This could be Heaven: Part 2

While at Kronendal Farm I had the chance to sample a few of the other wines produced by some of the members of the Durbanville Boutique Wine Association. As most of the producers are small garagiste type producers it makes sense to have the chance to taste these wines at one venue. Please be sure to phone Magdeleen of Kronendal and let her know what wines you are interested in and she will make the necessary arrangements.

From the fairly long line up of wines I chose the following: Klein Roseboom Sauvignon Blanc 08, Da Vallei the full range, Hermit on the Hill Pinot Noir and Syrah, Galleon Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The stand out wines for me were the Klein Roseboom Sauvignon Blanc, the Pinot Noir and the Galleon Chardonnay. Each of these wines are made in small quantities and are difficult to come by but worth the effort.

On Friday 5th September the Durbanville Boutique Wines Association will be holding its annual tasting event at Eureka Farm in Durbanville. This is an event not to be missed, and one that I will be attending. Have a look at their web site fore details: http://www.durbanvilleboutiquewine.co.za/

With spring just around the corner wine festivals are a plenty. Be sure not to miss the McGregor Wine Festival. This must be the smallest wine festival on the calender but certainly one of the best. Very intimate and sociable. Only 12 producers from the region, meaning you don't have to rush and you can chat, talk, taste, sip and eat your way at your own leisurely pace. Look out for the wines of John Hargreaves, his tiny label, Rusty Red is a real treat. John makes his wine in the heart of the village from his garage in true garagiste fashion.

This could be Heaven.

My usual Saturday sojourn to the Winelands took me to Durbanville boutique winery Kronendal Farm, the home of Westerdale Wines. What I love about the Durbanville valley is its close proximity to the Northern suburbs, yet you still feel like you are far from the maddening civilization and commercial trappings of places like Tyger Valley. Kronendal Farm can be found at the end of Westerdale road , the well used gravel road passes numerous idyllic properties, the scene is made complete with postcard like paddocks and views of distant mountains.

Kronendal Farm is a tiny farm of 2 hectares, just .6 hectares under vine, and is a member of the Durbanville Boutique Wine Association. This is an association of 13 passionate winemakers who have bandied together to promote their tiny brands. By prior arrangement these wines can be tasted and purchased at Kronendal Farm were we were warmly welcomed by the lively and energetic winemaker Magdaleen Kroon, that's her pouring the wines. She is the antithesis of your typical farmer: burly, towering, colossal she is not, rather athletic, energetic, and dynamic. She and her husband Piet bought the farm some 10 years ago with the intention of establishing a nursery come landscaping business, only to discover that a lack of water made their dream impossible. The horticultural industries loss is the wine industries gain. Magdaleen decided to go the Rhone Blend route and planted her small vineyard with Shiraz, Mourvèdre, Tempranillo and Viognier. As I sat on her beautiful wooden deck and looked across the valley while sampling her fine wine I wondered if life could get any better...Mirari, Latin for to wonder at, is an elegant and well balanced wine, no baked fruit or over ripe flavours, but rather very subtle and restrained. Minute quantities are made of this very limited wine, with each bottle personally hand numbered her love, passion and hard work are clearly evident. Garagiste wines can often be called rustic, but not this wine. With Magdaleen peronally doing all wine tastings, you get that personal touch that bigger farms just cant match, it's a rare pleasure to meet the personality behind a wine, to ask questions and understand what the winemaker was hoping to achieve. A wine tasting at Kronendal Farm is more than just a tasting, it is truly a memorable experience and one that I encourage you to make.

Magdaleen: 0824990198

garagiste: small scale winemaker

http://www.durbanvilleboutiquewine.co.za

Slow Food

I hate winter...yip that's me. I like the sun on my bum, I must be out and about, discovering and exploring. The only good thing about winter is slow food, slow cooked casseroles, breedies, potjies, and curries. Slow food is just that, slow. It takes time, time to cook, time to socialise and time to sip and enjoy great wine. You can't go wrong, even my ex mother in law couldn't get this wrong... The key is finding the best ingredients, and by that I mean the cuts of meat other people wouldn't touch. Pork Cheeks, oxtail, lamb shank, tripe, and my favourite Ostrich neck. Try this amazing Ostrich neck recipe:



Must have:
1 x Bottle Red Wine
Cooking oil
250g Smoked Streaky Bacon
1,5kg Ostrich Neck
4 Onions chopped
4 Gloves of Garlic chopped
2 Bottles of Boplaas Port.
300g dried Apricots
Bay leaf and a sprig of Rosemary


How to:
Pour red wine and enjoy.
Brown the ostrich in the oil. Tip: only do a few pieces at a time. The more pieces you add to the pot the less likely it is to brown. You want the meat to get those nice crispy edges. Bad for your heart, so a double cardio workout needed. Remove Ostrich meat from the pot and set aside. Fry the bacon, then add onions. After a few minutes add garlic. Let onions, garlic and bacon fry together for a few minutes, ensuring that the garlic doesn't burn.
Pour second glass of red wine and enjoy.
Once onions are soft, add 1 bottle of port and scrape bottom of pot to get all the tasty bits off the bottom. Return the ostrich to the pot. Add apricots, bay leaf and sprig of rosemary. Simmer slowly, don't boil, this is a slow process. When Ostrich is about to fall off the bone...its done. Serve with creamy mash, crispy bread and a bottle of fine red, try Monterosso Cabernet Merlot. A great wine for the price, should compliment the ostrich and work well with the apricots.




Too finish. Enjoy the other bottle of Boplaas Port. Pudding wine.

Faulty Towers

What was supposed to be a lazy Saturday afternoon spent in the warm glow of a fine winters day, sipping great wine and enjoying the company of friends and family turned out to be a laugh. Before I go any further let me say that Nitida Cafe and Nitida Wine farm seems to be two separate entities, my experiences and issues are with the Cafe and therefore not the farm. But as the Nitida experience encompasses the Wine Farm and the Cafe it is very difficult to be critical of one and not the other...

Were do I start. We booked a table only to be told on arrival they were aware of the booking but they hadn't actually made a reservation. Bizarre. Only 4 wines to choose from, and not one from Nitida! Surreal. They did have Chateau Libertas and Durbanville Hills mind you. Apparently the reason for the lack of Nitida Wines is a dispute between the Farm and the Cafe regarding pricing of Nitida Wines. Who cares. The menu had about 6 items, boring Cup-a-Soup, Pasta and Sauce and the rest so uninspiring I forgotten what they were. The less said about Cafe Nitida the better. The sad thing is the stunning location, vineyard views, rolling lawns etc are all let down by poor management.

I did manage to taste a few wines from the tasting room. As expected the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc @ R75 per bottle was simply delicious. Loads of goose berries, nice balance between acid and fruit without the need to take a Eno after the first glass. Other stand out wines were the 2006 Calligraphy @ R115 per bottle and the 2007 Pinotage @ R75 per bottle.

Will I be back in a hurry...think not. Pity.

Brokeback Mountain

Saturday was a day discovering the Voor Paardeberg area outside of Paarl. The views from this relatively undiscovered and certainly beautiful area makes this one of my favourite places to explore. The Paardeberg Mountain has Paarl on the one side and the Swartland on the other. This area is regraded as hot property, with loads of new wineries producing some fantastic wines. First stop was for padkos, so we found the nearest roadside MacDonalds, aka a padstal. Between Klapmust and Wellington you will find Red Star Padstal. As we were in drive through mode we opted for takeaway home made pies. These were no King Pies, but rather the genuine real authentic home made mammas pies. They had a lovely veranda and a play area to keep the little ones happy while you sip wine and take in the splendid views. Heavenly.

Stomachs well lined, we set off. Our first port of call was Perdeberg Winery. What impressed my immediately was their slogan: Keep wine simple. I like that and it works for me. They also have a long lineup of value for money winners. I found the wines to be pleasant, enjoyable and easy drinking. No fruit bombs or giant oak killers. As tasting room experiences go they can do better...these guys are rightly popular and on the afternoon of our visit they just couldn't cope. A very friendly and knowledgeable young lady fought a lone battle trying to keep thirsty wine lovers happy. Surely a winery with such a wide variety of wines at each price point needs a matching tasting room. The tasting room was no bigger than a small office.


Next we headed off to the Voor Paarderberg Tasting Venue on the David Frost Wine Estate. Their marketing punts the fact that this is a road less travelled, and that certainly was the case as we were the only visitors and had the place to ourselves. A group of smaller producers in the area have come together to form one tasting center, this makes sense as it is easier to manage and market. However it all seems to be falling flat as half the wineries have/are about to pull out of the this little joint venture. The tasting room is set in a most idyllic location with beautiful mountain views. It was a treat to enjoy the warm weather from the veranda and taste fine wines in such a stunning location. The standout wines were: David Frost Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 at R90 per bottle, a very elegant, silky well balanced wine. David Frost The Soft Smooth Red at R30 per bottle was like David Frosts putting stroke, very dependable, loads of red fruit, smooth finish. I also enjoyed the Bernheim JP Pacas Shiraz 2005 at R80 per bottle. I had never heard of JP Pacas before, but it turned out to be a lovely wine that should make a great match to Rosemary and Garlic Roast lamb.

A short hop took us to Riebeeck Kasteel for a lovely light lunch at The Barn. This is one of my favourite country bistros. Sitting outside, looking over the village to the distant mountains, enjoying a glass of crisp Chenin, sharing mezze platters with friends. What could be better...

La Chocalate

Waterford Wine Estate. The name says it all. Refinement, elegance and finesse. I had never before tried their famed Chocolate and Wine pairing. Too my surprise it was something I enjoyed and would recommend to any sweet toothed lover of wine.

What of the wines....the Estate Rose-Mary 2008 was a lovely wine with loads of zing an ideal wine to start the tasting with. A real summer wine, low alcohol levels at 11% means you can have a few glasses. The Sauvignon Blanc was a surprise. I wasn't expecting much yet this wine delivered. Unusually creamy mouthfeel and a very clear bright colour, not your typical coastal Sauvi. Nice balance between acid and fruit. The Kevin Arnold Shiraz was next up and for me the standout wine of the evening. Paired with a spicy masala styled chocolate the wine just got better, the subtle hint of spiciness from the chocolate complementing the wine beautifully. Truly a memorable wine and at R150 per bottle it should be. Oprah Winfrey belives it a special occasion wine as she served it at her 50th birthday dinner celebrations. If its good enough for her its gotta be good enough for us. Next was the Cabernet and The Jem. Both these wines were at the level of refinement and elegence Waterford strives but certainly not great wines in my humble opinion. Having been blown away by the Shiraz, the Cab was always going to battle to impress. The Jem on the other hand is a potpourri wine ...sometimes the some of the parts is not greater than the whole and maybe this is the case here. Or maybe it was the price of R650 per bottle that left a bitter taste.

Finally we finished off with a pudding wine: Heatherleigh. A lovely wine paired with a rose water infused dark chocolate...A fine way to finish off a wonderful wine experience.

Bloe men who?

Wet and miserable. A typical Cape winters day. Where to for lunch? Somewhere not too far, with that comforting toasted marshmallow atmosphere a fire place lends to a venue, somewhere you can get a good bottle of Claret. So of to Bloemendal we went.

The Durbanville Wine Route is one of those hidden underutilized treasures on our doorstep. In just a few minutes you escape from the hum drum of a dull N7 and discover a world that moves at a slower pace. Think green valleys, rolling vineyards, and winding roads. And so it was that we arrived at Bloemendal. Wine Magazine runs a regular Cellar Door Shoot Out, pitting two cellar door experiences against each other with one coming out on top. My advise to them would be to drop any plans of having Bloemendal as part of a lineup. Having to sit at a bar counter in the restaurant listing to Karaoke is not my idea of a great wine experience. The place had two huge fireplaces and not one was lit! Talk about missing an opportunity. Bloemendal as a winery has a long proud family tradition, however this all changed a while back when the farm was bought for a hefty sum by Tokyo I am a Billionaire But Still Disadvantaged Sexwale. As a result wine making has come to a standstill and this is reflected in the choice of wine for tasting. Just a handful of wines and most sadly past their best. Don't bother asking any questions as I don't think the young counter hand could tell a white from a red. Honestly! To add insult to injury you have to pay a tasting fee...