The end of a perfect day

Does one need an excuse to crack open a Christina van Loveren - other than that its just a perfect day in Cape Town?

Wine for the southern tip of Africa

Flashback to our short holiday in Cape Agulhas a week ago. We stopped at a fantastic wine shop in Agulhas and bought some Lands End Sauvignon Blanc to quaff at the southernmost tip of Africa - just past the lighthouse depicted on its label. Very good! Especially with smoked salmon from The Little Fisherman at High Constantia. No wonder I can't get back into real life ...

Rainy Saturday

Its raining today - so a fire and a glass of red wine while we watch Barcelona beat Manchester United is on the cards ... and this label at our local Pick 'n Pay supermarket caught my eye.

Sparkling morning

Today is Family Day - one of very many public holidays this month. We went for a stroll in the sparkling vineyards of Groot Constantia with the family (two Scotties and an old Doberman cross at present) and popped in to one of our "local" wine estates, High Constantia, for a quick taste on the way home. Their wine-tasting cellar has a lovely verandah which overlooks this imposing Edwardian mansion - the Catholic retreat of Schoenstatt. After a few sips of their High Constantia Clos Andre 2008 Methode Cap Classique champagne, er sorry, "sparkling wine" - even this rather forbidding Gothic building with its funny twirly barley sugar chimneys started to look quite friendly. Back home, the weather is closing in and it looks like rain again ...

Bountiful Garden

Tuesday we spent taking in the sights and tastes of Greyton - a leisurely two-hour drive if you stop at one one of the famous "farm stalls" like Houw Hoek or Dassiesfontein along the way, or one and a half if not. We started out with the most glorious wine-tasting at Lismore Estate Vineyards about 7 kms from the village of Greyton. This is a fairytale estate owned and run by the capable and utterly charming Samantha O'Keefe (centre) who hails from California and is the wine maker too. All has not been a bed of ro ... er ... cabernet though, and you can read about her early days here. After years of hard work and courageous decisions, it deserves its name Lismore which is Gaelic for 'bountiful garden".
Seated around a large table on the veranda of Samantha's beautiful home on the edge of the mountain, with views that sweep almost to the sea on the far distant horizon, we settled in for a morning of heavenly wine and fascinating conversation about the intricacies of making wine and cider in this youngest of the Cape's wine districts.

These cool climate vineyards are perfect for white wines like 2009 Lismore Sauvignon Blanc with its passion-flower and gooseberry notes on the palate and the gorgeous whole bunch basket pressed and barrel fermented 2008 Lismore Chardonnay with citrus and honey crisp acidity. My favourite white was the 2009 Lismore Viognier with its dried apricot flavour and the most amazing lingering citrus aftertaste. Here, where the vines are not irrigated and the harvest is not fiddled with to produce a taste that is exactly the same as the previous year's wine, each harvest produces a distinct wine that captures the essence of the season passed. Listening to Samantha's soft Californian accent, I could understand why wine journalists go so soppy and romantic about wine!

Anyway, the reds were next, and the 2006 Lismore "The Long Road" Red proved to be a delicious "easy drinking" shiraz (syrah) and Cab Sav blend(75/25). The 2006 Lismore Syrah was spectacular - its smooth and silky cherry and chocolate/tobacco and leather undertones nearly causing me to forget my resolve not to drink too much before the drive home.

But enough for now! Up in the hills of the Riviersonderend mountains you can just see Samantha's beautiful home. She used to make the wine in the cellars under the house, but space soon ran out, and she now makes it in Elgin.

Weekend at Agulhas: The wine

Just outside the enchanting village of Elim, near the southern tip of Africa, the vineyards produce surprisingly good wine. Apparently the cool breezes that blow off the nearby ocean allow the grapes to remain on the vines just that little bit longer to develop their flavour. We called in at The Berrio, to taste some of this wine. The Berrio has a stylish tasting centre with views over the beautiful Agulhas Plain. Children and dogs are there to welcome you, and Franchen Pratt came out to guide us through the Estate's gorgeous wines - each one more tasty than the next. She and her husband Francis are the owners of this magical estate and Francis is the winemaker. My favourite wine was the figgy flavoured Weathergirl 2009 (33% semillion and 67% sauvignon blanc blend).

Browsing the wine shelves

Hoity toity, Bubbly, In my Bed and Kitchen Thief - I just love Miss Molly. There is the whole range on the shelves of our local Pick 'n Pay in Constantia Village.

Our Estate

It rained last night and the sky looks grey and ominous - but we decided to go for an early morning walk at Groot Constantia Estate which is a working wine estate held in trust for the people of South Africa. Its history stretches back to 1685. This is the old manor house - one of the classic gracious Cape Dutch houses of the Western Cape. It is open to the public and has some fantastic walks, restaurants and a cellar where one can taste wine and go for a tour of the winery.

A toad among Belles

Would you accept a glass of wine from a toad? At the AmaBele Belles fundraising wine tasting last night there was a fastastic selection of the Western Cape's finest wines. This toad, named Leopold, and his prettier companion Tracy James, were offering us some wonderful "Splattered Toad" wines made on the Cape Point Vineyards estate, specifically to help save the endangered Western Leopard Toad.
The AmaBele Belles are a feisty, talented group of women who have survived breast cancer and who race Dragon Boats - I wish them all the best for future challenges.

Old goat

Perhaps not quite the gift of choice for Father's Day tomorrow.

A vuvuzela maybe?

(I hear the wine is good though.)