Worcester Vines and Wines at Du Toitskloof

Du Toitskloof is another farm with a huge range of wines, including many box wines, so we were very selective on what we tasted here. We started by tasting the Reserve Sauv Blanc (R48) which was a G wine - green pepper, fresh cut grass, guava and gooseberry - very enjoyable if you like a slightly tropical style of Sauv Blanc. The Reserve Chardonnay/Viognier (R48) was a very interesting wine that would be perfect for a fruit and spicy chicken pizza, and it was a very fragrant wine with some tropical fruit, freshly cut sweet melon, rose petal and peach with lively white pepper on the palate. It's always great to find a good white wine with a strong spiciness coming through.

We decided to taste a few rarer varietals, starting with the Ruby Cab (just shy of R20), which had quite a bit of barrel (or wood chip/staves) flavours like mocha, cocoa and dark chocolate, with a raspberry, dark cherry bit of fruitiness to it - despite the description, it was a bit sharp and tannic - a wine made without much thought. The next was an Italian varietal (we really should have more Italian varietals growing in SA) called Nebbiolo (R40) - the description mentions violets, but I think that is really grasping at straws. Having tasted this wine a second time at a later tasting, my first impression held through (and was shared). The first sensation I got when smelling this wine was a strong sense of tobacco - particularly like that found in cigarettes. Not surprisingly, someone at the tasting said that the wine gave her a sensation that someone had dropped their cigarette in her glass. That aside, I also picked up the smell of wood chips, cocoa, hazelnuts and fresh fynbos. Definitely needs a lot more work to make it work, but it is something quite different. Next was the Dimension Red - a blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, Shiraz and a dash of Petit Verdot (R63) and this blend was far more enjoyable, with dark berries, floral and coconut smells, and a lingering taste of milk chocolate - yum!

And wine-tasting always ends nicely with a glass of something sweet - in this case it was a Noble Late Harvest (R42) which is a new addition to their range and completely delicious with fresh peach and granadilla, saltanas and an overwhelming passion fruit - something truly different and special from this estate that does very well with its sweet wines.

Well, I'll return to my port (I love that winter is round the corner... all those ports and red wines are looking very ready for drinking...) I hope you have a good day at work or where-ever you are.

Val.

Two please, Du Preez

Hi!

The next stop for the two of us was Du Preez Estate, which maintains remarkably low prices on all of its wines. Unfortunately my memory is a bit fuzzy on the farm itself, so obviously it didn't impress me much (I blame the haste, the wine, and the poor photographs).

Regardless, we tasted most of the range. We started off with the Sauv Blanc (R25) which had granny smith apple smells along with grass and fig leaf. Good acidity, and very good price. The unwooded Chardonnay (R25) had a heavy smell of guava, along with pineapple and lemon - a simple, easy going wine perfect for a hot summer day. The Polla's Red (R39) is a Pinotage based
blend, with Cab Sauv, Petit Verdot and Shiraz lending it support. The barrel contributed the most, with chocolate and mocha flavors coming through, a slight sawdust quality along with white pepper and red berries on the palate - meant as a food wine, it certainly accomplishes that goal.

The Cab Sauv (R39) was surprisingly delightful, and tasted like it was worth twice what it was actually priced as, with mint, black currants, cranberries, cigar box and chocolate smells, and a smooth fruity palate of mulberry and raspberry. Ready to drink and enjoy, and a surprisingly easy-going Cab. The Shiraz, valued at the same, was nothing special. Roasted pork, blue gum, and white pepper. The Merlot (also R39) was a bit more interesting with those heart-warming coffee and chocolate notes along with ripe red berries on the palate - another good food wine to go alongside a lighter home-cooked lunch.

The Hendrik Lodewyk Petit Verdot (R60) immediately leapt out the glass with strong leather whiffs that slowly succumbed to more fruity smells of darker berries, raspberry jam and black pepper. It needed a while to open up, but it was enjoyable when it did. Not the best Petit Verdot I've had, but worth the price. The final wine was the Hanepoot, valued at R35. With honey, orange and saltanas stepping to the frontlines of your tastebuds, this wine is perfect to go alongside that citrus sponge-cake at desert time.

Well, that's all I got for today.

Keep in good health!
Val

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Deetlefs

Hello there,

One farm on a day would not do, nohow. Even on a day when we set up camp. Contrariwise we still managed to visit quite a few. And the list of wines at this farm was as long as Tweedledum and Tweedledee's poem (which spanned a good few pages). Funnily enough, the symbol of Deetlefs estate is a key, which is exactly what Alice found once she went down the rabbit hole. And I couldn't help but feel that we had gone down into a magical little world after her and found it filled with beautiful bottles labeled 'Drink me'.

Children's literature aside, we tasted about a dozen different wines here, although we only tasted one of the Familie range (which is their premium range). A real shame about that too, because I would've loved to taste the Semillon/Sauv Blanc blend after tasting each seperately and seeing the potential in blending them. The Sauv Blanc (R50) was tropical and had good fruit flavours as well. The Semillon (R75) was unwooded white suited perfectly for food (specifically a mushroom-sauce pasta) with strong minerality coming through and white pepper and honeycomb (well spotted on the tasting notes) - a pity that it's bit expensive (especially considering it hasn't seen the inside of a barrel). The Chardonnay (R50) was well balanced between barrel flavours and summer fruits. The Weisser Reisling (R50) is another great food wine - again I think it'll go well with creamy pastas with its peach and rose petal smells - although I would like to experiment with it alongside a stir-fry.

From there, we moved onto the reds. We started with the Merlot (R63), and what a place to start, as this merlot was a great example of its varietal, at least for my tastes. Although I have come to appreciate Merlot in its infantlike cherubic beauty with it's fruit-foot forward, this one had pulled all those delicious flavours from the barrel, and it's description reads more like Shiraz than Merlot, with meaty, mushroom smells, black pepper and cloves for spices, a depth of plum on the palate and a delicious dark chocolate, mocha finish. Very well priced as well. The other red wine that really stood out for me was the Cab Sauv (R95). It certainly spanned the range of flavours, with pencil shavings, cedar and black currant smells, a taste of cloves at the back of the tongue and a finish of freshly ground coffee. Serious, dark and inviting.

We tasted two sweet wines, the first which was the Hanepoot (R75) which had that typical muscadel smell, with raisons and dried fruit smells, and an unmistakable taste of prunes. The final was one of the premium wines - the Familie Noble Late Harvest (R300). Well deserving of status above the ordinary, this wine was made from Semillon. The first smells were honey, fresh apricot and peachs, with a bit of dried pear for some added complexity. Needless to say, this had a perfect finish that allowed you to finish a whole bottle without even realising it. A pity to taste a bottle of this while it is so young (2005), as it deserves at least 10 years in the bottle, especially considering its hefty price tag.

Sadly, the MCC (which also goes for R300) was the only one on their list that was sold out - preventing us from celebrating this occassion by shouting out "Champagne" while filling up a glass of bubbly. Sounds quite interesting though, as it's a blend of Chardonnay, Weisser Reisling and Semillon - not something you see everyday.

Well, hopefully next time you are near a bottle of bubbly, you'll think of me, shout "Champagne" and toast to the region that gave us such a remarkable style of wine.

Val.

Das Wine is good ja, in Daschbosch

Hi everyone,

Well, with Robertson behind us, Andre and I decided to move on to Worcester and the nearby farms around Rawsonville. The first farm we visited there was high on our list of must visits - simply because Andre had previously had a food pairing with one of their sweet wines that was simply inspired. The farm was Daschbosch, the wine was the Nectar de Provision White, and the food was a home-baked apple cake. Having had this pairing since then, I can attest to its greatness. Daschbosch came highly recommended to us as a wine farm that has excellent value-for-money wines.

With a large range of wines (from sparkling to dry whites and reds, roses, semi-sweets, dessert wines and fortified wines), any style of wine drinker is catered for. Instead of writing about all of them, I'll select a few that we truly enjoyed. The first was the Chardonnay, which had a buttered toast, citrusy lemon and a firm butterscotch finish - delightful at only R25 a bottle. Certainly an everyday drinker. The Groot Eiland Shiraz/Pinotage (R48) also stood out, mostly because it was a bit of a strange combination that they managed to get right, with a smell of banana medicine, caramel, vanilla, mocha and black pepper, the palate was surprisingly fruity, with a nice complement of berries on the palate.

There are two versions of the Nectar De Provision. The white, which is colombar fortified with brandy, is the one that matches very well with deserts, and with honey, apricots and saltanas on the palate, would you expect anything less of this wine. The Red is made from merlot fortified with brandy, and had the distinctive smell of damp, rotting earth, along with some pleasing smells of candyfloss and strawberries. Either of these goes for R29.50 for a 375ml bottle, so they are well worth buying and trying. Well, after having a heated debate between us on whether one of their wines was off, and just what was wrong with it, we decided to pick up the pace, and move onto the next farm...

...which will be the topic for the next blog.

Val

Everything is Rustic at Rusticus

The last farm we visited on the Friday was probably the single highlight of our entire journey. While it may not have had the best wines we've tasted, the quality was definitely very high, and all this considering the rather antique methods they use in producing the wine. From using old-basket presses to motor-driven destalkers (no electricity), this farm is nothing short of a working museum, and tries to return back to the old fashioned way of producing wine with minimal interference of modern technology.

As the story goes, the wine-maker, Pat Busch, is a collector of old machinery and has been slowly collecting odds and ends from nearby farms. One night, in a somewhat jovial and drunken state, he was having a conversation with a friend of his who happened to be an engineer, and in this conversation he mentioned that he'd just about collected every bit of machinery needed (and once used) to produce wine in the antique fashion. Needless to say, he was challenged to try make wine, and a steep challenge it was, as some of the machinery he had collected was not in working condition. This, however, was not a problem to his friend who was able to fix it with his skills as an engineer. Sure enough, once everything was working, Pat tried his hand at making wine, using the knowledge that he had gained from many of his friends in surrounding wine farms. And the rest is, as they say, history (or living history, as the case may be).

And the wines that are being produced here are nothing short of being special. Without a doubt this place is a must-visit if you are ever in the area. We started off with the Viognier (R70), which did have a bit of an alcholic punch to it, but once it opened up, it had a smell of fresh peachs, gooseberry and lanolin, with guava and buttered toast sensations on the tongue. Definite potential in their recently released and only white wine. Needless to say, this is quite amazing, especially if you begin to imagine the difficulty they must face in one of the warmer wine regions with keeping their white wine cool without the use of modern machinery.

As for the reds, the first one we tasted was the Tilled Earth Red blend (R55) of Cab Sauv, Merlot and Shiraz. Each component in this wine stood out as it was a complex blend of fresh meat, ceder, black currant, plum, dark berries with a heavy mocha/chocolate finish. We followed this with the Pinotage (R45) with green banana, plum, succulent mulberries and white pepper on the palate. This last two red wines were both Shiraz from two different vintages - the 2003 and the limited release 2004. And they were significantly different with the 03 (R45) showing more fruit and the barrel character of mocha, while the o4 (R65) had a very intense pepperiness on the palate, as well as the smell of roasted beef and a whiff of turkish delight to go alongside the dark berries and mocha that was also evident in the older vintage.

Needless to say, this farm left us on a high note for the rest of the evening, and it was a pleasant way to end of our week in Robertson, as the next morning had us travel to the nearby Worcester to set up our camping spot at Ramfest and visit a few other farms in the area.

More on that later,
Val.