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A warm welcome to Lianda Beyers-Cronje, world traveller,
passionate wine lover
and new wine columnist on Nosy Rosy.
Parlez-vous Vino?
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what is happening in the world of wine?
A dazzling season
By Lianda Beyers Cronjé
Here is
looking at 2009 and if you want to join me in a toast you
can’t do no better than pouring a glass of one of our
delectable Overberg wines!
A lot has been happening
on the wine front over December starting with the launch of
the second edition of Glynis van Rooyen and Hanli Allan’s
Overberg wine guide at the stylish tasting room at Creation
Wines on Friday 5th December. Guests had the chance to taste
a wide variety of stunning Overberg wines while nibbling on
morsels prepared by Anli van Vuuren of Season restaurant at
Hornbill House, pairing beautifully with the wine. Guest
speaker Marriëtte Helmbodt du Toit, CEO of Cape Town Tourism
said that the Hemel-en-Aarde valley should be branded as an
authentic wine route of the Cape. Can’t agree more!
Next on the calendar was the Bartho Eksteen Sauvignon Blanc
Celebration at Hermanuspietersfontein cellar.
Started in
1993 by Monsieur Sauvignon Blanc (alias winemaker Bartho
Eskteen), the event comprises a blind tasting by a panel of
local and international judges with the aim of comparing ten
of the best South African wines with ten world-class
sauvignon blancs from abroad.
The gala evening takes
place every year on the third Friday of December. In
addition to the panel of experts, paying guests also have
the opportunity to judge and this result is known as the
People’s Choice. Guests score on a 20 point system and the
scores is calculated while the guests enjoy a sumptuous
three-course dinner prepared by the acclaimed Warwick Chef
School.
Winemaker Duncan Savage from Cape Point Vineyards
walked away this year with the magnificent floating trophy
created by glass artist John Reed for his Cape Point
Sauvignon Blanc 2004.
South African wines scored
seven places in the top ten this year, once again showing
that the country can hold its own in the wine stakes. The
top ten sauvignon blancs are: Cape Point (SA); Astrolabe
(NZ); Boschendal Reserve Collection (SA) David Niewoudt
Ghost Corner (SA); Cloudy Bay Te Koko (NZ); Graham Beck
Pheasant’s Run (SA) Cono Sur Limited Edition (Chile); Kleine
Zalze Family Reserve (SA); Altydgedacht (SA) and
Hermanuspietersfontein No 3 (SA) and Briarose (AUS) in the
joint tenth place.
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On Saturday 13 December, visitors at the Hermanuspietersfontein Wine
and Food market (photo above) were able to taste the winning wines
and do their own scoring during the For the Love of Sauvignon Blanc
fair at the cellar. I took my two daughters along and we had some
serious fun, tasting and scoring the wines.
Hundreds of visitors flocked to the Hermanuspietersfontein jaart on
Saturday 20 December for the wine festival where wines from Hermanus
and the Overberg were showcasted. Our visitors from the North who
were obviously hungered out for some real culture and top wine,
especially enjoyed the festival where they could taste wines from
Elgin to Elim. One entranced visitor, tasting some of Benguela
Cove’s newly released Chardonnay Semillon, was overheard saying that
it was one of the most superb wines he has ever tasted!
ALL
SMILES Gavin Patterson, winemaker at Sumaridge,
Karen Davison from van Bouchard
Finlayson and Peter Vanhouweninge from Coco in
Hermanus at the newly revamped tasting
room.
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The opening of the intimate little Warwick restaurant at the
Sumaridge wine estate’s revamped tasting room in December must count
as one of the season’s highlights for wine lovers. Master chef and
owner of Warwick Chef School, Kevin Warwick and two of his top
students are in charge of the restaurant aimed at turning visits to
the wine estate into unforgettable experiences. The exquisite
luncheon food is designed especially to pair with the estate’s
award-winning wines and allow visitors to linger longer while
enjoying the breathtaking vistas over the valley and indulging in a
feast for the palate.
Cover charges for wine tastings at Sumaridge have been scrapped and
there are demarcated parking areas and disabled-friendly toilet
facilities. A wine library where visitors can select their own
bottle (or bottles) of wine is another unique feature of the
transformed tasting room.
My husband and I had a trial sample of each of the dishes on the
menu at Sumaridge comprising a vignerons anti-pasta platter, smoked
salmon and cream cheese roulade, duck rillette with pecan nut and
port jelly, lamb shanks on lentil rice, ratatouille and brown
mushroom pie on tomato and red pepper coulis and a cheese platter to
die for. Little ones can indulge in their own “little guest luncheon
platter.”
We could not resist the delectable desserts, chocolate pot au Grand
Marnier (chocolate heaven), Warwick’s magical crème brulée and a
summer pavlova all of which are highly recommended.
We revisited the restaurant just after New Year’s day when taking
our children on a wine tasting trip in the valley and were once
again impressed with the delightful food and impeccable service.
Food fundi and waitron extraordinaire Maria Visser told us that
Sumaridge’s new wine tasting room and the Warwick’s restaurant had
been hectically busy over the festive season.
In fact, all the tasting rooms of the various wine estates in the
Hemel-en-Aarde valley reported a very busy season! It seems as if
people are finally awakening to the fact that this area offers
world-class wines in a heavenly environment!
Lianda Beyers
Cronjé
December 2008 wine news
Star-studded!
We are talking great, greater, greatest this
month with just about all our Whale Coast winemakers scoring high
marks in the 2009 addition of South African wine bible John Platter
and maverick Kevin Grant of Ataraxia-fame walking away with a top
five star score for his Ataraxia 2007 Chardonnay!
Kevin is also returning from the Tri-Nations Wine
Challenge in Australia as winner of the Chardonnay category - a
stunning feat! Thank you, sir, for being a true ambassador of our
heavenly wine region!
Welcome news for Overberg fans of the John
Platter guide is that the 2009 Platter looks in more detail at the
fast-developing Elgin, Walker Bay and Stanford wine areas – it seems
as if our little secret is finally out! New, tourist friendly
features of this Platter include GPS coordinates for most wineries
open to the public by appointment or at set hours. Also noteworthy
are the expanded top-performer section which now feature the results
of 12 top local and international competitions and professional
tastings. Fully updated restaurant and accommodation guides,
expanded and improved maps, handy look-up tables for all wineries
featured in the maps, showing weekend opening times and major
visitor amenities (including facilities for families and children,
foreign languages spoken, a full-colour photo gallery, showcasing
the leisure pursuits of a selection of winelands personalities,
latest results of the guide’s pioneering accessibility audit aimed
at verifying the disabled friendliness of tasting rooms throughout
the winelands, descriptions and/or wine ratings for some 6 400
currently available wines plus news up-dates and potted profiles of
more than 840 wine producers, merchants and brands.
Buy the book and embark on a Whale Coast wine
tasting trip during the festive season. Of course, the John Platter
guide also makes a wonderful Christmas gift!
The vibrant Creation Wines team recently
celebrated the launch of their cellar and trendy tasting room at the
upper end of the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley in style with a press lunch
and stunning party for 150 friends and business acquaintances.
Guests were enticed with scrumptious anti pasta
and food pairing platters filled with locally-made delicacies. These
beautiful platters will be available throughout December and the
early part of January for nibbling at the tasting room while sipping
the estate’s heavenly wines and basking in the view over the
vineyard. Rustic lunches are prepared by chef-pair André and Annelie
van Vuuren but must be booked before the tasting.
Creation’s newly released Sauvignon Blanc offers
both green and tropical flavours along with distinct mineral notes.
The 2008 Viognier with its white peach aromas sold out in five weeks
but there may still be some of this wine available at a few top
restaurants. The Syrah Grenache is a well-endowed full-bodied Rhône-style
blend with intense flavours of ripe plum and black pepper while my
personal favourite, the Bordeaux-style blend is made from cab,
merlot and petit verdot and offers a symphony of blackberry and
blackcurrant aromas against a background of smoky oak.
Don’t forget to make a special note in your diary
for Hermanuspietersfontein’s For the Love of Sauvignon Blanc
fair on Saturday, 13 December when you can meet the
finalist winemakers in the Bartho Eksteen Sauvignon Blanc
Celebration and taste the wines ! Entry fee is R50.
Also featuring highly on the Whale Coast’s wine
calendar in December is the Wines of Hermanus Summer Wine
Festival on Saturday 20 December. Visitors will be able to
taste wines from a record number of cellars from Elgin to Elim. Come
and enjoy the incredible ambiance of this popular festival and buy
some late Christmas gifts - of the vino nature of course!
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