Franschhoek Visit - Tasting with Irene Waller at La Bri

A visit to La Bri in Franschhoek happened on Thursday morning of our visit. We had not told them that we were coming, as we did not think we would have the time, but we did manage to clean, pack and move out of our accommodation at Sunny Lane by 10 am. We were not due at our lunch appointment until 12

La Bri is involved in the Save the Rhino charity and has this cute baby in the tasting room
plus items for sale and a wine from which proceeds go to the fund

The lovely tasting room with its long table made from one piece of wood

A happy smiling Julian Johannes in the tasting room
Yes, she is wearing a mask, but her smile radiated from her eyes and she is very welcoming

She recognised us and immediately brought us a taste of their 2013 Cap Classique Blanc de Blanc, made entirely from Chardonnay; it has a good mousse, and is crisp and dry with long citrus flavours. So enjoyable. The wine spends 5 years on the lees and then 3 years in bottle

We were very surprised and delighted to see Cellarmaster Irene Waller de Fleuriot, who is busy with her harvest,

but she generously took time to take us through a tasting of the wines

We have known her for many years and she is an extremely talented winemaker

She took us on a quick tour of the cellar
A bridge over the barrel cellar, which has expanded a lot since we were last here, connects the tasting room to the winery

And a sight you see often in good producers' cellars during harvest, just-harvested grapes coming in, being hand sorted by bunch and then, after going through the destemming machine, being hand sorted again. It slows the process, but is worth it. This makes the wine so much better, cleaner and with better flavours. All green, damaged grapes, leaves, stems etc are removed. It is an expensive process but produces such great wine

Irene showed us inside a fermenting tank

The ferment has just begun and you can see it is quite lively already

The circular design of the cellar is very clever. It was designed by specialist architect Gerard de Villiers

Time to sit down and taste. Each of these wines is linked to a specific flower – the characteristics of the wine are symbolized by that particular flower on the label. First the 2019 Clivia Chardonnay, gently wooded in 2nd fill French barrels. There is a hint of wood on the nose with white fruit and the wine is full and crisp on the palate, with white peach, pineapple and citrus and a biscuity backbone from the wood. Only stand-out grapes get a black version of the label of each wine

The 2018 Ixia Viognier is a classic of the genre. Cooked apple, apricot and honey on the nose bring to mind Condrieu in style. Older 600 litre oak barrels are used and the alcohol is a low 12 to 13%. Dry and lean, then loquat and white peach appear and delight. A food wine with long flavours

The Double Door Range introduces wines that are made from a mix of estate grapes and grapes brought in from neighbouring farms. This gives Irene the chance to be creative and produce wines that have their own distinctive style. This is the Double Door White 2017, a Rhône Style Blend with a twist – a mix of 56% Roussanne, 19% Chardonnay, 15% Viognier and 10% Semillon. We loved it; Summer in a glass. Rich, sweet English gooseberry fruit, white, crisp seedless grapes, rounded by the Semillon, delicious and juicy. Demands food

The 2017 Herb Syrah , another stand-out vintage. It goes into new barrels for 2 years. Irene was under pressure to release this vintage. It has elegance, lovely fruit, spice and pepper on the nose; soft sweet berry fruit on the palate, warmth, chalky tannins, and made in a lighter style than the usual heavy shirazes. Another good wine for food

The 2016 Watsonia Cabernet Sauvignon is made from Franschhoek Cabernet and has violets, cassis - berries and leaves - and a hint of tobacco wood on the nose. Soft and silky, it's pure cassis fruit, with grippy tannins, totally balanced and will last 20+ years

Just to show you how little we actually imbibe during a tasting. This is the row of Lynne's tasting glasses after the tasting. Sometimes you can see how much she liked a wine by the level! We bought a case of the Double Door White, a 50/50 blend of Roussanne and Semillon, and one of the 2017 Double Door Petit Verdot, a favourite grape, which is made from a unique block on the farm, giving beautiful black fruit on the nose and palate; a full body and a rich lingering finish, both wines we know and love

Thank you so much Irene and Jules! A great experience; we encourage other wine lovers to go and taste these lovely wines for themselves

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Franschhoek Visit - Sushi Lunch at GlenWood

It had rained heavily overnight and there was a mist above the valley when we set out on Wednesday for GlenWood, down Robertsvlei Road. We know their excellent wines and had been invited to come and sample their excellent Gourmet Sushi. Everyone in Franschhoek to whom we mentioned that we were going there said you will really enjoy it; the sushi is very good. And it was.. 

We stopped at the entrance of the farm and you can see how heavily the rain was coming down
as the farmhouse is almost wrapped in rain

We had a quick run to the entrance

The lovely gardens were sodden

So good for filling the dams and for the gardens, but not so good for any grapes that were still on the vine

We had been booked a table on the terrace. That was definitely off the menu today

Tipping it down, this is looking back at the parking area - and the rain!

In the entrance you can see the range of wines and this is where you are welcomed

We were given a good table next to the window
Glenwood did have another chef doing sushi several years ago, this chef is different
Interior glass windows show the wine cellar

We learned that the chef Lungani Ntuli has trained and then worked under a Japanese sushi master for many years

We knew then that the sushi would be good

He and his assistant at the sushi counter preparing out lunch

We were asked what we wanted from the very extensive menu

and we said please just bring us a selection of sushi that you want us to write about

We love sushi and we are adventurous

Chef doing his prep

On a nicer day you can sit out on the terrace through those doors and enjoy a wine tasting and some sushi

The table setting

There is lots of choice on the menu

We wondered if we would be given some of the Chef's signature rolls

Or some combos. Our only request was no cucumber please. We don’t like it in sushi and that was not a problem for them

Nice to see Tataki and Tempura, and a vegetarian choice

The wine list, some of the wines by the glass which suited us 

We did a brief wine tasting first. We started with the 2020 wooded Chardonnay. Citrus and caramel on the nose; perfume, salt and smoke. Some sweetness on the palate, cooked apple, apricot and light oak on the end

Unwooded 2019 Chardonnay. Bready with golden fruit notes on the nose. Lime, lemon and a little bitterness from the skin contact, served very cold

The Save Our Rhinos Rosé made from Shiraz grapes; it’s a project with an NPO which gets 80% of the profits. Good red berry fruit with raspberry, plum and strawberry with follows through on the palate, nice and dry, a good wine with food 

The details on the back

Then the 2019 Merlot, which was in 3rd fill barrels. Oak, concentrated mulberries, cherries

On the palate, cherries, nice fruit and length, grippy tannins; it is still very young
The 2019 Shiraz spent 18 months in 2nd and 3rd frill barrels

It has smoke, dark fruit, green leaves and white pepper on the nose

Dark fruit plums, mulberries, morello cherries with some umami flavours 

Wow, our platter of the sushi they selected for us to taste. Many of these are Chef's Signature items. The back row is the Crunch bomb, with crisp bits of prawn tempura, topping a roll with avo, (cucumber) and seared tuna topped with a sweet soy and mayo. Hot Night rolls on the 2nd row left - spicy tuna and avo inside with panko shrimp topped with a sweet chilli mayo and sesame seeds, Rainbow Roll reloaded with caviar, mayo, a very good sticky sweet soy sauce, sesame oil and seven spice and in front salmon roses and very, very fresh salmon sashimi. All were delicious and recommended

And then a very nice surprise, DP Burger, the GM and Cellarmaster and an old friend, popped in; he had been busy elsewhere and was not expected; great to see him. He told us that up until 8 that morning they had 72 mm of rain and it was still falling, so the prediction for that day was much higher. It certainly is filling the dams

And rain it raineth. Indeed it did continue very strong until exactly midnight

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Franschhoek Visit - Cellar Tour and Tasting at Rickety Bridge

Tuesday dawned damp and grey, so we were pleased that we had invitations to wine farms to fill our day

First to Rickety Bridge, where you can stay at the Manor House,

visit the winery to taste the wines and eat in their restaurant, Paulina’s,
which is currently open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 09h00 - 17h00
Breakfast is served from 09h00 - 17h00 and lunch from 11h00 - 17h00
Or order a picnic to have on the lawn or in the restaurant, if the weather is not good

The entrance to the tasting room

There to greet us was MD Jan van Huyssteen

We met winemaker Donovan Ackermann who took time out of his wine making to give us a very good tour of the cellar and a great barrel and tanking for which we are very thankful. He showed us these Cinsault grapes that had just come in and we tasted them. They were deliciously sweet and had characteristic flavours of the grape. And a sweet late-harvested Colombard grape, which is headed for a straw wine

Tanks are full from all the white wines picked this year. They were waiting for the approaching storm to pass over before picking more red grapes. Many of the winemakers we spoke to said that they had no option; the reds are not yet ready for picking. We saw the Rickety Bridge stok-by-paaltjie Shiraz grapes at the entrance and they look magnificent. Echalas, also known as ‘staked vines’ or ‘stok-by-paaltjie’, is mostly used in the wine producing regions of Côte-Rôtie in France, Priorat in Spain and Mösel in Germany

We had a tank tasting of fermenting wines from their concrete tanks, Chenin and Pinotage

which are both rich and complex, and the good fruit is showing great possibilities

A special treat to taste a barrel sample of the pink Semillon Gris, It is a mutation of the green Semillon Blanc. It seems that it mutated here in the Cape, and was first seen and identified in the 1800's. It reminded Lynne of Austrian wines she has had

The barrel. We hope we do get to taste it when it has been bottled; it normally produces really good wine

A fermenting cap of Pinotage in small plastic tanks

It is a very busy time in the cellar. These grapes are fermenting in the white tanks

You might be interested to know that Rickety Bridge sells a Wine tasting kit
- it could be great if you have an interest in blending wine or have a wine club

The barrel cellar with large oval Foudres at the end. These hold very large volumes of wine and were much used in the past, but they are reappearing in wine cellars because of the positive effect they have on wine. A foudre gives a greater ratio of volume to surface area so that any impact of oak on the wine is gentler even when barrels are new

Donovan gave us a tasting of a very good 2021 Chenin Blanc with a smooth and silky texture, lovely layered fruit

We cannot wait to see this in bottle

There is also an old vine 2021 Semillon in a foudre

We thanked Donovan very much for a super cellar tour and tasting

It was now time to go to the tasting room with tasting room manager Dylan van Dyk,

who had also been with us in the cellar

A fire was lit and it was a great comfortable place for a tasting on a rainy day

Two Paulina's Reserve wines to begin the tasting. A Sauvignon Blanc 2019 from Elim, which was matured in a foudre, making a Blanc Fume in style, slight smoke on the typical Sauvignon blanc nose. A good texture, good fruit and acidity in balance; a definite food wine which we scored highly. As did others. The 2018 Chenin Blanc had 50% new oak. It has a dive-in nose; the fruit is there, but just peripheral, with rich layered fruit; and completely different on the palate. Expecting rich fruit with some sweetness, it was lean and crisp with lots of sophistication and class, hints of a Semillon, with a slightly oily texture, flavours of English gooseberries, granadilla

and then the 2017 Paulina's Reserve Semillon; the grapes are from the renowned old Landau de Val vines where the oldest vineyard was planted near the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The classic grey nose of Semillon with smoke and cooked apple in the background. On the palate, it is clean, textured, dry white peach, greengage with good wood supporting on the end. A wine to drink now, but also to cellar. Then three from the Printers Devil range. The 2018 white, The Gremlin is made of 50/50 Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Figgy leaves, salted caramel, good texture and sweetness mid-palate, long crisp flavours. A food wine

The Printers Devil Rosé 2018, named Titivillus from Grenache Noir grapes which come from Bot River. Earthy with pomegranate mulberry and a little smoke. Crisp and zingy, with tangy pomegranate and citrus flavours; also a food wine. The Printers Devil Red 2017 Belphegor (all are named for phantoms) is 90% Cinsault and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. A portion is made in a concrete tank and the Cabernet in new French oak. Cassis, cola, red currant and incense wood on the nose; silky, soft lovely tannins and red berry fruit, then a zing of acid wakes it up. It has the legs to last

It was now about 1 pm; we had tasted quite a lot of wine and we were very, very grateful for this platter of cheese and charcuterie, olives, figs and pickles that they conjured up for us. It was quickly hoovered up

Then a very special wine indeed. The Pilgrimage Reserve 2017 Old Vine Semillon, from Block 905 on Landau de Val farm. Limited to 1600 bottles, each numbered. Classic style Semillon grey nose, a little shy, but then, on the palate, it is a blockbuster wine, not shy at all. It has the classic oily mouthfeel one expects, orange, citrus, warm alcohol with citrus zest on the end, and is well supported by wood. It scores very high points in international and local competitions and tastings. We loved it

The Paulina’s Reserve Old Vine Cinsault 2020. This was a Rickety Bridge collaboration with their wine club, made by Donovan and Dylan. It has that classic dusty Cinsault nose, with cherries and red berries, showing almost Pinot Noir like character on the nose with wood ash on the end. On the palate, an explosion of sweet cherry and prune plums, nice chalky tannins and dark licorice wood. Yummy

The Rickety Bridge Flagship is The Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 from vineyards on the farm. A classic Cabernet cassis nose, with incense, French oak and enticing richness. It is a full-on Cabernet; lots of everything, fruit, wood, grippy tannins and long flavours of dark cassis and black berry fruit; lots of quality and class and lasting ability

The final wine was The Sleeper Shiraz 2017

Good wood, black berries and very full of enticement on the nose

Sweet black fruit, spicy with black pepper, cumin and turmeric notes

gentle supporting wood and it demands food immediately you taste it

We liked all of the wines, even loved a few, and this is not usual

We conclude that Donovan is a very talented winemaker

Go and taste and see for yourself. Thank you so much all at Rickety Bridge

It was good to see people in the tasting room on a very, very chilly and wet Tuesday morning

As we left, we could see the rain falling in the mountains and over the vineyards

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