Harvesting the grapes at The Vineyard Hotel

Picking grapes (and falling on face) at The Vineyard

It was time to harvest the grapes from our vine and some others at The Vineyard Hotel on Friday and we had to get up bright and early to get there by 07h30. Despite the strange el Nino weather this year, the vineyard produced some lovely grapes and it will be very interesting to see how good the wine is in future years. It will be vinified by Waterford this year. Winemaker Mark Le Roux says they will do their utmost to make the best single vineyard wine. We all delivered 135kg of healthy grapes from a very challenging site alongside the Liesbeek River. 89kg of Sauvignon Blanc and 46kg of Semillon

Hotel General Manager Roy Davies welcoming the pickers

The lug boxes awaiting the grapes

Kevin Arnold of Waterford wines talking about the harvest they will work with. Each row is sponsored by a different winery and they take turns in making the wine

Three girls from Waterford with winemaker Mark Le Roux

An early morning welcome glass of Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel MCC awaited us, Fresh orange juice for those who can't drink this early

Roy giving us our instructions

Jacqueline Harris is now the Sales Manager at Klein Constantia. Her husband, Craig, is Klein Constantia's viticulturalist

Kevin topping up the glasses. Shortly after this Lynne tripped over the end of row wire and knocked all the wine out of herself. She is fine, no bruises but a few aches

Our very fruitful vine. The bunches are not as large as last year's, but tasted superb

Getting down under the vine canopy to pick

Mark joins us on the row

A filled lug box of healthy grapes

The growing harvest

Libating it with some MCC

Owner of the Vineyard Lex Petousis, winemaker Mark Le Roux of Waterford and Roy Davies, GM of the Vineyard Hotel, with this year's grapes

Headman, gardener and guardian of the vineyard

The three rows of Chardonnay grapes we planted last season are growing well. These will only be ready to harvest in a couple of years time, when they are more robust

A view of the vineyard

Taking the grapes to the Waterford van

loading them for a fast delivery to the press

Reward for all the hard work was a lovely Vineyard breakfast

Something for everyone. Cold meats, smoked salmon, fruit muesli, yoghurt, pastries, cheese, croissants, rusks and bread, good coffee, tea, juice and some wine if you wanted

Hungry pickers

Time to relax and chat about wine and harvests

Deep in conversation are Eddie Turner, Ndaba Dube, Matt Dietschmann and Francois-Jacques Malan

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Champagne Ruinart at The Cape Town Art Fair

Champagne Ruinart is re-launching in South Africa and we were invited to taste it in the VIP lounge at the Cape Art Fair held last week at the CTICC. They were one of the sponsors and very kindly gave us tickets to the Art Fair

The foyer of the Cape Town Convention Centre

Lynne in the VIP lounge. She is always happy with a glass of good Champagne in her hand. She used to buy Ruinart when she lived in London so it is familiar and enjoyable

Excellent hospitality in the VIP lounge above the foyer

The interesting bottles are very untraditional and very memorable

Sir would you like a glass of the Ruinart Blanc de Blanc? Offered by Priscilla du Preez

Cute 'splits', mini champagne bottles that contain just 2 glasses (approx 187ml) Great for impromptu celebrations

Frédéric Dufour, president of Ruinart and Patrick Madendjian, GM of Moët Hennessy South Africa

We were welcomed by Keelyn Gibbons, from Mulderbosch and Michelle Stewart

They were showcasing two wines, Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc and Faithful Hound, their 5 varietal Bordeaux blend

A glass of Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc?

The light lunch of chicken salad, beef crostini and spinach tarts

Into the Cape Art Fair

A glass or a bottle? To enjoy as you view the art

A Ruinart serving station in the exhibition

But is this art? Some fairly tasteless signs. It takes all kinds...

Some realistic pictures, like the use of turpentine to indicate rain or fog

A corridor of Interesting bronze figures - echoes of the Hidden army or the statues on Easter Island. The art was not just local but from other African countries and from overseas

Panoramic photos of Cape Town in very finite detail, a photographers dream

Green art

It was well attended and very spacious

Love these

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Media launch of Durbanville's Feast of the Grape at Diemersdal - 12 Characters working together towards a goal

Brunch at Diemersdal

Twelve Characters working together towards a goal. This was the media launch of the Feast of the Grape festival which will be held this weekend, 27th & 28th February, at D'Aria in Durbanville (we will be there with friends on Sunday). We were invited to come and have brunch and taste the Durbanville 12, a wine made by using one ton of grapes from each of the 12 farms in Durbanville. Our expectation of brunch is not high and we were very pleasantly surprised; we had a slap-up lunch produced by talented chef Martin de Kock of the Diemersdal Pantry and the company of many of the winemakers of the area, for which we are very grateful. It is the busiest time of the year for them and they had to make time for us in their busy day. Programme link

Gathering in the vine-covered porch next to the tasting room and restaurant for a cup of coffee

John Meinking sending his drone up for photos from above LINK HERE

Freshly picked pears, also being harvested now

In the cellar with Martin Moore of Durbanville Hills, Etienne Louw of Altydgedacht and Bennie Howard of Meerendal

Table plan for the guests

Catching up with some MCCs from the valley are Graham Howe, Martin Moore, David Biggs, Myrna Robins, Cathy Marston and Greg Landman

The bubbles to enjoy

Graham Howe had questions for Martin Moore about the harvest

Lunch was at two long tables in the cellar

Canapés of quail eggs, crisp bacon and asparagus

Smoked salmon, quail eggs and hollandaise

Martin Moore with Diemersdal's winemaker Thys Louw. Martin is now in his 18th season in the valley. He says the crop is lower but it looks like a good vintage, "if we manage it ripe, it will be good". Durbanville is an oasis, irrigated vineyards are a worry and might suffer, unirrigated vineyards adapt and put down deep roots, they are still finding water

Etienne Louw, president of the Durbanville Wine Valley, telling us about the harvest, the coming festival and the Durbanville 12 wine. So nice to see everyone working so well together in the valley; it’s rare. They meet regularly and they help each other and share information. Harvest is three weeks early this hot year

Cool T shirt John Meinking

So great to see a healthy David Biggs

Angela Fourie, PR manager of the Durbanville Wine Valley has a lot on her plate organising the Feast of the Grape festival

Diemersdal's winemaker Thys Louw tells us about the harvest and the production of the Durbanville 12 Sauvignon Blanc. We drank the 2014 with lunch, the 2016 was picked just a few days ago

Grapes coming into the press as we partied

We tasted some of the newly fermenting Durbanville 12 Sauvignon Blanc. It is figgy and green on the nose, very sweet fruit, as the alcohol has not fermented out the sugar yet, but lovely ripe sauvignon fruit with a kick of Durbanville salt. It is fermenting at 16 to 18°C this year, warmer than the usual 13 to 14°C . After a visit to New Zealand, they are adopting this practice. It adds extra flavours. It will lie on the lees till June and be bottled in July

Greg Landman of Country Life with David Biggs

Charles Hopkins, cellarmaster of De Grendel says that they are one month earlier than the inner valley

The Louw children with their buggy

Arno Smit has taken over as winemaker at Hillcrest where he has been for the last 6 years; he replaces Graham Read, who has now taken charge of the beer making

Freshly baked bread rolls and vetkoek, a traditional deep fried savoury doughnut

Karin de Villiers of Klein Roosboom. Behind her are Christian Eedes of winemag.co.za and Bernhard Veller of Nitida

The five sparkling wines from the valley, MCCs from Durbanville Hills, Nitida and Altydgedacht. The Pop Song sparkling Sauvignon Blanc is from D’Aria and the B'Loved is from Signal Gun

Durbanville 12 Sauvignon Blanc 2014. We had a hand in picking a few of the grapes that went into this wine. The wine is figgy and green on the nose, a classic Durbanville Sauvignon Banc with figs on the palate, fresh crisp and refreshing

Chefs in the temporary kitchen, plating up

It was a very enjoyable friendly lunch

The starter was a simple salad with mozzarella cheese, garden vegetables and roasted baby tomatoes

Then a raw marinated scallop with dollops of pea puree & baby beets served with a mussel and sweetcorn soup, and topped croutons. The scallop was very delicate, but still tasting of the sea and the dish had lots of texture from the toppings

Two main courses, served together. On the left Duck three ways with grilled nectarines, a lovely combination with the tart stone fruit. On the right a fillet steak with a herb and garlic chermoula and a rich red wine and coffee sauce which contrasted well

Dessert was a granadilla parfait, rich and creamy with notes of egg and condensed milk sweetness, with granadilla juice and vanilla ice cream. If this is the sort of food Chef Martin de Kock serves in the Pantry, we will definitely visit to try more of it. He is talented. And the food is nicely presented

Birds have been attacking this small Granny Smith apple ripening on a tree in the werf

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