The wine life is a hard life, but someone's got to do it! Jokes aside, our team is privileged to see and experience the buzz of the winelands. We share our wine stories with you through our photos and hope that you will go chase the same magic we experienced recently at Kanonkop, Quoin Rock, Bosman Adama and in Khayelitsha with Qhubeka.
Judy sees Kanonkop quietly getting on with raising the bar
Kanonkop has been in the Krige family for many years, and this was where Beyers Truter cut his teeth on making some of the best Pinotages in the country, and Jan Boland Coetzee started off his wine-making career. Johann (former WOSA Chairman) and his brother Paul have quietly gotten on with making the right wine at the right price. They were one of the first South African producers to use new wood, and accordingly to Paul, the long queues for the wines at international shows illustrated them hitting the right spot at the right time.
Their iconic Black Label Pinotage (also lauded by Tim Atkin at 96 points) is priced at R1850 from the cellar, showing that South African Wines are not all cheap and cheerful.
Sisters are doing it for themselves at Bosman Adama with Adama Wines - Judy
Praisy Dlamini is a self-confessed farmer, coming from the KZN sugar-cane farming community, so farming really is in her blood But wine-making is a just a slightly different kettle of fish! She was a CWG Protege years back and it gave her a solid foundation and now heads up Adama Wines, a full supply-chain offering.
Bosman Family Vineyards, an historic farm in Wellington where the workers own a 26% share in the farming operation which is still the biggest transformation deal in the wine industry. But now a group of young professional women, some of whom started on the farm and qualified themselves in Vineyard Management, Winemaking, Quality Assurance, Accounts , Logistics and Human Resources have formed Adama Wines (Pty) Ltd with the product offering ranging from grape plantings to making high-end quality wines for supplying the market demand. We wish these #womeninwine all the best!
Trading the wine life for the Chef's Life with a Molecular Masterclass by Gåte at Quoin Rock
Judy has always wanted to work in a restaurant kitchen, and at a recent Daytime Experience menu launch at Gåte, she was thrilled to discover that their Molecular Master Class was in fact time in the kitchen making a dish with one of the 15 chefs in the state-of-the-art industrial kitchen.
The restaurant seats 45, so with 15 chefs, Gåte and the team have a serious commitment to making the best possible tasting and looking food. The new Head Chef Nicole Loubser, at only 25, has travelled the world, worked at JAN restaurant in Nice, amongst others, and brings a youthful, firm and fresh approach.
Exploring Khayelitsha by bicycle with Qhubeka and Nederburg
Nederburg has donated 60 bicycles to the Khayelitsha Community Policing Forum and 40 to Ride 2 Empower project, run by local poet, musician and entrepreneur Siya Mbaba. Siya guided a group of us on their bicycles through one of the country's biggest townships, and we were delighted to discover a great coffee shop started by Siki Dibela (ex Vide e Cafe), and then a local new bakery selling healthy alternative breads (gluten-free and full of spinach), called The Spinach King.
We were intrigued also by a display by Theatre 4 Change Arts Project just on the roadside, - such a powerful way to present issues of relevance today, viz gender based violence and xenophobia.
After our cycle around, we arrived at our lunch spot - the 4Roomed eKasi Culture Restaurant, the brainchild of dynamo Abigail Mbalo-Mokoena, who is bringing cuisine and healthy living options to the community, with a food truck, veggie garden and providing a venue for the community and tourists to gather and experience local delicous fare.
For more on the trip - see Judy's story HERE
