A visit to Tariro Masayiti at Springfontein

The well endowed barrel cellar

Today, they were bottling the Sopiensklip Rosé

Identified as a good barrel of Shiraz

Talking wine with Tariro and sampling out of the barrels (nowhere to put me hat, so it's on my head)

It’s an adventurous life, winemaking

We tasted a very special Petit verdot from the top barrel

In the upstairs tasting room

Tariro is passionate about his job and winemaking

A prestigious award received recently. This Pinotage received 4½ stars in the Platter guide

The new restaurant “Springfontein Eats”

The little fisherman's cottage on the property that forms the basis of their logo

A mural in the restaurant

The tasting counter

Lovely big open fireplace

We met the Chef, Jürgen Schneider, in his spotless kitchen

Putting up lights under the pergola for the restaurant terrace

The old farmhouse is now the restaurant

It has two tiny rooms where you can have a romantic dinner just for two

and a covered verandah in front facing the river

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

SAWi Awards at Grootbos

The SAWi trophies

Brett Garner was the able MC for the evening

A harvest of wine people

 Hempies du Toit

Head Chef Benjamin Conradie

 Michael Lutzeyer, co-owner of Grootbos

Listening intently and wondering “Have we won anything?”

First course: encrusted Salmon

Second course was completely decadent and, yes, some of us managed two. A whole freshly caught crayfish tail in a glass with a rich mayonnaise

 Izak Smit, director of the South African Wine Index

More interested bystanders and participants, listening to the awards

Peter Finlayson of Bouchard Finlayson, his wife Gita and Anthony Hamilton Russell. Both won several awards for their wines

A very happy JC Martin and his wife, Carolyn, of Creation Wines hear they have won an award

Peter Finlayson also received the Special Wine Legend Award

There was a huge collection of the SAWi Ambassador wines open for tasting

Brett Garner of The Month publication

Carolyn Martin of Creation wines with Bennet, who helped make sure we had everything we needed

A very rich mushroom risotto topped with cheese

Hempies du Toit presents Peter Finlayson with his awards

Tender baby quail on a potato purée with a rich jus

Hempies du Toit is presented with a special  award to Annandale for having been exclusively selected to submit a classic SA Merlot wine for the Royal Wedding in Monaco

Hamilton Russell winemaker Hannes Storm collects the Trophy for the White Wine of the Year for the Hamilton Russell Chardonnay

Dual awards went to two Tulbagh farms that tied for the Red Wine of the Year Trophy: Rijk's Private Cellar Pinotage and Saronsberg Full Circle Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier. Pierre Waal accepts for Rijks and Dewald Heyns for Saronsberg

Izak Smit and Peter du Toit phoning Cederberg winemaker David Nieuwoudt in China to tell him he had won the Trophy  for the Winemaker of the Year AND Winery of the year (jointly with Bouchard Finlayson). They had to wake him up, as it was the early hours of the morning in China.

SAWi made a presentation to our hosts, Michael Lutzeyer and his wife, owners of Grootbos. Next  to them is Sean, the General Manager 

Final savoury course, peppered fillet steak brochettes on pappadums

Dessert was a layered panacotta topped with berries

And a really wicked chocolate mousse cake

We ended the evening tasting award winning brandies

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

Boland braai at Thelema

A beautiful evening in the Banhoek valley

The main house

Wines all set out for tasting

 Fiona MacDonald and Greg Landman play boule

Greg with Thelema's owner, Gyles Webb

We chat about the wines

 Gyles Webb, winemaker and braaimaster

Thomas Webb pours for the tasters

Barrels on the lawn make useful tables

Nice view of the house

 Serious discussions round the braai:

Gyles Webb, Rudi Schultz, Francois Rautenbach and Thomas Webb

 The Thelema team

A nice vignette through the house

The setting sun kisses the mountain tops. There are paintings of these mountains where no one believes that the colours are real. You can see that they are.

From blue and mauve they suddenly take on the sunset colours

The sunset over the Tokara vineyards looking over False Bay towards Fish Hoek

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013