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MENU's Wine of the Week - Cederberg Chenin blanc 2016

Tropical, aromatic, with guava, grass and granadilla on the nose, these follow through on the palate with a lovely racy acidity and warmth that deals so well with spicy food. A long lime finish too

Cellar door price is R98 per bottle

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Three Robertson wine farms: 3. Zandvliet, Ashton

We used to love going to Zandvliet as part of the Wacky Wine Weekend for their salmon braai. Paul de Wet sold the farm last year to A N B Investments owners of holding company ClemenGold and Citrogold citrus brands, a huge producer of naartjies (Clementines) and other citrus n Mpumalanga, so we were keen to go to the farm to see what its future holds

We were welcomed by Werner Els, Zandvliet's Brand ambassador, who had organised a Zandvliet wine tasting of four of their most popular wines, paired with ClemenGold products. You can buy a box containing all the components, so you can do this tasting at home or with your wine club. The box contains four wines and the four products and costs in the region of R830. As it was such a pleasant day, we sat out in the garden under the trees

A view of the farm showing the huge shade cloth area where the horse paddocks used to be, and the vineyards in the background. The Nardacot Clementine orchards have been planted under the shade cloth. The vineyards have been brought down from 150 hectares to 100 hectares. Gone are varietals that didn't produce well. More shiraz will be planted, not Chardonnay and they will get back to 150 hectares of grapes. They are redoing the cellar, The question on many lips has been "What do these guys know about wine?" Werner told us. Zandvliet was too good a brand to lose. "The Directors at ANB, they certainly know a lot about citrus, being amongst the largest producers in South Africa, but actually not much about wine; except that they grew up with the Zandvliet brand and loved it!"

The four wines we tasted. We used to sell three of these in our wine shop, Main Ingredient. The VLW is new. We began with the 2016 Chardonnay, a brand new vintage with more new oak introduced, is very fruity almost with naartjie flavours. This was paired with a good bitter ClemenGold marmalade on a plain biscuit, which echoed the flavours of the Chardonnay. Then one of our favourite Shirazes, the Kalkveld from the 2014 vintage. Made with only French oak (Paul de Wet used to make two versions, one in French and one in American oak). Elegant, with incense wood notes, good dark fruit on the nose and palate with good grippy tannins. This was paired with a 70% dark chocolate containing ClemenGold peel. We didn't like the chocolate, it was not of good enough quality to complement the wine, and it had bloomed. Then the 2012 VLW Cape Vintage Shiraz. VLW stands for Vintage Liqueur Wine. A very sweet dessert wine, rich and fruity with liquorice and chocolate. Lighter than Port (16.6 % alcohol) and spicy, rather like Christmas pudding. Paired with the ClemenGold chocolate Panforte which was a perfect match. They have older vintages in older barrels. Then a new addition to the very popular My Best Friend range, a natural sweet Muscat 2016. Werner told us that Natural Sweet wines are very popular in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, so this will go to that market. Only 7.5% alcohol and 100 r/s. We found it a pretty wine falling between two stools, not zesty and fruity enough for a refreshing hanepoot and not quite as sweet as a muscatel or NLH. Its nose speaks of age, its palate of young fruit. It's a sweet quaffer. And dipping the ClemenGold biscotti into it is just the thing to do. Probably good with spicy food

The tasting glasses with the four paired ClemenGold products. Had we more time, we would have like to have tasted some of the more conventional wines, and we look forward to making another, longer, visit to do that

Three Robertson wine farms: 2. Tanagra, McGregor

The owners, Robert and Anette Rosenbach, have been pressing us to visit for several months; we were so pleased we could finally get there. It's a small farm in the McGregor valley with interesting wines and lots of different grappas and other tempting fruit and grape spirits. They also have guest accommodation and we were taken to see one of the most beautiful houses for hire, set in the middle of the wilderness. If you feel the need to get away from it all and contemplate nature, this is the place for you. Especially with a bottle or two of Heavenly Chaos red wine and some Eau de Vie de Lie

We were welcomed by Anette Rosenbach

and their lovely dog

Robert makes the wine with help from Lourens van der Westhuizen, who is also their viticulturist. This is the tiny winery and distillery

Their house contains the tasting room. The basket press is still put to use in harvest time

Cooled by a huge wild fig tree

A swimming pool for guests who stay in the cottages

They took us on a trip down the valley to see some of their cottages there. This is the Honeymoon Hill cottage, which was occupied for the week

The land they own borders the Vrolijkheid Nature Reserve, a birder’s paradise, with hides and walking and mountain bike trails in the area

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Magnificent views from the house for hire called Faraway, which is off the grid

Its kitchen

Bathroom and bedroom

A bathtub with a view

The lounge with fireplace for chilly evenings, There is a barbecue on the veranda

The house from the outside. It has solar panels, gas fridge and cooker and LED lighting

A fat beetle in a vygie. The plants in are area are very interesting dry land Karoo with many succulents

The house also has a small plunge pool off the veranda

Robert shows us the distillery with its modern German still

In the tasting room, there are lots of different things to buy besides the wine and the spirits. Local jams and olive oil, booklets, local handicrafts and droëwors

First the 2016 Blanc de Noir made from Cabernet Franc

It is yeasty with vanilla perfume, dry crisp and clean with long refreshing flavours

Then on to the reds. The 2014 Cabernet Franc, is dark brick red, cherries, savoury umami nose with green leaves and black cherries. More cherries on a palate with salty liquorice drop, a very deep and sophisticated food wine which finishes with more cherries. We liked it a lot. All the wines are certified as Single Vineyard. The 20124 Cabernet Sauvignon has cassis berries and leaves on the nose. minerality and elegance with soft sweet cassis fruit. Its juicy with a nice kick of alcohol and a finish of more liquorice drop and cherries.

Some guests were also tasting with us . Next was the 2014 Shiraz. The first hit is black pepper and spice with some peppermint, then soft fruit with some green leaf notes and chalky cheek coating tannins. This needs time to develop. The 2014 Carah is 40% Cabernet 60% Shiraz blend with cassis and spice on the nose, very soft sweet entry with spice and pepper then long cassis flavours remain. Heavenly chaos is made on the farm by Robert in his old basket press. It’s a lighter style red wine, 50% Merlot, 25 % Cabernet and Shiraz. Smoky from the wood, with cassis, red cherries, warm linen nose and is nice juicy fruity bound wine.

Swallows nest inside and outside the house. We are sure they can read. They keep flitting in and out feeding their young

Time to taste some of the spirits. We began with the Marc de Hanepoot. its grippy with heat, good sweet nuances rather than flavours and a hot chilli burn Then the Marc de Chardonnay Barrique made from Springfield wineries chardonnay skins. With oaty flavours, like a soft malt whiskey with wood, it really impressed us. The Eau de Vie de Lie is made from Springfield’s Life from Stone fruit skins and indeed has a familiar nose and taste, with some apricot and fullness on the palate. The Marc de Sauvignon Blanc also from Life from Stone skins has green leaves fully perfumed warmth and is pretty and deadly! The alcohols were beginning to get to us even though we were taking tiny sips and John was spitting. The Shiraz Eau de Vie is pretty and perfumed with wood like a Speyside whiskey with some cherry and spice. The Lemon Eau de vie is just pure lemon, you cannot miss it And the Orange Liqueur is bitter orange marmalade with an orange oil nose and soft orange sweetness on the palate. very pure fruit flavours. We had to stop regretfully as it was time to rush to our next appointment. Robert generously let us pick our favourite and a bottle of the Marc de Chardonnay Barrique came home with us to be enjoyed on special after dinner occasions. Thank you both for a lovely meeting. We shall be back in the new year with friends from Holland

Three Robertson wine farms: 1. Lord's near McGregor

When we travel long distances out of town, we reckon that, if we have paid for the petrol to drive the distance, we might as well stay over and explore the area in more depth, find new wine farms and farms we haven't visited before and re-establish old connections. This time we spent Monday in the McGregor area and in Robertson visiting three wine farms. The first was Lords Winery

Not to be confused with Lords Guest House, (also owned by the winery but way down the valley on the Robertson side of McGregor), Lords is set right up the McGregor Valley on the "Road to Nowhere" to the Boesmanskloof Pass, where you can take the long walk across the mountains to Greyton. It's a great stop for refreshment either way. We were so warmly received and entertained.We really enjoyed our visit and will definitely return soon. The views from the farm are superb and the wines really impressed

The farm, nestled beneath the mountains, has the winery behind the main building, Our appointment was for 10.30

Walkers follow that road right up the hill and over the pass, one of the most popular hikes in the Cape. It's a day's walk of about 15 kilometres but, unless you have a car at both ends, you have to return to your start point the next day. There is a place to swim on the journey. The two towns of Greyton and McGregor are about 3 hours apart by road, round a rather large mountain range. Accommodation at either end is good

The farm entrance

Now you know

We were met by Jacques Oosthuizen, son of the owner Jacie

The wine cellar and tasting room

We sat on the terrace

had a tour of the barrel cellar

and admired some of the Cricketing memorabilia. Yes, the owner is a cricket fan; the farm is named after Lord's Cricket Ground. A place rather familiar to Lynne, as she lived not far from it for many years

They were in the middle of bottling their MCC. As happens with many smaller producers, the bottling plant comes to you in a truck

Wonderful views all around

The tasting room

A Good Luck Barrel with some bargains

Spring grapes. Karoo fynbos and blue mountains

Umbrella up for the sunny day

Jacques mother had prepared this lovely plate of nibbles especially for us. We felt very honoured. The light-as-air crispy vetkoek are tiny dumplings deep fried in mutton fat and they are eaten with the cheese and jam. The tiny pies were filled with moist egg, spinach and feta cheese with a buttery crumbly layer of thin pastry, beautifully flavoured

We tasted the wines. The MCC Brute won the Best Non Vintage award at the Amorim Cork Awards in 2014. It’s yeasty and zesty, with a good prickle and long raspberry flavours from the 100% Pinot Noir. The unwooded 2016 Sauvignon Blanc has green leaves, granadilla and green pepper on the nose and is tropical on the palate. The 2015 Chardonnay with 6 to 8 months in barrel has rich cooked peaches and vanilla on the nose, it’s crisp with chalky tannins, richness and more of vanilla on the finish

Pinot noir has the biggest share of their vineyard; 2016 was a big harvest, they had to buy more barrels. The CRAFT Pinot Noir is rich, with red berries on the nose, dark bitter wood, almost chocolate and liquorice, then more berries and cherries on the palate. Finally the 2012 Three Barrels Shiraz, wood, spicy dark fruit on the nose and palate, smooth with a nice kick of warm alcohol followed by more spice and black pepper and vanilla ice cream on the end

A fiscal shrike surveys his territory

Jacques took us through the wines and was a wonderful host. He has many exciting plans for promoting the farm and has invited us back to see some of them. We intend to accept the invitation

Then off we went down the dusty road back through McGregor and out the other side for our appointment at Tanagra

About us

MENU, our weekly email newsletter, started as an advertising medium for Main Ingredient, our specialist retail grocery business. We opened our Sea Point shop in December 2002 because realised that there was a place in South Africa for a grocer catering to people with sophisticated tastes and needs. We moved the shop on line in 2010, but discontinued it in 2015, having decided that it is time to “retire” and concentrate on our writing, photography and tour guiding. MENU has a wide circulation and is read nationally and internationally.