The third harvest at The Vineyard Hotel

We were summoned to the Vineyard at 7 am on Monday morning for a glass of fresh orange juice or some bubbly and marshalled into helping harvest the rows of grapes that grow alongside the Lieesbek River. Our vine had over 24 bunches this year, smaller than last year and they had been sulphured to stave off the rot. We await this year’s wine (being made at Meerlust) with great interest

The nets have been lifted and we can see the good harvest of grapes that need picking in this tiny vineyard. The good news is that soon they are going to extend the vineyard with some Chardonnay vines which will be planted on the property at the top of the vineyard, which they also own

A glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to wake up the senses. Many lug boxes wait to be filled with the grapes.

It's a good harvest

This is the vine that we look after, filled with bunches of ripe sauvignon blanc grapes

More awake, we can't wait to get going

It’s not difficult, it’s a bit sticky and you just have to watch those sharp secateurs

Busy, busy. Candice Bresler of The Phoenix Partnership and Kerry Sutherland of Waterford Estate

Lynne doing triage on the bunches, removing the bad grapes

Filling up our lug box

Roy Davies GM of the Vineyard Hotel, and Kerry Sutherland tweeting about the Harvest

We finished in less than an hour so it was time for a good glass of Simonsig Brut MCC

The matriarch of the Vineyard Hotel, Kitty Petousis helping herself to a healthy breakfast

Lots of lovely things available for hungry harvesters

Lynne veers more to the savoury side

And with breakfast, more Simonsig to refresh us

Yes, we think this is a much better use for the jam pot

Bottles of the last two vintages. We were finished by 9 and could go back to work

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Durbanville Feast of the Grape

The Feast of the Grape was held this year at D’Aria farm.  It was a very popular and good “one venue” festival, with all the local farms showcasing their wines, lots and lots of different food stalls and much else besides to amuse the visitors, including grape stomping. 

Karin de Villiers of Klein Roosboom with one of her chefs and their charcuterie platter

A warm welcome from Benny Howard on the Meerendal stand

There was lots of seating this year and, thankfully, lots and lots of umbrellas as it was a hot day

Or you could picnic on the lawn on beanbags

People at tables enjoying the wine, food and the live music

The De Grendel team

These Sauvignon Blanc Slushies were remarkably popular. You could have them with or without alcohol

A new concept for us, Biltong pies. They were a bit small though

Good Namibian biltong was also a popular choice

Pony rides for the children

People having fun

And building their relationships

All the essentials of a festival - Wine and water

Martin Moore, Cellarmaster at Durbanville Hills about to start his presentation of some older Durbanville reds. He began with a harvest joke: What is the difference between a winemaker and God? God doesn't think He’s a winemaker

He was ably assisted by Lombard Loubser of Bloemendal

Presentations by Martin always hold the attention of the audience as he is full of good information and irreverence, and amusement

“So he said..”

Martin gave us a very informative view of the wines we tasted, including information about the harvest of that year, the terroir, their constituent parts and quality. It is always a great opportunity to taste older wines from a specific area that have been kept correctly and are ready for drinking. We learn a great deal.  Several of these have won major awards

These were the wines we tasted. The Altydgedacht Pinotage 2011 is full of spicy dark fruit with a soft velvety mouthfeel. The Pinot parent shows with plums and cooked cherries and enjoyable chalky end.  The Diemersdal Reserve 2013 has sweet vanilla wood, a herbal nose with cassis and cherries.  Major cassis on the palate, it shows long restrained flavours with slight acidity on the end, held together by wood.

We liked the 2011 Kleine Roosboom which was spicy with sweet fruit and some umami notes with red and black cherries and some mint chocolate. It is ‘sappig’ (juicy) and worth drinking now.  The Meerendal Merlot 2004 has After Eight mints on the nose and triple fruit layers with nice wood and a tomato cocktail end. SA can make good Merlots. The Durbanville Rhinofield 2008 Shiraz (made by Martin) has buchu, spice and black pepper on the nose with warm chilli, turmeric and coriander seed hints on warm cassis fruit and soft chalky tannins.  Eminently drinkable, this wine got into the Vin du Mond Top 10.  D’Aria SV has only 2% of Viognier added to the Shiraz but it shows well. Nice soft sweet fruit, very feminine floral notes, violets, rhubarb and red cherries with chalky tannins on the end.

It was good to taste Bloemendal’s (to be released later this year) 2013 Shiraz as an extra. It has marzipan, pepper and chocolate over red fruit, it is a very concentrated and layered red wine, still chalky but has the guts to go far, with umami tomato cocktail on the end.   Is this a Durbanville identifier?  We usually notice salt, but probably more on the white wines

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

A visit to Anthonij Rupert Wines

At some wine farms you just get a tasting room experience, at others like Anthonij Rupert, there are a lot of great experiences. It is a very beautiful farm with almost as much garden as vineyards. We started the morning with tea in the gazebo, accompanied of course by a glass or two of their MCC.

The beautifully restored dining room which is used for private tastings. The farm was inherited by Johann Rupert in 2001 following the tragic death of his brother Anthonij

Gidi Caetano showing us around the La Garonne Manor House

The classically furnished drawing room

A wonderful antique glass-fronted walnut cabinet filled with English china

The tasting can be held on the terrace...

...which has great views of the gardens and the mountains

and some shade

Or you can taste inside

There are two guest rooms, furnished in the same style

with spectacular Victorian style bathrooms

Very fine examples of pressed local flora, prepared at least a century ago

This snowdrop example is very skilfully done and even includes the bulbs

A St Francis drinking fountain for animals

The slave bell at the entrance to the superb rose garden

A variety of evening primrose

An old cellar which has been converted into company guest accommodation

Magnificent roses in Mrs Beck’s rose garden, planted in 1992 for her son’s wedding

They surround the gazebo

Old friends enjoying the sunshine

A damask rose with the most wonderful perfume

Tea in the gazebo. You need to book this at least 24 hours in advance, but it’s a perfect place for friends to meet, for small celebrations and special occasions. Or even small wedding ceremonies

So many wonderful choices. Top shelf had macaroons and smoked salmon pastries, next were cheese scones and butternut filo tartlets, the bottom had flourless chocolate tarts, wonderful lemon cream filled brandy snaps, semolina financiers and more divine macaroons

All went very well with the L’Ormarins Brut Classique MCC

Anne, facing temptation with a good pot of tea

A stone celebrating the gardener of the rose garden, Oom Storm van der Westhuizen

Then it was on to the Tram for a trip around the farm. The vines on the top of the hill remain, but on the rest of the farm they are doing extensive replanting

Marvellous Cabernet Franc grapes just waiting for the harvest

A view of the new dam being built on the farm and of the bare vineyards which will only be replanted in three years' time when the ground has had time to rest

A view of another of the farm’s ‘trams’ which take you around the farm. They do not run on rails. The trams are housed on L’Ormarins, at the Franschhoek Motor Museum and at the two tasting rooms, Terra del Capo and Anthonij Rupert, the latter on the adjacent Anthonij Rupert Estate.

The trams travel in tandem between the two venues, with each journey lasting approximately 30 minutes and operating on a hop-on hop-off basis.

It is a trip filled with magnificent views of the surrounding countryside

A copy of Rodin’s The Kiss is in the gardens near the wine cellar

And these gardens are full of excellent sculptures being collected by Johann Rupert

It also has a marvellous potager garden for the chef, filled with vegetables and herbs

L’Ormarins Manor House

Then it was back to taste the full range of the Cape of Good Hope wines and Two of the top Anthonij Rupert wines with winemaker Dawie Botha. The are grown on four farms in the group and are all terroir specific.  It is an amazing range to taste and we suggest you go and try these wines for yourself. Lynne particularly liked the elegant Semillon with notes of pine nuts, straw and quince, a clean, fresh and layered food wine. The Merlot has an intense nose with vanilla, cinnamon and cherries with a hint of white pepper and it’s a velvety mouthful of Bing cherries and cassis flavours with chocolate coffee wood  

Gidi joined us

Winemaker Dawie Botha guided us through the tasting and we discovered that they will soon have a truffle harvest on the farm

There is another Potager garden at the tasting room

Then we drove down to the Terra del Capo tasting room for lunch. They brought us many dishes to try. This was a lovely salad, very well dressed

Good charcuterie platter

Arancini balls stuffed with molten mozzarella

Superb deep fried lightly battered quid and a garlic aioli – some of the best we have had lately

Deep fried tempura courgette slices

The menu

Chocolate ice cream topped with a strawberry for Anne

A cappuccino for her afterwards

Lynne had the cheese platter with red preserved figs

The outside of the Terra del Capo tasting room

All the photographs were taken by Lynne for a change. She is not as good as John, especially when focusing!

The Antonij Rupert 2008 Red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot and Merlot is a great wine, and has layers of minerality and soft velvety fruit with some salty licorice ‘drop’ and lovely balance.  The Petite Verdot is a pretty fruit driven wine on hints of expensive new oak

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015