MANY IN FRANSCHHOEK pride themselves on the town’s reputation as a leading sparkling wine producer and the annual Cap Classique & Champagne festival is a marvellous affair. One out of every three cellars in the district produces bubbly, the vignerons promote their Cap Classique route and some of the wineries are specialists who make little or nothing else. And yet…
THE MOST successful wine outfits in and around the town of Robertson in a district that also encompasses Ashton, Bonnievale and McGregor, tend to be those close to the Breede River. And Robertson’s Top 10 producers according to track records spanning the 10 years 2005 to 2014 include some of South Africa’s leading bubbly producers as well as cellars with good
FROGS AND TOADS, creatures belonging to the class of tailless amphibians collectively referred to as Anura, an order of which there are countless families… Who would have thought that these guys had anything to do with wine! In America, however, oenophiles are familiar with the Frog’s Leap Winery in California, also home to Frolicking Frog, Toad Hollow and Toasted Toad
THE OWNERS of Oak Valley Estate might have been the first to build a winery in the vicinity of Grabouw around 100 years ago, but it was Paul Cluver Snr who really got the Elgin winelands going when he planted his first vineyards in the mid-1980s and began bottling on his farm from the late 1990s. It’s been many years
THE BAKERY at Jordan affords visitors to the estate in Stellenbosch Kloof an opportunity to wine and snack on a deck under the trees just below and to the side of the highly rated Jordan Restaurant… Upstairs is one of the Top 10 kitchens in the country where patrons indulge in fine dining and pay the price that comes with
THE AMPHITHEATRE at Paul Cluver in the Elgin Valley is a South African wine route destination like none other. Few of the musicians and other entertainers who perform there fail to remark on the natural appeal and glorious intimacy of the venue, and anybody who’s enjoyed a picnic with Paul Cluver wines on the terraces or at one of the
NOTWITHSTANDING Commander Jan van Riebeeck’s modest vineyards first in the Dutch government’s gardens up the road from the castle and then in Bishopscourt and Wynberg, it was in Constantia that South Africa’s wine industry really got going… History books have it that the first wine for which Van Riebeeck claimed credit was made in the 1650s but that the country’s
NEDBANK’S presentation of American Express Platinum Fine Dining Awards to Waterkloof on the Sir Lowry’s Pass Road outside Somerset West and De Grendel on the Tygerberg Hill in Panorama/Durbanville brings the number of top SA wine farm restaurant laureates during the past year to around 20, i.e. including those that achieved top honours in the 2013 Eat Out Awards and/or Three Star ratings for
COMPILED BY Mike Froud of Top Wine SA and commissioned by MapStudio of New Holland Publishing, My WineRoute South Africa cuts to the chase like no SA wine guide has done before. The book classifies the country’s top wines on the basis of the best track records according to reviews by top critics in blind-tastings around the world over the past 10 years. It’s
Thelema Mountain Vineyards, Helshoogte, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch Vergelegen, Helderberg, Somerset West Vineyard up the road from the Niewoudt’s Cederberg Private Cellar From Ken Forrester Vineyards: Avontuur Estate on the Helderberg, Somerset West Stark-Conde, Jonkershoek Valley, Stellenbosch Boekenhoutskloof, Franschhoek Morgenster Estate, Helderberg, Somerset West Stellenrust, Stellenbosch Paul Cluver, Elgin
THE MURATIE Wine Estate has become a favourite stop-over off the R44 along the Simonsberg stretch of the Stellenbosch Wine Route, particularly since the Melck family stepped up a gear hospitality wise by offering meals from their Cellar Kitchen – either outdoors in the courtyard under oak trees or inside where ‘The Longroom’ and ‘Die Gat’ double as an art gallery with fireplaces, oak
TULBAGH is one of those places on the way to nowhere really, a destination in itself, tucked away between the Obiqua, Winterhoek and Witzenberg mountains. Named after a former Dutch governor of the Cape, Rijk Tulbagh, the town is accessed via Malmesbury or Piketberg off the N7 and via Wellington or Worcester off the N1. It includes some lovely countryside, is popular
The greenhouse at Babylonstoren, Paarl: great place for a snack and a glass of vino, or for some tea and cake if you’d prefer THEY ARE TWO of the most talked-about destinations on the wine routes within easy travelling distance of Cape Town, highly recommended on several fronts and each better than the other for this or that. Nobody’s perfect,
RICKETY BRIDGE has become more and more attractive for visitors to Franschhoek: smart wine tasting centre, a growing reputation for good wines, a lunch venue offering tasty food and a couple of lovely guesthouses. Plus, Rickety Bridge is among the few stops on the route travelled by Franschhoek’s very own wine tram. One of the best places to relax at
The sort of weather to expect in Calitzdorp this weekend – although the Boplaas vineyard pictured above is bound to look rather different in the middle of winter BOPLAAS, De Krans and TTT Cellar are among THE wineries to head for during the next few days if you fancy a drive through the Karoo, wine that’ll warm the heart and
WHAT APPEALS most about the Graham Beck Pheasants’ Run is how it affects the senses. Kinda obvious, right?! Over the past 10 years this has become one of South Africa’s Sauvignon Blanc benchmarks, one of the three most consistent top performers in this category together with Steenberg Reserve and Cederberg – no fewer than eight highly rated vintages in succession, including the 2012 released a few
FRANSCHHOEK is even more cool following the introduction of a Wine Tram. It’s a pity that it only stops at two of the farms – Grande Provence and Rickety Bridge – on a route that begins close to the ticket office in the Bijoux Centre on Huguenot Road, but then the trip also includes an option to transfer from the
SOME OF THE big names will be missing at Hartenberg’s ‘Riesling Rocks’ festival this Saturday afternoon (9 Feb), but hey, you can be sure of a great day… Delectable snacking and sipping on the lawns of the estate off the Bottelary Road (M23) in Stellenbosch – an opportunity to explore Riesling’s reputation as a particularly versatile variety when it comes to
Jacques Kallis EARLIER THIS YEAR, shortly after former South African golf star David Frost sold his wine farm in Paarl it was announced that Protea cricketers Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher had teamed up with Rietvallei Wine Estate in Robertson to launch a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sauvignon Blanc under The Innings label – good value wines, with the 2010 Cab at
LEOPARDS and wine? Well, it’s a stronger link than between wild dogs and wine (apologies to the makers of Painted Wolf Wines who did so well in the Top 10 Pinotage Competition). In fact, while the winelands of the Cape are far away from the great game reserves in the northern and eastern reaches of South Africa, the chances of seeing
