
Their Pizzas have always been good and authentic

John had the Bacon & Cheese Hamburger, 
Crispy Streaky Bacon with Melted Cheddar and chips, usually R119, here at R89

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

If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in your email

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