The Winter's Drift Tasting Station

Winters Drift logo bears an image of an antique clock which ticked away the hours for more than 80 years  on the mantelpiece of the Glen Elgin farmstead

Elgin Station on Glen Elgin provided the crucial and fast route for local produce to the Cape Town market and the growing export trade.

 This became particularly important for Elgin’s burgeoning deciduous fruit industry.

It is now the tasting room for Winters Drift wines.

The bar in the original waiting room is now the tasting room,

where Dianne de Vries will pour you some wine to taste

Discussing the wines while eating the snacks provided

The other waiting room is filled with comfortable furniture so you can relax

Emy Matthews (Marketing and Tasting Station Manager) tells us about the wine

Opening speech by Ian who runs the Molteno Brothers Trust.

To his left are winemakers Kobie Viljoen and Koen Roose of Spionkop Wines

The media giving the speech rapt attention

Marketing and Sales Manager Gerhard Bruwer

Posy Hazell, PR agent for Winters Drift, talking to Monika Elias, 

publisher of the SA Wine Guide

The old station viewed from across the tracks

Anel Grobler of Spit or Swallow and Karen Glanfield Pawley relaxing with a glass of wine

Waiting for the train on the station platform

Gail Alswang and David Biggs

Mushroom kebabs and deep fried spring rolls

One of the cheese platters

Beef kebabs

He needs more food and definitely more wine

Twin packs of the 2011 Pinot Noir

Wine displayed on shelves

More kebabs

Still waiting for the train

Posy Hazell does counter duty

And at last, great photo opportunity, the train cruises past us.

Words and photographs © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012

Winex Select 2012 at the CTICC

Winex Select opened in Cape Town at the CTICC on Thursday. Because of other commitments, we were only able to visit on Friday. There was a good number of wine enthusiasts at the show, but not enough to make it unpleasantly crowded.

We tasted a few old favourites and some new discoveries and caught up with old friends like Inge and Paul de Wet of Zandvliet

Tamo von Arnim and a colleague from the Haute Cabriere tasting room

We found Michael Fridjhon in discussion with Johann Laubser of Delaire Graff

Winex was wonderful, but the CTICC needs to smarten up their catering, as we and many others have said before

Anthony van Schalkwyk pouring Ken Forrester

Martin Meinert with his delicious La Barry sauvignon

Checkers had a big section of their own

with Cape Wine Master Clive Torr in attendance

Lynne had a chat with Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris

Words and photographs are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus, 2012

Diemersdal's new restaurant

The Werf at Diemersdal with some of the farm buildings

The menu for the event

One of the farm workers showing us their Argentine miniature horse, 

and Big Boy the Percheron horse

People gathering for the event outside the new farm eatery in the converted stables.  It was a hot day and we needed the shade of the umbrellas

What lovely pets for children these miniature horses make.

We ate at a long table in the narrow building 

but there was plenty of space for serving the food.

They have kept it very true to the original

The chef, Nic van Wyk

A happy gathering of food and wine media

Thys Louw, the current winemaker, tells us how the restaurant came about

The first course of tapas on a wine barrel board, enough for two to share consisted of (from the left): A wild rocket salad with pickled green beans and artichokes, pulled lamb shoulder with white bean and truffle cream, sticky pork belly and prawn skewers with a trinchado sauce, Brandade of salt fish with aioli. Everything was excellent

Amazing bread baked in the kitchen to go with the food

The wines we drank with lunch

Tienie Louw, the current owner of the farm

Discussing the food and wine with Graham Howe. You might spot another of the last Masterchef contestants across the table, Lungile Nhlanhla. She was one of Lynne's favourites and we were told she is now working for Drum magazine

The main course of Basque flavoured hake, asparagus green and white with a potato salad

Chef Nic van Wyk with Anja Smit  the front-of-house-manager

There was a small morsel of the excellent bread in these paper packets that we got to take home Translation is: Stay calm and drink more wine

Words and photographs © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012