Malu Lambert and Louwritz Louw at Carne
The Roodeberg team hosted some fortunate media at Carne on Keerom last week, with winemaker Louwritz Louw in attendance. Fondly remembered as the father of Roodeberg, Dr Charles Niehaus was the master craftsman, who produced the first Roodeberg in 1949. We take our hats off to restauranteur Georgio Nava who owns a number of great Italian restaurants - with Carne on Kloof, Carne on Keerom, 95 on Keerom (just across the road), and 95 at Morgenster. Our Carne on Keerom dinner was enjoyed with a splendid line-up of Dr Charles Niehaus Roodeberg from 2010, 2012, 2013 & 2016.
The enigma of Allee Bleue
Allée Bleue is nestled at the foot of the Drakenstein Mountains in the Franschhoek Valley originally known as "Mere Rust" in 1690. The current owner Mr Friedrich-Wilhelm Dauphin and late Elke Dauphin bought the farm and changed the name to Allée Bleue, meaning ‘Avenue of Blue’ in French. The blue-green hues that appear on the bark and leaves of the eucalyptus trees symbolises the colour of peace and pays tribute to the blue planet, sky and water.
South African Wine Tasting Finals
Sunday 21 July saw 15 nervous finalists take on the last leg of the South African Wine Tasting Championships, where they got to experience what to expect at the World Blind Wine Tasting Championships which will be held in France in October in Chambord, organised by French magazine La Revue du Vin de France. They were presented with 12 wines, tasted completely blind. These are 12 wines from all over the world, so a really tough ask. The contestants then had to identify as much as possible about each wine - the Country, Producer, Vintage, Cultivar and Appellation (origin). This is no easy task - as there are thousands of wines worldwide and to nail it down to 12 and get the answers right means you have to have had plenty of experience tasting wines from all over the world.
De Wet Viljoen & the Glencairn Hotel group at the PB Liquor Trade Show
It was a dark and stormy night on Tuesday 23rd July with one of the big winter cold fronts hitting the peninsula. PB Liquor Merchants have quite an extensive portfolio of wineries from across the winelands; from Cape Town to Stellenbosch to Robertson to Worcester, to Nuy and the Breedekloof. Their Client list includes Bergsig, Conradie Penhill, Excelsior, Hill&Dale, Perdeberg of course, Laibach, Signal Gun, Wellington Wines, and use Bidfood to get to the extensive on-trade businesses they supply.