Sunday, May 08, 2022

Elgin Cool Wine Festival - 4. Oak Valley

Ancient oaks at Oak Valley welcome you at the entrance
It was a very popular venue on both days of the festival

Beautiful autumnal shades and lots of space for picnicking under the trees

A playground for adventurous children,
but it could be dangerous and they were asked to stop bouncing on the branches




Lovely contrasts


Good music from the sax player had people dancing to his tune

and a lovely gift for us from Christopher Rawbone-Viljoen of their 2020 Groenlandberg Pinot Noir,
lovely classical Pinot; red berry and cherry nose and soft and silky fruit on the palate

Chef John van Zyl was having a busy day, as the Restaurant was serving food
and there was also a hamburger and oyster stand on the front lawn

The wild oysters, which were from Mossel Bay as the West Coast has had a toxic red tide.
This young chef had a lot of work to do opening this very popular shellfish, sold as 4s or 8s

Afrika Chimombe was delivering picnic boxes from the restaurant to guests seated on the lawn

We decided to go for the Smashburgers, which these two young chefs were preparing

and they were delicious, covered in good coleslaw and pickles, with their own special dressing
We sat and relaxed, enjoyed the afternoon, tasted a couple more Oak Valley wines
and then it was time to leave and head for our accommodation in Gordon’s Bay

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Elgin Cool Wine Festival - 3. Elgin Railway Market

We decided to pay a quick visit to the Elgin Railway Market, which is in an old apple warehouse at the Elgin railway station, built by Italian prisoners of war during World War 2. It is just outside the entrance to Oak Valley estate. We were greeted by the sight of the historic train which had brought people from Cape Town, a three hour trip – only one hour by car

The loco shares its name with John's daughter

It looked as though she was getting up steam for the return journey

Inside, the Art Deco market building was packed with people enjoying their Saturday

We always visit the fruit and vegetable kiosk, but they didn’t have what we were looking for this time
It did have lots and lots of lovely apples and pears and other fruit grown in the area

Darielle Robertson, who organised the festival for Elgin, was also at the market

It is a great venue for a visit, lots of different food outlets to sample and other stands with a variety of things to buy

and Brian, the Book Bus, an old mobile library, now used outside the market as a shop, sells second hand books


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Elgin Cool Wine Festival - 2. Paul Cluver

Our second farm visit was to Paul Cluver, where we had made an appointment
There were people tasting wine on the lawn in front of the restaurant

and a ticket stand for people wanting to buy festival tickets

from Charné Samuels and Lukha Mzimela of Web Tickets

The Festival wines could be tasted from this stand

We love this view of the tall cypresses as you walk to the tasting room

Not very busy when we arrived, but it did fill up
Most of the people in the tasting room were not visiting the festival
and had come to taste the premium Cluver wines for which there is a charge

Sparkling glass ware

Libby is the tasting room manager

The order form, showing the wines you could buy and taste
Our festival tickets enabled us to taste four Paul Cluver wines

The Sauvignon Blanc is a classic cool country version of what this grape can do:
Fig leaf, elderflower and green pyrazines on the nose, crisp and dry on the lovely palate
with lots of green flavours of fig leaves and fruit, green pepper and lime

We sat waiting at an outside table made from a lengthwise slice of an ancient yellowwood tree,
admiring the view of the trees and the valley beyond
The couple next to us was enjoying tasting the top of the range Pinot Noirs
Service was slow as there was only one person in the tasting room and she was busy giving paying customers full tastings, and coping with sales

This is Africa, one does have to mention it!

The Village Chardonnay, the Cluver first level wine, has elegance and lovely white peach and lime aromas
A crisp tingle on the tongue and lime, lemon and greengage plum flavours with a hint of lees and salt on the end
It pumps well above its station and is a good food wine with seafood and fish

Autumn showing on the Plane Trees

Contrasting shoe styles, possibly not the best shoe for her wine farm visit, but very elegant

Elgin Autumn; ripe apples fall from the trees during the harvest

Lunchtime for a worker, and what a lovely place to spend it

The ice man cometh

Libby let us taste our favourite Paul Cluver Chardonnay, the Estate, which is known in our family as Lynne's Birthday Wine
This is from the 2019 vintage and it is such a classic rendition of good Chardonnay
Full on both the nose and palate with layers of white peach, nectarine and naartjie (tangerine)
Then crisp lemon zest and lime, golden oak wood, some caramel and a long, long lingering flavours. Superb

We tasted the transparent, ruby red Village Pinot Noir as part of the Festival tasting
There is a hint of smoke, with cherry berry fruit and dark licorice wood on the end

And they graciously allowed us to taste the 2020 Estate Pinot Noir as well, and both in the proper Burgundy glasses,
which make such a difference to one’s appreciation
The Estate has sweet berry fruit and good wood on the nose; soft and silky with lovely fresh red berry fruit on the palate;
it is like biting into a fresh Bing cherry. It finishes with dark licorice wood. A classy wine that will age well

Time for some lunch, so we departed for the next farm, Oak Valley

  

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Saturday, May 07, 2022

Elgin Cool Wine Festival - 1. Lothian

We looked back at our records and we have been visiting Elgin for their Cool Wine Festival since 2014! It is the perfect time for a wine festival; autumn is upon us and there are lovely glowing colours in the trees in this cool wine area. The programme for this year included 9 wine farms and we planned to visit over both days. You cannot do them justice if you rush at it. So we drove up that morning to arrive at our first stop, Lothian, at 10h30

Checked in by Angie from Webtickets, we were given our armbands and glasses
Tickets were a reasonable R250 for the weekend; they gave visitors access to all the farms taking part

Lothian is a very glamorous location;
the huge house can be hired out for large parties and is often used for film and television productions

We didn’t manage to lie on a sun bed while tasting and admiring the lake view, but it is a tempting prospect

But they are also a working wine estate, with wines made by the renowned Richard Kershaw with Dudley Wilson
and their viticulturist is Kevin Watt. Co-Owner Ewen Wilson was on duty in the tasting room



We tasted the 2019 Riesling, very much in the Cape style,
very dry with good lemon and lime flavours, dark toast and some terpenes 

The 2019 Chardonnay has lovely perfume, peach and a hint of oak and white pepper on the nose
Creamy, crisp, complex; it reveals itself in layers with good crisp acidity and some well-balanced wood on the end

The 2019 Mourvèdre Rosé is light in weight, with lots of Mourvèdre’s classic character and some perfume of rose petals

The pale garnet 2019 Pinot Noir has wood smoke then brûléed cherry on the nose,
cranberry, morello cherry and plum on the palate with a hint of mint

The Horny Owl Chardonnay sur lie was exciting
A lovely nose with clean white fruit, and a good leesy character on the end palate, crisp, layered and rounded

The 2017 Lothian Noble Late Harvest is made from Viognier and is not a heavy or too sweet variation;
it has lots of honey and peach notes. This is the last of its type from the farm;
the viognier vines have been cut from the rootstocks and replaced with Pinot noir.
We didn't get to taste the Brut Rosé MCC which is made from Pinot noir

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Elgin Cool Wine Festival - 5. Almenkerk

Sunday morning and, after a huge breakfast at our accommodation in Gordon’s Bay,
it was time to head for Elgin for our second day at the Elgin Cool Wines Festival
It is harvest time in the valley for the apples and pears that they grow so successfully, as well as the grapes

Pink Lady apples ripening on the tree

The view from the entrance at Almenkerk vineyards, our first stop of the day,
looks far over this fruitful valley towards the sea, which is just behind the long hill

and you can look over the vines and orchards in this hilly area

More lovely autumnal colours

Looking towards the mountains, you can see more of the mixed hill farming,
some sheep grazing and a charming farm house

Almenkerk winery is a lovely modern building, designed by Derick Henstra, set well back into the hill behind it
The lawn in front was to be used for the Barrel Rolling competition

Looking down towards the dam below a new vineyard and an orchard

An unusual flowering plant that looked like a red lobelia but seems to be a salvia,
red autumn sage, apparently very good for attracting butterflies

Almenkerk, Belgian owned, had a food truck serving proper Belgian Waffles

and a tasting centre outside for festival goers

A look into the spotlessly clean cellar being patrolled by their young Great Dane,
who was a great favourite with visitors and us

Owner/winemaker Joris van Almenkerk in the barrel cellar, chatting wine with two festival visitors

The day before they had a race which began early and they had many visitors at that time
Sunday morning was a lovely day but people were slow to get out of bed and only turned up a bit later


Another magnificent view across the Elgin Valley

It is protea season and this was a lovely arrangement of Queen Proteas

The Almenkerk wine range

Children admiring the Dane, who was quite unperturbed, lying in the sun

We sat and chatted to Natalie and Joris and their daughter while we tasted their festival wines

Natalie Opstaele

Joris and their daughter sharing a Belgian waffle

There were four wines to taste and we began with the 2020 Sauvignon Blanc,
which is crisp and dry with the classic Elgin fig leaf nose and the same characteristic flavours

The 2019 Chardonnay has good lees notes with white peach and nectarine fruit; it has lovely richness with long flavours

The 2014 Syrah also has lovely fruit and spice on the nose
Rhubarb, mulberry and licorice wood on the end with spice continuing too

and they saved the best till last with the 2015 Merlot. Beautiful fruit on the classic Merlot nose, sweet cherry with some spice
On the palate soft as silk and a nice tingle on the tongue
Dark toasted wood and good supporting acidity with morello cherry and some chalky tannins, delicious

All the wines have 4.5 stars from Platter and the Merlot a double gold from Michelangelo

and, kindly, they invited us to share this lovely cheese platter with them while we chatted

It was a lovely way to spend a relaxing morning in Elgin and why we love visiting this lovely wine area,
populated with very hospitable and charming people

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