Tag Archives: vineyards

Corona Virus: Lockdown Journey Journal, Day 48 of Level 1, 7 November 2020.

 

Saturday 7 November 2020, Day 48 of Level 1, Day 226 of Lockdown 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for starting our day with the first sign of the sun in two days, and the luck of being able to do our walking sections throughout the day without any rain; for a lovely breakfast at Dunstone Restaurant; for being shuttled to VillaMar at the other end of Wellington, for an informative coffee tasting; for a winetasting at Doolhof Wines, at the end of Bovlei; for a sunny walk alongside the Kromme River to Welvanpas Family Vineyards for lunch and a winetasting; for a walk to close to Bosman Family Vineyards, a wine producer, and the largest producer of ‘stokkies’ (new vines created by grafting onto Rootstock) in Africa; for being shuttled back to our car at Diemersfontein, picking up our purchases made at our different stops in the past two days; for safely returning to Cape Town; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →

40th edition of Platter’s by Diners Club International 2020 South African Wine Guide launched, with a record of 125 5-star wines!

On Friday evening I attended the launch of the 40th edition of the Diners Club International 2020 South African Wine Guide, at the Table Bay Hotel in the Waterfront, an event that is pretty much the same in format every year, yet was different this year, in the interest of making the event shorter.   

More than 8000 wines from more than 900 producers were rated for the 2020 Platter’s Wine Guide edition. Of the 125 5-star wines awarded, 26 went to Chenin Blanc brands, 18 to Shiraz/Syrah, and 11 to Chardonnay brands. 

Continue reading →

Getting a taste of Chilean wines in Casablanca and Santiago in Chile!

Through a stroke of luck I was invited to visit Santiago in Chile for four days, and in this time I was able to drink some Chilean wines. I also visited Casablanca, a wine region outside Santiago, with my friends Guy and Pia, who live near Casablanca. Continue reading →

Does CNN’s ‘7 stunning Cape Town vineyards’ list have any credibility when they are not in Cape Town?!

haute-cabriere-restaurant-views-2-exlarge-169In my book CNN is a credible news agency, but this image has been severely dented by an article entitled ‘7 stunning Cape Town vineyards with food as good as the wine’, written last week by one Griffin Shea. Not one of the seven wine estates featured are in Cape Town!

The article introduction is short and sweet: ‘It’s no secret that in Cape Town, good wine abounds. But wine farms also host some of South Africa’s best restaurants, which pride themselves on serving up meals from ingredients often grown just steps away from the tables. These restaurants have won enough awards to fill walls, but like so many of South Africa’s best places to eat, they’re generally relaxed, unpretentious affairs where the prices won’t break the bank. Many of the menus are deceptively simple, heavy on local ingredients and farm fare, but prepared with passion and care’.

It does not state on which basis the wine estates were selected, but obviously they had to have a ‘great‘ restaurant, Continue reading →