We love travelling out into the country and were
really intrigued when we received an invitation to Piekenierskloof, an area up
the N7 about 2 hours from Cape Town that we have not visited before. It is near
Citrusdal and we have not ventured into that area for several years. Coincidentally,
we had driven near it on our way back from holiday in Lambert's Bay, having
taken the wrong road home
These are views of the valley
from the top of the Piekenierskloof Pass
You can almost feel the heat of high
summer in the dry valley
and see why the black mountains have given the area
its Swartland moniker
Below is one of the citrus
farms that proliferate in the area and in the far distance is the West Coast
Farms dot the landscape and, down in the valley, the main crop is wheat
The shaved fields look like striped
tweed at the moment
The Atlantic Ocean is just
over the horizon
We had been invited to come and taste Pikenierskloof wines https://www.piekenierskloofwines.co.za/ and to stay overnight at Hebron Guesthouse which is high in the mountain, right at the top of the
pass
It has good accommodation, a small shop, a restaurant and has the Piekenierskloof
tasting room. It is rustic and charming. You can find them on https://www.booking.com/hotel/za/hebron-guesthouse-amp-restaurant.en-gb.html
An outside seating area
They
do get lots of people stopping off on their way up or down the N7 and Citrusdal
is just a few kilometres away. The restaurant is very popular.
The reception is in the
restaurant building
Hebron is run by Caro & Steve Oldroyd and owned by
Caro's mother Jenny. It is child friendly
Steve is a chef who spent
several years in London. They moved back 10 years ago
to live and work at
Hebron and take over from Caro's mum who bought the place many years ago
The restaurant has several
rooms for those wishing to sit inside
There is a covered terrace and seating in the
garden near the swimming pool
Lots of bygones decorate
Hebron
Beautiful summer sunflowers
We had booked for dinner and
on Friday nights they have Pizza night
In the shop, some good jams
and chutneys. We couldn’t resist the Seville orange marmalade
Our wine tasting had been
booked for 13h00 at the Piekenierskloof Tasting room where we met Janine de
Vries, who runs things there. She is nice and sparky, knows a lot about the
wine and has a good palate. You can also do a Carmien Rooibos tea tasting. If
you want to do one of these special tastings, you have to prebook
It was too hot to sit outside
So we took a table at one of
the windows. Our tasting of Piekenierskloof Grenaches was to be paired with
four canapés, matched to the wines and they would be served from outside, a
clever arrangement, as food was delivered from the kitchen
Some of the wines for sale
The tasting room is small, but
cool
Our view from the tasting
room
Janine pours us our first
wine, Piekenierskloof 2017 Chenin Blanc, while we waited for the food for the
pairing to arrive. It is quite tropical on the nose and palate, warm and
full. The 2018 is full of fresh, golden fruit acidity, biting lemons, granadilla
and loquats; it's a hot country Chenin and needs time to soften
These are the pairings to go
with the four Grenaches. They are served, not on a plate, but on a dried palm
branch
Rather appropriate to Hebron, which is named after Hebron, a city on the
West Bank in Palestine
Chef Steve explains the food
The first wine was the 2017
White Grenache, with an almost Semillon nose, warm fruit and wood. On the
palate, it's full of citrus, bitter grapefruit and naartjie (tangerine) flavours,
rather satisfying and hard to describe. It was paired with a crostini with ripe
camembert and a rich and rather sweet cranberry jam. We felt that the sweetness of
the cranberry overpowered the wine - perhaps marmalade with its citrus might
work better?
The second wine was the 2018
Grenache Rosé, perfumed with rose petals and red plums. Slightly pétillant, with
red wine flavours of raspberry, strawberry and red plums, it has long flavours.
Paired with green olives stuffed with bokkom, coated in panko crumbs and deep
fried. The concept of the pairing had us worried. Bokkoms are strongly flavoured, salted, sun dried mullet; a
delicacy to West Coast people, but not to us. However, in this guise with the
strong green olives, they took the place of good anchovies and, because of the
salt, they worked very well with the wine. The olives came with a dip of a
smoky tomato relish
Next came the 2016 Grenache
Noir which is garnet in colour. Elderberry and a little bloody on the nose, it
has the tart, sharp fruit acids of cranberry and plum with long flavours. Rather
southern French in style with good ageing potential. It was paired with a
Parmesan cheese straw and a rich mushroom dip, which was an excellent pairing, as
it enhanced the wine well
The final wine to be paired
was the 2015 Heirloom Red; a blend of 45% Grenache, 45% Shiraz, 5% Mourvedre and
5% Tannat. Janine describes this wine as Black Forest Gateau and indeed it is. There
is chocolate and sponge cake, kirsch and black cherry on the nose. Black and
red cherries on the palate; rich, hot, spicy and fulfilling. The 2016 is soon to
be released. The pairing was inspired, one of the very best we have done in a
long time. Steve has made a beetroot and rose water Turkish Delight topped with
dark Lindt chocolate and a sprinkling of white pepper grains. He says its the
most difficult item to make, as it has to be made fresh and refrigerated, but is absolutely delicious and so good with the wine. It makes it shine
The list of wines with
prices. We also tasted the 2016 Single Vineyard Berg en Dal Chenin; full of
honey, tinned pineapple on the nose with lime and pineapple on the palate,
long flavours with hints of wood smoke on the end. Very good
Their line-up. We did have a
palate refresher of the Carmine Honey Bush tea, but not the rooibos
Garnet red on the 2016
Cinsault, which has smoke, paprika, thyme and fynbos on the nose. Soft and silky
on the palate, with liquorice, chocolate umami, long plum and cherry berry
fruit. Concentrated wood remains on the end. Has potential
The pool area. Do remember to take your swimming costumes
and a view of the valley
below, near Citrusdal
Those are the Cederberg
mountains in the distance; we have to come back to visit them later in the
year
Harvest is upon us, so February is a busy time of the year up here
Misty early evening light
The garden was set up for a
30th birthday celebration that night and they were a very good crowd; not at
all loud, just happy
Because of the function,
there were a couple of other options besides Pizza
so Lynne had the Beef
burger which comes with chips and a mustardy dip
John had the fig, ham and
blue cheese Pizza. We had brought with us a bottle of Glenelly Estate Reserve 2014
and
one of Cape Point’s 2018 Cape Town Sauvignon blanc. Both were superb
The restaurant does not have a
licence, so you can drink your own wine or buy something from the tasting room,
when it is open
Our table on the stoep. There
were lots of foreign visitors staying at Hebron, some from Germany and others
from Sweden
John finished with a chocolate
ice cream sundae topped with nuts and crumbled meringue, followed by a good
espresso
Our room was the third of the
three rooms along the verandah of this building
This was our beautiful room,
well decorated, very comfortable and cool
The antique cot in the corner
became a resting place for cushions overnight but could be useful if you have a
small baby
The tiny bathroom is very
adequate and has a shower built into one wall.
Our bedroom window. We love
the tiny bird hangers on each window;
they do seem to discourage insects from
flying into the rooms
Each room has its own chairs
outside on the porch which has a lovely view of the garden
Car parking is close by, so
not far to carry luggage
Breakfast the next morning
was perfect. Lynne had the Classic English with fresh sunny side up fried eggs,
oh so crisp bacon (thank YOU! you would be surprised how much leather bacon we
are served), tomato, and a small cake of sausage meat. Accompanied by a pot of green
tea with lemon, and toast, butter and jam
John had the enjoyable
brioche French toast with bacon, syrup and berries. He had two cups of black
coffee
We must mention the cheerful and friendly staff who smooth the way
And while he was taking some
photos in the garden, he found some turkeys. They do have hens as well
What a
lovely overnight stay, we felt very well cared for. Thank You to all at Hebron
