Rickety Tram Passengers at Rickety Bridge

RICKETY BRIDGE Saturday 29 July 2017 http://www.ricketybridgewinery.com/ Experience: 4.5/5 Wines: 4.5/5 Tasting at Rickety Bridge was a ‘no brainer’ for our trip on the Red Line of the Stellenbosch Wine Tram. We had already visited Maison and Chamonix but these had been by tram-bus. Now we had the chance of travelling on the tram itself …

Family Fun in Pairs at Four Cousins

FOUR COUSINS WINES Sunday 9 July 2017 http://www.fourcousins.co.za/Home Experience: 4/5 Wines: 3.5/5 It was a rainy Sunday morning. My partner and I had been enjoying a relaxing weekend at McGregor. It was too wet to walk outside so we headed, on the spur of the moment, to Four Cousins. As a Brit, I do not …

Swiss Family Sauvignons at Eikendal

EIKENDAL VINEYARDS Thursday 6 July 2017 http://www.eikendal.com/ Experience: 4/5 Wines: 3.5/5 My journey North from Yonder Hill on the R44 towards Stellenbosch passed 2 estates where I had tasted at before: Avontuur and Ken Forrester. I headed instead to Eikendal Vineyards. Unusually, this was a wine farm that I knew nothing of nor had I …

Straw Berry Yields for e-Ver-gelegen

VERGELEGEN WINES Thursday 6 July 2017 http://www.vergelegen.co.za/ Experience: 4/5 Wines: 4/5 Today was Helderberg day, or so it started. I had wanted to visit the Waterskloof Wine Estate ever since tasting their wines at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town. I didn’t check beforehand but found it closed for refurbishment. Surprisingly, for an estate of …

Learning about How Wine and Food Pair

Thursday 15 June 2017 Did you know how our sense of smell affects taste? Perhaps you have a blocked nose or been a heavy smoker? Try pinching your nose and then eating an orange segment. Can you taste the orange? Most likely not or not much. Open your nose and you will feel the rush …

Reflections in a Wine-Glass ©: Blend Trends

Wine is no more immune to fashion than clothing or footwear or furniture. That is no criticism. It merely reflects that fashion, or to fashion, is ‘a manner of doing something’ or ‘to make in a particular form’. Heavily wooded wines were flavour of the month for only so long. Along came the fashionable ABC …

The Terroir is Honoured in the Bottle at Springfield

SPRINGFIELD ESTATE 1 June 2017 http://www.springfieldestate.com/ http://www.wackywineweekend.com/ Experience: 4/5 Wines: 5/5 “Save the best until last”, so they say. I did so today. Time pressed at the end of my first Wacky Wines Weekend experience but I made the most of it. Springfield had been recommended by a few wine aficionados during my travels. It …

Excelsior Blends Quality with Price

EXCELSIOR WINE ESTATE 1 June 2017 https://www.excelsior.co.za/ http://www.wackywineweekend.com/ Experience: 4.5/5 Wines: 4/5 Excelsior Wine Estate gave my first sight of the Breede River Valley vines as I turned off the R60 East of Robertson. The comprehensive listing of GPS co-ordinates in the Wacky Wine Weekend vineyards made the short journey from Robertson Winery easy. Fading …

Horsepower in the Vineyard

WATERKLOOF WINES Monday 22 May 2017 http://www.waterkloofwines.co.za/ https://www.vineyard.co.za/ Experience: 3.5/5 Wines: 3.5/5 The sky was cloudless at the Vineyard Hotel for the regular Monday evening wine-tasting. It was chilly on the back lawn and appropriately so as Waterkloof produces cool climate wines. I have yet to visit the vineyard, the best known of a handful …