#busyday #winetasting #wineandfood #arendsig #viljoensdriftl #freshfood #silverthorn #travelblog #rivercruise #wowwhataday
A busy day today!
3 Vineyards
2. Arendsig
3. Silverthorn
We have been invited to visit and experience a vineyard right on the banks of the Breede River.
Viljoensdrift Winery is found along the R317 just outside the town of Robertson. This is a family-owned farm and winery - they have so much to offer visitors here and on a sunny Autumn day like today a perfect place to visit.
Firstly we buy a chilled bottle of their sparkling rosé to enjoy on the boat trip (further information on this is below)
Secondly, we enjoy a wine tasting in the beautiful tasting area. They have some very interesting wines here with an extensive combination of reds and whites and a Cap Classique. There is a range of value-for-money wines alongside their 5 supreme reds. We all agreed their Pinotage is our favourite - full of flavour with plenty of black fruit undertones.
Arendsig wines have been featured on our list for 10 years and this afternoon we are to try the new vintages which are bottled and ready for export.
Lourens the owner and winemaker thankfully has all the range chilled and ready for us to sample.
The last time we were here(March 2020) he was so busy with the harvest and, subsequently was unable to see us The 2022 harvest thankfully has been completed and the grapes are already in tanks fermenting.
Life on this farm is never quiet though as they also have 5 cottages which are used for holiday accommodation. During the busy time on the vineyard, there is no time for the holiday lets to be serviced and therefore the maintenance is just getting underway this month.
How lucky are we?
Our third tasting of the day is at Silverthorn winery
and we have been asked to share supper with Karen and John in their home.
Luckily we have found a taxi to take us and arrive just as the sun is setting - the garden leads down to the banks of the Breede River and with a glass of their Green Man Chardonnay in hand we watch the sun go down. In the UK, we still have stock of this beautiful Cap Classique wine - but to replenish our stock we will have to wait until September when the latest vintage will only then be ready to be labelled. (nothing can hurry the time taken to produce a quality Cap Classique!)
Don’t forget all good things come to he/she who waits!
There are 4 different Cap Classiques made here and we spend the evening sampling the other three -finishing with my personal favourite, the Genie. This is their pink sparkles made from 100% Shiraz.
The Loubsers are very aware of their surroundings and when making the wines allow nature to dictate as much as possible -the rocky, lime-rich, shale soils are similar to the famous Champagne soils in France. This coupled with the mature Chardonnay vines on their farm make for ideal building blocks and the result is this vineyard being deservedly recognised in the world of sparkling wine!
Not only did we taste wines at Viljoensdrift but we were taken on a boat trip down the river!
The riverboat has 2 floors and it glides serenely down the river - the views are beautiful and we are very lucky as the sun is shining brightly, there is little wind and so we can sit relax and sip a glass of rose sparkling wine. Today, after we had been on the river for about 30 minutes we stop to pick up more people - they have been on a wine tasting ramble and had visited 3 wineries. They were very jolly and had obviously had a great time!
We are taken back to the shore where there is another group waiting to go on the trip. As it is lunchtime they have been into the deli on the vineyard and bought their lunch, a bottle of wine and off they float down the river with their picnics.
1 Restaurant
The boat trip over we decide to finish our experience here at
with lunch onshore.
All 3 of us decide to have hake and chips - this is freshly prepared and cooked on site. All very delicious and washed down with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc!
In all what a great way to spend a few hours in the Robertson area.
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