#lourenford #genevievemcc #ataraxia #themarinehotel #wine #winetasting #winemakers #wineandfoodpairing
We are now getting very close to the end of our annual buying trip to South Africa.
Today we are to visit 2 new vineyards. One is a large winery and the other is completely the opposite being a small family-run affair!
The Lourensford Estate is one of the world’s most beautiful wine estates offering 4 000 hectares of forest, fynbos, fruit orchards and vineyards, which rise up the slopes of the Helderberg Mountains, cooled by breezes off the Atlantic Ocean.
Established by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel in 1709, Lourensford has a proud history as a world-class fruit farm and the wealth of glorious Proteas point to our rich floral heritage. Fortunately, the winemaking tradition was revived when well-known Cape businessman, Dr Christo Wiese purchased the Estate in 1998
The farm is very popular with tourists who come to visit the winery, restaurant, coffee roastery, art gallery, outdoor markets and music concerts, as well as cycling and trail-running events!
Our time here is limited so we make our way to the cellar and tasting room where we meet Jaco who is going to guide us through the range of wines that are available here.
The Cellar is enormous and state of the art. They don’t only make their own wine here but offer the facilities to other smaller wineries that do not have the luxury of this modern equipment.
There are 5 different ranges available here and we enjoy sampling some from each range. The wines are delicious, and we are thinking that we will add the River Garden range to our next shipment,
We leave Lourensford and drive over the Sir Lowry Pass to Bot Rivier to our 2nd tasting of the day.
Where our last stop was a large commercial operation the vineyard we are to visit here is a family-run business that specialises in making quality sparkling wines.
It is advisable to book your tasting here - as it would be such a shame to visit the vineyard and not be able to taste these lovely wines.
Melissa is charming and makes everyone so welcome - it is like you are sitting in her front room and her smile is second to none - the wines on offer here are wonderful.
My favourite was the Rosé sparkling but all were great. They do not have a UK supplier -so we will be looking at costings and may add some wines from here to our Christmas Shipment.
Watch this space.
The Marine Hotel
Tonight we are booked for a Wine and Food pairing evening at The Marine Hotel in Hermanus. This is a 5-star hotel in the centre of the town overlooking the sea.
We stayed here a few years ago and loved it.
Today we are here to join an organised event showcasing the wines from Ataraxia - a vineyard situated in the Hemel and Aarde valley. The wines are very well respected in this area and the chef and vineyard have worked hard to pair each course with the wines.
Michael the owner and winemaker gave a very interesting talk introducing the first couple of wines and we all tucked into glorious food and supped the wine pairings.
This was a fun evening and we ended up buying a lot of wine to take back to the house!
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